Well, I finally got out to see my first Timberwolves game of the year and wouldn't you know the Wolves would be without their horse, er, KAT, Karl-Anthony Towns. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks were not missing their horse, their stud, their probably NBA MVP, Giannis Antetekounmpo. And, so, it was no contest, none whatsoever.
The Wolves simply had nobody who could even come close to guarding Giannis. And, it's funny, I always thought of Giannis as kind of a finesse guy. Not tonight. He just overpowered everybody the Wolves put out there. I don't know if there's a shot chart out there but it seems like he scored half his 34 points on bullrushes from the top of the key down the lane, and it seemed that more often than not the Wolves strategy was to give ground and then finally make contact at the defensive arc under the rim. Well, Giannis would throw an elbow or a shoulder into the defender's chest and create a little space (or sometimes, a lot of space) and make the uncontested layup. I don't remember the officials ever taking exception to his elbows and shoulders and what-not. Welcome to the NBA.
Point guard Eric Bledsoe was also very effective for Milwaukee with 22 points and 6 assists in 23 minutes, and his style of play was similar. His off arm was pretty much always in somebody's mid-section and he too created plenty of space that way to do whatever he wanted.
But, all of that aside, Milwaukee was 28 points better than the Wolves, making 50-of-93 shots (54%) to the Wolves 37-for-103 (36%), especially with their 36-of-54 on 2-pointers (67%) to the Wolves 24-for-60 (40%) on 2s. Milwaukee was also better on 3s but that really didn't matter. The only weakness I saw from the Bucks was 20-of-30 FT compared to the Wolves 19-of-22. Giannis was 6-of-11. Good teams are going to make him shoot more FT and fewer layups.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee's inside defense was as tough as the Wolves' was porous. Early on, the Wolves got to the rim a little bit but were met there by 7-footer Brook Lopez (3 blocks), 7-footer Robin Lopez (1 block), the 6-11 Antetekounmpo and 6-7 Khris Middleton. The result was a lot of missed layups.
And, meanwhile, Wesley Matthews, who is really a terrible player with a minimum of basic skills, somehow went a team and game-leading +29.
So, OK, how about those Timberwolves? Well, did I mention they were without KAT, and they were playing a really, really good team? Yeah? So, it's hard to say very much. But, here are some things I'm comfortable saying despite the small and possibly not very extendable sample of one thrashing by a potential NBA champion:
• Jordan Bell and Noah Vonleh played 30 minutes in the post between them. (Gorgui Dieng was not physical enough to compete against the Bucks, though he scored 10 points with 6 boards and 4 assists in 17 minutes. But he was a team-worst -29.) Bell and Vonleh but up a bit more resistance on defense and combined for 17 points, 12 boards and 4 assists. Bell was -2, Vonleh +3.
• Jeff Teague was good offensively but got totally abused on defense and finished -25. Shabazz Napier was better overall, matching Teague's 10 points and finishing at +5.
• Graham, Covington and Wiggins were not good, finishing -27, -20 and -17. Wiggins at least did some scoring (25).
• Layman and Okogie were MIA this night.
• And for Jarrett Culver, MIA would have been an improvement. As it is, he was only too noticeable for his complete inability and/or unwillingness to guard anybody. There was a complete lack of effort on the defensive end.
• The Wolves best lineup was probably Bell or Vonleh with Napier, and then Wiggins, Covington and maybe me.
But, did I mention, the Wolves were without their best player and were playing a very, very good team with a group of officials who didn't mind if Milwaukee's offensive players cleared out the defense with a shoulder or an elbow before shooting...a layup.
So, as it happens, I plan on seeing the Wolves again on Friday against Golden State and Sunday against Denver. They way they've been playing, other than tonight, Golden State is now an eminently winnable game, while Denver should be very competitive. But, they'll have KAT back and if their opening 4-1 run was for real, they could still be 6-2 come Monday. I will let you know what I see after the KAT comes back.
No comments:
Post a Comment