Tuesday, November 10, 2009

TMJF: Warriors 146, Wolves 105

Stat Line: 34 minutes, 8-17 FG, 1-6 3FG, 3-3 FT, 20 pts, 5 rebs, 6 assts, 1 stl, 6 TOs.

It's hard to analyze an individual player performance in a game that got so out of hand so quickly. Jonny Flynn took too many three-pointers, but can you blame him for jacking a few up when his team trailed by 19 by halftime, 34 at the end of the three, and as many as 45 in the fourth? Six turnovers is certainly ghastly, but that's what happened when a hyper-competitive rookie point guard finds himself quarterbacking a sinking ship.

Other than Al Jefferson, Flynn is Minnesota's most dangerous offensive weapon right now (and with Big Al J hardly looking like himself in the early going, Flynn may be tops on that list). The threes and the turnovers aren't going to make coach Kurt Rambis happy, but Flynn's presumed replacement, Ramon Sessions, has been as careless with the ball without being as much of a scorer on a team that needs points. It looks like Flynn's burn is safe, at least for the foreseeable future.

I have a feeling that watching the Wolves 82 nights this year is going to be more soul-crushing than enjoyable. I've never seen a team play as badly on both ends of the floor as they did last night: Sloppy with the ball, despite not running anything terribly intricate on offense; and absolutely clueless defensively. Lack of respect for the rock and low basketball IQ are two of my pet peeves, and the Wolves seem to have both in spades. I don't mean to pile on, but the scoreline and the boxscore really don't do justice as to just how bad Minnesota was last night.

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