Mavs 111, Wolves 91: Yikes

That was hard to watch. The defense was horrendous, and we’ll get to that in a second, but the offense was woeful as well, making this a truly awful game for Minnesota.

Part of that is simply variance, which will happen when you launch so many threes. The problem today, though, was really shooting inside of the three-point line. Minnesota made only 23 of 57 twos, good for a ghastly 40% on two-point attempts. That simply will not get the job done. Malik Beasley had his worst shooting night in a Wolves uniform, and D’Angelo Russell was equally poor. Without Karl-Anthony Towns, there’s simply no way that Minnesota can hang with elite offensive teams when those two don’t score well.

While some of it was just as simple as making and missing shots, it feels worth noting that Rick Carlisle runs some of the most beautiful sets in the league.

So, credit to Carlisle, but my goodness this defense is bad. Kristaps Porzingis is a very good player, but the Wolves made him look like prime Hakeem Olajuwon this afternoon. Naz Reid had as much of a chance to stop Porzingis as you or I did from our couches. He finished with 38 points on 13 of 25 shooting.

I love Naz, he’s a fun story and the Wolves aren’t really playing for anything, but you can’t win basketball games with him on the floor. You just can’t do it.

Maybe I was alone on this, but I was pretty disappointed with D’Angelo Russell’s effort today. It just didn’t really seem like he was all the way there, and getting torched by Seth Curry isn’t a great look. I mean, Curry put up 27 points on 11-17 from the field in place of Luka Doncic. That’s tough.

The only guys who really seemed to play well relative to expectations tonight were Josh Okogie and Jarrett Culver. The bummer about that with Culver, though, is the majority of his minutes and promising play now seems to come almost exclusively in garbage time.

Anyways, that was a rough game to watch. It’s a lot more fun with the shots go in the basket. I’d like KAT to be back soon, please. Hope everyone enjoyed the lovely weather as opposed to sitting through that one.