#Minnesota Timberwolves at Phoenix Suns
Footprint Center- Phoenix, AZ
[ESPN](http://www.espn.com/nba/game/_/gameId/401468261)
[TV/Radio](https://reddit.com/r/timberwolves/comments/yjr0zi/game_thread_minnesota_timberwolves_43_at_phoenix/iupbbh5/)
***
|Time Clock|
|:–:|
|Final|
||Q1|Q2|Q3|Q4|Total|
|:–|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|
|MIN |20|27|26|34|107|
|PHX |24|30|30|32|116|
###Player Stats
**Minnesota Timberwolves**
|Player|MINS|PTS|FGM-A|3PM-A|FTM-A|ORB|DRB|REB|AST|STL|BLK|TO|PF|+/-|
|:–|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|
|J. McDaniels|17:02|4|2-5|0-1|0-0|1|2|3|0|1|0|3|5|-18
|K. Towns|36:53|24|9-18|3-7|3-3|5|5|10|7|0|1|4|4|-12
|R. Gobert|32:07|7|0-1|0-0|7-7|4|5|9|3|0|1|1|2|-14
|A. Edwards|39:53|24|8-21|5-10|3-5|0|6|6|1|3|1|3|5|-12
|D. Russell|22:38|5|2-8|1-3|0-0|0|4|4|4|0|0|4|3|-20
|K. Anderson|14:02|3|1-1|0-0|1-2|0|1|1|0|0|0|0|0|-5
|J. McLaughlin|21:42|9|4-8|1-4|0-0|0|2|2|3|0|0|0|0|6
|J. Nowell|22:26|10|4-13|0-1|2-3|0|2|2|4|0|0|1|1|14
|T. Prince|17:29|8|2-6|2-6|2-2|0|2|2|2|0|1|0|4|6
|N. Reid|15:46|13|5-6|1-2|2-2|0|3|3|0|1|0|0|0|10
**Phoenix Suns**
|Player|MINS|PTS|FGM-A|3PM-A|FTM-A|ORB|DRB|REB|AST|STL|BLK|TO|PF|+/-|
|:–|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|–:|
|M. Bridges|38:12|19|7-10|1-2|4-4|2|1|3|4|1|1|1|1|20
|C. Johnson|33:15|29|10-17|7-11|2-3|0|2|2|3|3|1|0|1|17
|B. Biyombo|29:49|8|4-5|0-0|0-0|1|3|4|1|0|4|1|2|11
|D. Booker|30:26|18|6-18|2-7|4-5|1|6|7|5|0|1|2|5|11
|C. Paul|33:52|15|5-12|1-5|4-6|1|7|8|12|3|0|1|2|18
|J. Landale|16:27|4|2-6|0-4|0-0|0|1|1|1|0|1|0|4|-4
|T. Craig|11:41|4|1-2|1-2|1-2|1|3|4|1|0|0|0|3|-12
|C. Payne|14:08|8|3-8|2-5|0-0|0|2|2|2|1|0|2|1|-9
|L. Shamet|16:50|8|2-8|2-5|2-2|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|0|-6
|D. Lee|10:17|0|0-2|0-1|0-0|0|0|0|1|0|0|1|0|-1
|D. Saric|5:01|3|1-1|1-1|0-0|1|2|3|1|1|0|0|1|0
###Team Stats
|Team|FGM-A|3PM-A|FTM-A|AST|PF|STL|TO|BLK|OREB|DREB|REB|
|:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|
|MIN|37-87|13-34|20-24|24|24|5|16|4|10|32|57|
|PHX|41-89|17-43|17-22|31|20|9|9|8|7|27|50|
***
Note: This data is only as accurate as NBA.com
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by nba_gdt_bot
49 Comments
Either the wolves need to run a hell of a lot more PnR or they need to trade dlo
Dlo was a -20 and you could feel every minute of that
Man, this Suns analyst Eddie Johnson kind of fucking sucks doesn’t he?
Man it really felt like we weren’t even on the same level as them when they had they’re starters in. Our decision making on offence and defence were horrible. That’s not to say we can’t get there but we’ve got a lot of work to do. Also it sucks to get smoked on national TV like that too.
