Charlotte at Minnesota Timberwolves 1/1

[ziggy]

A couple of cool things happen at tonight's matchup against the Big Ticket and the rest of the T-Wolves.

* The return of the leather ball
* Our first chance at a 3 game win streak :afro:

Minnesota is 13-15 and outside of Kevin Garnett and Ricky Davis (when he decides to play) the T-Wolves have nothing (good work building that team Kevin McHale :hysterical:)

Tonight we get the job done and extend our win streak to 3.

[tamburello]

I'm not sure nor hopeful about how new ball will affect Morrison's shooting performance. He's coming off a strong play, he looks as if he adjusted new ball. And also we play at home, where Adam usually sucks :)

They have no significant players other than Garnett and Davis. And they rarely play well at the same time. If we shut down one of 'em, we'd be so close to 3 game win-streak.

But we'll be lacking Gerald's slashing play. Hopefully he won't be out so much. Our 5 will be like Felton, Carroll, Morrison, Okafor,Brezec IMO. And May will be our punch off the bench. I see a victory tonight...

By the way, don't forget Foye. Morrison vs. Foye would be fun to watch.

[Wallace15]

Even with Crash being out this game I still see us winning. Like you guys said they have no one besides KG and Ricky Davis. So I see our winning streak extending to 3.

[dav7z]

Cant wait to get thair tonight. This could be the 3rd in a row. Loseing crash hurts but May has the ability to step up. Look for big games out of CAROL , Morrisom .and May tonight. and us keeping the streak going .

[ziggy]

Fortunately for us, we're getting back Sean May at the same time that we're losing Crash. Sean should be easily pick up the slack on the offensive end and on the boards. Defensively is where we're going to really miss him though.

[tamburello]

Woo hoo.. Only 16 minutes passed, but we're demolishing Wolves 46-28. We shot 6-7 from downtown :o :o :o :o Carroll, Felton, Morrison, actually everybody rocks.

[ziggy]

50-30 with 5:26 left in the 2nd quarter. :rock:

Minnesota is getting their collective asses kicked. It sure is nice to be on the other side of these beatdowns for a change.

[Wallace15]

Hells yeah, it's fucking great to finally be kicking someones ass.

[tamburello]

We're fucking just our asses. We let a huge 20-point lead slip away. We lead only 55-47. I'm remembering the last season's opener, in which we gave away the game to Bulls after leading something like 24 points.

Please not again..

[ziggy]

50-30 with 5:26 left in the 2nd quarter. :rock:

Minnesota is getting their collective asses kicked. It sure is nice to be on the other side of these beatdowns for a change.

D'OH!! 55-47 at halftime... Maybe I got hyped up a little too soon :-\

[Wallace15]

Yeah, I remember that game when we let the Bulls back in it. Hopefully Ammo and Carrol can come in the 2nd half fired up and strokin.

[ziggy]

Through the end of the 3rd quarter we're hanging on to a 10 point lead.
Adam is having a nice all around game so far. 18 points, 6 boards, 5 assists. :)

[Wallace15]

Damnit, that 10 point lead has shruck to 3 with 9 minutes left in the 4th. Hopefully we can make a push and hold onto this lead and win

[ziggy]

Down by 5 with 1:40 left,,, WTF happened to our 20 point lead?

[Jonathanmartin7]

Blount hit some really freaky shots. Down by 3 with 40 to go

[Wallace15]

FUCK!!!, we let a 20 point lead slip and we lose 102-96. Why the hell do we let big leads all the damn time. I noticed as soon a BB put in Harrington when we were up 68-80 we started sucking really bad, and he didnt take him out until they were only down by 3.

[tamburello]

96-102...

4th period 18-34...

Is there any need to make more comments?

[Jonathanmartin7]

Blount had 21 and 7 on 9 of 19 shooting. He hit like 4 from 20 feet.
Everytime Raymond would make a play and either drive and score or pass it to Carol for a 3, Blount just countered on the other in they shot like 80 % in the 4th!!!
Still we never quit, just didn't go our way at the end.

on a side note Bernie has the best record of any coach against the T-wolves he's now 14 and 5

[ziggy]

I can't wait to hear a report from the people that went to the game, just so I can get a description of what this travesty looked like in person... Disgusting.

[Jonathanmartin7]

I watched it on tv. We kept playing hard, just too much KG and Blount. Ricky Davis hit so Looonnnggg 3's.

[dav7z]

BERNIE SUKS BERNIE SUKS BERNIE SUKS
Tells FELTON to slow the game down and to force feed OK50 WITH A 20 PT LEAD 53to 33 With Felton , Carol, and Morison all in duble digits
BERNIE SUCKS BAD

[Jonathanmartin7]

The t-wolves pulled off a great comeback. They called a time out at 50-30 and then started to play d. cut the lead to 13 then to something like 8. Their convidence went up ours went down and they came back and won. WE didn't slow the game down, THEY did. As for force feeding OK50, he hardly got his hands on the ball. It was felton driving and Carol bombing 3's.

[dvdbumpus]

It's because of our damn backup big guys. We lost by 6, and they made 10 more free throws than us, and we had TWELVE more fouls than them. WTF.

Here are the big men's stats(excluding Okafor, he was a beast)

Voskuhl: 14 minutes, 4 pts, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, FIVE FOULS IN 14 MINUTES
Harrington: 3 minutes, 1 TO, zero EVERYTHING, THREE F'IN FOULS IN 2 MINUTES!

