FanPost

A Fan's Perspective: Minnesota vs. Cleveland

After reading ‘David Walter's' fanpost, as much as I want to say differently... I agree with him. Being a person who's written up terrible (just terrible) reviews of other things in a different lifetime, I thought to myself that ‘Hey, I can give this a shot. Hell, I may not know statistics really well, but this is a fanpost and I am a fan.' and decided to write this up.

... it also helped that I received a new computer and needed to test out my typing speed, so I thought I would share my perspective of this match. Having said that, let's begin.

In the 49th game on the road to oblivion, the timid and meek Minnesota Timberwolves take on the monstrous Cleveland Uncle Drews. - SnP

No truer words have really been spoken. The fan-base is desperate for a win, the organization is desperate for a win, and I'm sure somewhere in that cold oblivion that even Glen Taylor wants a win (debatable nonetheless), but we just don't have the drive that we did at the beginning of the season. Honestly, I want the wolves to win, but let's take a look at the projected starting lineup tonight.

Min

(via nba.com)

This will be a battle of the guards (because let's face it, without Varajao in the center who can really take on Pekomgoodness-he-is-big), and even if Adelman decided on sending out three or four guards (assuming we have that many), we really only have Rubio that can remotely hold down a guard. Kyrie Irving is living up to both the hype and insanity that follows him (watching him stare down Westbrook, no matter how terrible Westbrook is defensively, is memorable), and Dion Waiters is proving his right to earn an all-rookie team spot at the end of the season. Without AK47 providing help defense to our outside guards, I can see Irving and Waiters slicing and dicing our defense on the outside. So, what is it going to take for our boys to get a win?

  • Keep Kyrie Irving & Dion Waiters somewhat contained. If we don't keep them somewhat contained, we're toast. This is going to be a tough task for our "2 and 5/8" guards to have them stay in front of them, but one thing we can be sure of is that the starting tandem of Rubio/Ridnour won't do it. Having Shved on Waiters and forcing him to settle on the jumper will help, but we're going to need more...
  • Feed the beast that is Pekovic. Pek's matchup is primarily going to by starting rookie Tyler Zeller (who's got a Gelabale frame and is taller) and Grizzlies castoff Marreese Speights. Pekovic shouldn't have any problem out-muscling them both in the paint, especially Zeller, who has proven to have a skill-set that's more "skilled-based" than "power-based."
  • GET TO THE FREE THROW LINE AND MAKE SOME FREE THROWS. I think it was Oceanary or S-n-P that said it best and that in order for the Wolves to win that we just need to get (1) Points in the paint. (2) Get to the free throw line and (3) Minimize the turnovers (and maybe something about rebounding was in there as well, but I don't remember honestly). While we really only complete one of those three on a regular basis, I think it starts out with getting to the charity stripe more often. Getting some of those Cavs in foul trouble early helps too, but that's just gravy in the end.
  • None of that "MPE" crap (see zebano's fanpost for more on that) from the Cavs bench. We do not, I repeat, DO NOT need our former teammate and nice guy Wayne Ellington to go off like he's Reggie Miller shooting daggers as if he's going against the Knicks in the conference championships. It's bad enough we have no 3-point shooting; we don't really want to show the Front Office what we gave away.

... and a few things that I would love to see happen:

  • Can we PLEASE play a competent lineup of Rubio/Shved/Gelebale/DC$/CJ (the unknown son) for a stretch? Honestly, I would love to see Rubioops to a jumping CJ and just see which of the Cav's frontcourt can get near him. If Shved & Gelabale can get some sort of shooting touch... my god. DC$ can do the rest in the no-man's land of the 16-footer.
  • None of this "three guard horse****". Who are trying to kid playing small ball like that, the D-league?
  • Most importantly, a healthy team that can stay healthy.

I got nothing else other than that, other than that after typing this I do want to do more of these, but in hindsight working at Apple does take it's toll. Read and discuss the game (and my hodge-podge of a preview) and let's go get that W.

(edit: Added zebano's latest MPE for tonight's game. - click here for extra link OR click here for the Minny vs. Memphis MPE predictions.)