Bench #0 until further notice
Bench Dlo ffs
KAT’s perimeter defense completely exposed in this game
Don’t let the box score fool you, no one that mattered played well tonight.
My conclusion from the first 8 games of this season: If the Two-Big thing is ever gonna work out, Dlo cannot be our point guard.
So many low iq, low percentage plays/passes, shit at facilitating pace, no game management skills. He’s forgotten how to shoot, his form looks different on every shot. Has he even thrown a good lob to Rudy yet? Simply not a winning player.
Haven’t been a Dlo hater in his first 2 1/2 seasons he’s been here, and frankly I’ve stood up for him, but I’ve seen enough.
Call it an overreaction all you want.
SHOOT ME INTO THE SUN
they’ll be able to dump dlo at some point. so theres that
This team has a lot of work to do. If they keep playing like they are through 8 games, they’ll be lucky to get into the play-in, let alone win a first round series.
Yea y’all are not tricking me Kyle anderson is still complete shit
5 points and 4 turnovers and -20 from our $30 million PG is unacceptable. I don’t know what the solution is but something has to change.
For comparison Jmac had 9 points with 0 turnovers and was a +6.
We lost to the better team tonight. A lot of questions need answers, sooner rather than later. Accountability is lacking and I know I speak for a lot of fans when I say we are sick of the ALL TALK NO ACTION.
Wonder what D’Lo’s next contract will be? Vet Min?
D’lo is just genuinely horrible right now and we cant replace him. He is being thoroughly outplayed by his backup
Idk why so many people are complaining about the Gobert trade right now. The issue we’re having right now is the exact same issue we had last year and that’s Ant, DLo and Karl’s inability to move the ball or make smart choices down the stretch
We are high pace team, cant expect scoring less than 115 and win. Defense was pretty good, especially in half court.
This team needs a real PG. It cannot be stressed enough. A PG would do wonders. Steady the team. Run an actual offense. Pass the ball to others. It needs to happen or else this team is going to crash and burn very soon.
I don’t think this game is entirely on D’Lo, but man he doesn’t look good at all to start this season. Besides the ice cold shooting (which we know he’s a streaky shooter but his cold streaks are just brutal to watch), he’s just making terrible mental mistakes that frankly a starting NBA PG cannot be making. For instance in the beginning of the fourth quarter when the Wolves had all the momentum, saving a ball that was going out of bounds off Phoenix, that led to a transition three was just a horrible momentum-killing play. And then several plays later throwing a full court pass to Edwards surrounded by 2 Suns that just went straight out of bounds. We’ve been all saying that he needed a roll man to unlock his game, but he hasn’t developed any sort of PnR chemistry with Gobert (1 shot for Gobert today is just terrible – he’s been wide open on multiple rolls to the rim but D’Lo and Ant just don’t hit him with the easy lob). Not to mention that the job of the PG is to orchestrate the offense and get everyone into their spots, but the offense is just so stagnant whenever D’Lo is on the floor.
I know it’s a team game and not all of this is necessarily on D’Lo, but as the PG he just has to be better at running the offense. Also, as an aside Edwards really needs to quit throwing jump passes – he had several bad turnovers that were the result of him getting stuck in the air, realizing he didn’t have a shot, and then throwing the ball straight to a defender. Also his decision making clearly isn’t at the level needed to be a primary ball handler (as opposed to a pure scorer) which is highly unfortunate given the D’Lo problem.
Lastly I don’t know if it’s a Finch thing or an execution thing, but I don’t like that the wings aren’t putting more of an effort to fight through screens and prevent KAT from getting switched onto a guard. I know KAT is reasonably mobile for a big man, but still it kind of hurt to watch KAT getting switched onto CP3 time and time again in the fourth quarter, and CP3 picking apart the defense afterwards – you have to fight through screens and not give up that switch so easily.
Suns doing all that just to get wiped by Luka again.
Dlo needs to be benched, give little mac the reins to run the offense as an actual facilitator. Not a scorer
Where is the ball movement, where is the hustle, where is the intensity on defense. When we have it we do good things, and then for some incredible unknown reason we revert to low effort, standing around watching someone iso offense, and defense that leaves 3 point shooters wide ass open. I hope we figure this out sooner rather than later
Are we 4-9 yet?
