I followed the end of the game with espn's gamecast and everytime you looked the Spurs were shooting FTs. But seriously how fn bad to you have to play to blow a 15 point lead?

Bad.

In fairness to the Wolves, the Spurs have the best record in the NBA, and were aided by some bad calls.

I think the Wolves match up pretty well against SA, as compared with how we match up against other good teams. We do better against teams that like to go inside and bad against good outside shooting teams.

Wolves 129, Cavs 95, woot. Too bad we dont play Cleveland every game.

I saw a bit of this online and listened to some more on the radio.

The Wolves can be very effective vs teams that have a hard time making outside shots. We leave those guys open vs the Lakers and Dallas, those teams kill us. We do it against Cle., and it doesnt hurt a bit.

Pekovic played tonight and looked very good - 7 pts on 3/5, 7 rebounds and only 3 fouls in 12 minutes, lol. Wes had a monster night. Love - 28/19, yawn - he's pretty good.

Beasley didnt play because of a sprained ankle. I dont know how long he'll be out, but we sure didnt need him tonight. Flynn was recalled tonight - I hope he'll play in the next game.

Cha how are you watching these games online? I only get to see games on FSN, which is not very many so it would be nice to pick some games up online if possible.

I was out tonight and I kept watching the bottom line during the Okla/Neb game and when I saw the final score I told a buddy of mine I bet Love had 28 and 21. I was pretty damn close.

http://www.canishoopus.com/?login=1285367541

That's the blog I read regularly. Every game they have a game thread with several hundred posts. In the game thread, usually near the beginning of the game, someone posts a link to some internet site that streams the game. I don't know where they find these sites. Every time I click one of them, its been a different site. It has always been pretty poor quality compared to HDTV, but its good enough to see whats going on. So far every game I've seen through that link has had the opposing team's announcers. The Clippers have very good ones. The Spurs have a couple of homers that are annoying. The Cavs guys are pretty weak.

Canis is a very good blog btw - good articles & discussion - better than the newspaper & ESPN articles imo.

atdhe.net is how I watch all my games in every sport.

Anyone else have the feeling watching that NY game that the Wolves were the better team but didn't win anyway? I think they may be close to getting "over the hump" and being in the 2nd tier of worst teams in the NBA rather than the 1st tier of worst teams!

Also, Darko was making it look easy before he went down. I may be finally convinced that he's a future all-star, barring injury.

Darko>Duncan
Darko>Pau
Darko>Amare

Looks like a trend to me. I hope his injury heals fast. I think we win that game last night if he plays 35-40 minutes. Once he was out of the game, we had no way to stop Amare.

The Wolves suck at making easy passes when the other team pressures them. Its really frustrating to watch when they're doing this. You can see the steals coming. Its because we play lazy/careless sometimes.

Our PGs all suck.

I heard Webster might play tomorrow. That will give us a huge shot in the arm. We really need Darko back asap and I think we'll be out of the lowest tier of bad teams for good.

Cha,

Do you think Floyd is the answer in terms of good decisions and passing? I really didn't watch him too much last year. I thought Ridnour would be way better but for some reason he makes even more weird mistakes trying to lead the team and run plays.

Also, how much of this is trying to play without Darko in the middle? They can't really run the triangle properly without him it seems...

Flynn? No.

He's talented, but he's a knucklehead. He looks lost on defense and he makes stupid turnovers a lot.

He'll add something as far as penetrating, but I highly doubt he'll ever be an NBA top 50% starting PG at any point in his career. I guess its possible, but I think he lacks basketball smarts.

Ridnour makes a lot of stupid plays too. I like his shooting, but that's about it. I had higher hopes for him.

Darko's presence is huge on defense. I think he's one of the best/most versatile defensive centers in the league. His presence has been good on offense at times, and might be more important in the future, but it hasn't been critical to the team yet imo. I dunno, maybe he is pretty important as far as a distributor in the triangle.

That just sounds like a possibly "better" version of what they have at the guard position. So basically the Twolves need to get in a new pg until Rubio comes over? And then hope that he doesn't turn it over 2x as much as their current guards? (this is my biggest concern on Rubio, I don't really care if he can't shoot - just look at how dominant Rondo is and he'll be an asset defender imo)

What they need is a poor man's version of Terrell Brandon ffs to get the ball to Love, Darko, and Beasley. And to keep it out of Brewer's hands, every time I think he's playing consistently he does something that's just inexplicable and makes no sense. Maybe he tries too hard or basketball isn't natural for him or something.

rondo can run circles around rubio...possibly literally.

i thought flynn was among the 2 best players on the team last year. i'm not saying he's a good player, but he is at least talented. he's what, 21 years old? i'm looking forward to seeing him play again. i agree that he'll probably be below average, but at least he has a chance imo.

I think Flynn has a very good handle, maybe better than Bassy. He's a better shooter than Bassy by a lot, but probably not as good as Ridnour. Flynn's defense was worse than either of our healthy PGs last year. So offensively, he'll probably be better. I just hope he improves defensively.

Rubio is a flashier passer than Rondo. I dont know how that will translate to numbers of assists on our team, but he makes a lot of amazing passes. As far as running circles around Rubio, meh, this is basketball, not track. If you're basing that opinion on the one play where Rose beat Rubio in that game over the summer at the end of the game, you might want to consider the fact that Rose is one of the best there is. He's averaging 24.9 PPG and 8.2 APG so far this year. Rose would beat any player in the NBA a lot of the time. Rubio did make Rose look silly picking his pocket on another play in that game. Plus, remember Rubio is only 19 years old. He will be very good on defense imo, and I think the comparison to Rondo is valid.