The biggest bum of the night was: SURPRISE!!! Mr. Slovenian himself.

Primo: 12 min, 0 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, SIX FOULS IN TWELVE MINUTES

All in all: 29 minutes, 4 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, and 14 fouls. Half of our fouls are attributed to the backup big guys. I guarantee the 16 more foul shots that were taken by the t'wolves doomed us. If only they learned to do something else besides foul...

Thanks for ruining our night tonight guys. Excellent handling of planting your feet and taking the charge, and playing smart basketball. Only one more reason we need better depth with our big men, and to get rid of the 3 above (I'd probably keep Primo if he improves, hopefully it's only readjusting from injury) Get me Greg Oden or a decent big man! Right now i'd consider Melvin Ely over Primo or any of the others mentioned above.

I seem to notice whenever we lose by a small margin of 10 points or less, it always seems whether we're home or away we always have a dozen or so more fouls and they have made 15-25 fouls shots while we're in single digits. Might we be in need of a new scheme with our big guys?

[Keetch]

Well I was there as well and that 2nd Quarter run really rocked the house. Everyone was in their roles and performing flawlessly at the time. -> Okafor, May, AMMO, Carroll and Felton of course our *cough* starters heh (not).

I do think Felton slowed it down at the end of the 2nd Qtr., I watched him pull it back and slow it down a number of times. But that wasn't a problem, that was confidence.

I don't know, I think we just ran out of gas and poise at the end. The team lost sight of what it does well and started overplaying, particularly Adam annd Matt Carroll. They both were fantastic overall, but at crunch time, were dribbling way too much and not giving it back to Ray. They both logged a lot of minutes. What 13 turnovers in the 2nd Half? Many of those right at the end.

Overall though, I wasn't that upset that we lost at all. I was so happy to see them play so well and with so much confidence. In the big picture, what I'm seeing is Felton, May and Carroll becoming bonifide NBA players now, not noobs, and maybe AMMO slowly finding a consistant groove. There's a huge improvement over 2 weeks ago...

I feel for KG. The Wolves won this one, but honestly they're not as good a team as the Bobcats. But KG is such a stud; he owned us down the stretch.

And crap Sean May sits until about 5 mins. left in the 1st Qtr. and Brezac starts. Jeeez comeon man play May more...Sean May 27 minutes; but you know according to Bernie, Sean can only effectively play in limited minutes. So AMMO can play 44 effectively? What a load of crap!

[Keetch]

Brezac and Harrington are absolutely worthless right now. Voskuhl does some nice things (like wishing the crowd Happy New Year from half court before game). Don't know about Ely, is he ever awake?

I contend that Primo actually causes negative production for Okafor because he gets in the way. I like Emeka free to move at center making blocks unhindered. Sorry Primo, its just not happening for you right now.

[dvdbumpus]

It appears that we have our general starting lineup, we just need to improve our depth drastically. We're progressing nicely. I bet we can make it to 30 wins. Who's with me??

[tamburello]

It appears that we have our general starting lineup, we just need to improve our depth drastically. We're progressing nicely. I bet we can make it to 30 wins. Who's with me??


Unfortunately I am not. Because it's too late to reach 30 wins, I believe. It looks like we've found our way to climb, but still at the level of 22-24 wins.

But if we're beginning to talk about bench production, and we're glad with starters performance, I see that's also an improvement.

And we shouldn't forget that team played its 5th match in 7 days. That's not an excuse, as Morrison says, but they must have run out of gas in the second half.

But in the next 8 days, we'll play only one match, @Orlando. Even Gerald would come back for the next match. Our players need to rest, not Othella of course. He was resting all the season, but he just spoiled the night.

[dvdbumpus]

To make 30 wins, we'd have to go 21 - 30. I think if we have actually found some consistancy and make a smart trade, it could be attainable. Not easily, but possible.

Of course, smart trade/Bernie do not go together.

[dav7z]

[quote=Keetch ]
Brezac and Harrington are absolutely worthless right now. Voskuhl does some nice things (like wishing the crowd Happy New Year from half court before game). Don't know about Ely, is he ever awake?

I agree about Brezac, Harrington, Voskuhl . Ely never even gets to the scorers table. That starting line up just sucks . Anderson and Brezac shuld never start over May and Carol.Blunt was the difference maker in the game . He made a lot of big shots and none of our bigs cauld do nothing with him. OK50 had enough on his hands in KG.
K.G . did agreat job on stoping the pick and roll on Felton in the 2nd half two.
Had Wallace played K. G comeing out on FELTON like that would have never worked. Blunt could not cover May and Wallace . One of the two would have went off .
Sorry about the Bernie fit But slowing Felton . Carol and Morrison down with a 53 -33 lead by calling atime out just blew me away.Keetch what section are you in . Im useally in sweet fo3 . MID court home side . Been looking for thet fire Bernie shirt but not seen ii yet. How about the fans slam dunk last night it was cool . Can you belive that between the legs dunk thet won.

[Keetch]

Good points Dav7z; I'll have to watch that pick and roll more. I've got the Orange 1/2 season plan in section 116, but I've given over half of them away to friends :) just spreading the Bobcat nation....need to upgrade to club seats next year though, the distance is killing me!

[CaptainCrunch]

disapointing loss, i thought we had this one, we blew a huge lead and it was a true heart breaker