Dlo’s value is supposed to come from shooting, pnr initiating and general decision making and he’s been bad at all 3 it’s kind of baffling.
Horrific turnovers in the 4th from DLo, KAT, and Ant are ultimately what killed any chance we had of stealing this game. I didn’t expect us to win this one, but we just are not playing good basketball right now.
I’m gonna look at the positive side and say that the wolves kicked their own ass. The Suns simply capitalized on our fuck ups. There’ll probably be a lot more games of this if the lineup isn’t adjusted. Dlo has to go, a combination of Nowell/McClaughlin are so much better than Dlo.
It feels like whether we play good defence or bad defence, the other team makes threes for fun.
One positive, they played with a lot more energy tonight and are capable of playing good defense.
Finch needs to grow some balls and get ball movement or start benching dudes. This hero ball bullshit is disgusting to watch
Sometimes a player just doesn’t fit.
Looks like Dlo doesn’t fit.
Not sure it fixes everything but It’s a start
There is no leader on this team and there is nothing fun to watch about this team. Finch needs to figure out his fucking system because watching guys iso all game long is not helping this team “gel” or whatever they are supposed to be doing right now
Posted this in the game thread, but the bench had ONE TURNOVER (if I remember right, it was a Nowell drive that could’ve been a foul too). Starters had 15. That ain’t gonna work.
I’m a masochist so I think I’m gonna watch the postgame show
Ant/McDaniels/Naz/Kat/Gobert lineup, who says no?
This season couldn’t be going much worse.
Gobert: Zero field goals
KAT: Picked on on defense, 4 TO
Ant: Costly, sloppy mistakes
DLo: Christ, where to start
McLaughlin: Perhaps this undersized Iowa Wolves product was not the Point God we were led to believe
And the sad thing is, this was probably the most effort we’ve seen out of them so far this year. It’s just that effort’s not the only problem.
At least we still have you, Naz Reid.
I’m hate watching at this point. Low effort, lack of ball movement, defensive lapses, Finch out to lunch, DLo. Show me some sign of progress to potential, anything!
The offense just hums so much better when Naz, and especially lil Mac are in the game. JMac plays with a kind of energy and willingness to pass and move the ball around that DLo just can’t compete with
Naz deserves more minutes. And no this isn’t the typical “NAZ REID” post. It’s just facts. When he’s on the floor, shit happens.
Jmac needs to start man, DLO was a black hole the whole night. That pass after the ANT block sent me off the edge.
If (when) I go to hell I’m going to be forced to watch Dlo play basketball for eternity
Gobert seems to get scored on really often in the paint and midrange. He doesn’t even try on many possessions
We still don’t have a definite way to play. We’re still experimenting. I’m all in favor of these things, but can’t we have a stable offensive scheme or play? Everything feels like disjointed, except when we’re running. But when we’re running, WE FUCKING SUB DLO IN for some reason. Like why.
There’s a clear model working with Bench + ANT or Gobert/Naz + ANT, but we’re still forcing the issue.
I feel like it’s worth the effort to try to integrate KAT (and actually last two games he was good), but why are we still forcing this Dlo issue.
We’re doing too fucking much and our players are not smart enough for this man.
I just want to win. Rant over
We’re so bad at navigating screens on defense it’s ridiculous. Then on offense it seems like if a player gets separation off a screen, they don’t act decisively and let their man get back in the play. I know Chris Paul is one of the best ever, but it’s infuriating watching him get to his spot every time when it seems like we never can.
Controlled the boards, controlled the paint, 3 point shooting turned around. Perimeter play and offensive function remains an issue. Run more goddamn pick and roll with your pick and roll big. DLo I can’t defend those turnovers were so costly. Jaden is going to fly under the radar but he was not good tonight. Honestly would be down for the triple big lineup of Rudy-KAT-NAZ
Team is full of idiots. How you let someone run the same player all night and can’t stop it
Could you imagine where we would be at right now if we had got Garland in the draft when we traded up. I’m going to dream about that tonight.