Webster isnt ready to play yet tonight. Neither is Flynn. Darko is doubtful.

i'm basing it on the fact that rondo is possibly the fastest player in NBA history and rubio is an athletically average to below average white guy.

lets give rubio the benefit of the doubt and assume that he could be steve nash from a vision/decision making/athletic standpoint- which is extremely generous imo...how good would steve nash be if he couldn't shoot at all? he's one of the best shooters of all-time. i doubt he'd be an all-star. would he even be a starter?

it's obvious that i hate rubio, but i freely admit that that's unreasonable on my part. he's got potential to be a good player. my point is just that comparing him to rondo is absurd when rondo's entire game is based on being the fastest guy in the league.

Rondo is that fast? I guess I haven't looked into this but the fastest NBA player of all time? That doesn't seem quite right. Obv he's extremely fast. The reason I used that comparison isn't because he's as fast as Rondo but more to illustrate someone else at the same position who has found a way to dominate games without being able to shoot at all. And Rondo is like horrifically bad at it at this point. There's no real way to know yet, but I thing Rubio rates to be better than Rondo by some margin imo just b/c most guard players can get noticeably better at shooting when they work on it (Corey Brewer, who still sucks but isn't lol-Rondo).

Magic Johnson (obv could shoot fine) could dominate from the position without shooting and Nash can too.

So let's say Rondo isn't the best example, that's fine. What about using Jason Kidd as one? Kidd has been a pretty bad shooter overall his whole career given the quality of shots he could get especially when younger. But his defense and passing made him one of the best PGs of this era. He can push the ball and pass it down court probably even better than Nash imo and shooting has nothing to do with that. There have been many times in his career where he basically has avoided shooting at all costs for weeks and still been a clear all-star and leader at his position. And he's not like Rondo in terms of why he can do this. I think Rubio will in a different way, be able to compensate and be able to dominate without being a great shooter.

Also, so far I haven't seen anything in-game to suggest Rubio is a stiff or not athletic enough to play in the NBA. That likely won't be what he leans on, but that's not what's gotten him to where he's at, it's his ability to see the game and flow better than everyone else.

yeah, jason kidd is a way, way better comparison imo.

and no i didn't mean to say that rubio is stiff- he's just not rondo. like you said, he's not someone who can rely on superior athleticism.

I agree. No one can stay in front of Rose one-on-one.

That's what he's best at too. He is like top 3 in the NBA at going by people. And btw, two years ago, Rose couldn't shoot either, now he can. The weird thing with Rondo is he's an example of someone who isn't getting appreciably better and you have to assume he's trying to very hard. Kidd has had this issue too and only recently is a serviceable spot-up 3 point shooter from specific spots on the court.

I don't see Rubio as being like either Rondo or Rose though...he's not going to overpower people with physical stuff, he's just going to be a step ahead seeing things unfold and set up plays and his teammates and himself better than everyone else. If he can do this without gambling too much and creating turnovers, he can be great.

Rubio has a little of a lot of these guys' abilities, but is lacking in some aspects.

I think he looks more like Magic than any of the others as a passer. He obviously lacks the height and strength of Magic.

He will probably never shoot as well as Nash, but he's longer and plays better defense.

He's similar to Kidd, maybe a flashier passer, but not as strong.

I'm thinking of the Rondo comparison like Yugo was - great passer and defender, not good at shooting. Maybe the speed aspect is something that makes them totally different.

We'll see what Rubio has for sure, hopefully starting next season. He'll only be 20 years old then, so he'll have a long time to improve, but I think he'll be very good right away.

Flynn was demanded to do a lot more last year as a rookie than he should have.

There were no shot creators on last years team. That being said he was horrendous in just about every way. He is talented though and I would like to see what he can do another year itl before I write him off.

Also, even if he is our #2 at the PG behind ridnour, that is a nice upgrade over bassy imo.

I'm excited to see flynn and Martell back and healthy, and how that will impact their PT.

Edit: also, flynn could have been the 3rd or 4th best player on the team last year, but on that team, there were only 2 players that should start on a playoff/contender quality team(love, jefferson), and a couple might be 6th-7th man at best. The rest were just lol bad

He's also not someone that has 4 future hall of famers on his team that he can distribute the ball to.

Also, the reason Rubio has so much hype surrounding him is that as an 18 year old he held his own against the best in the world in the olympics.

When he plans to come into the league, he will only be 20 years old, so him adding more muscle shouldnt be an issue. He's not extremely fast, but he has tremendous court vision and looks to have all of the tools to be a good defender.

He's also been playing, and is known as one of the better players, in one of the toughest leagues in the world.

pretty AIDS second quarter tonight, blew an 19 point lead in 8 minutes.

back up 11 at the half. corey brewer raping souls

lol Brewer. He tries so hard, makes so many stupid plays, then I start yelling at him and he'll make a 4 point play and a whole bunch of steals. His lack of a handle/lack of a consistent shot/bad shot selection/at times lackadaisical coverage of his man make me want him gone from this team. But he is a nice guy and tries hard and makes plays sometimes, so you gotta like the guy too.

More of the same tonight - the team looks great against a very good team for 2 or 3 quarters, then goes in the tank and loses. The bright side of this one is we played without 3 starters and a key reserve due to injury and still had a chance to win late in the game. (I'm counting Flynn & Webster as starters, because they will be soon imo).