WOW!!! Lots of things I'm thinking about. 1. KG goes to the rack alot against these guys. Even with Bradley in there, he just doesn't worry about getting his shot blocked. KG had it all going tonight. The only thing he didn't do was that he didn't get that twentieth board. OH WELL. 2. Strong game by Kandi. His mobility makes such a difference. I think his ability to guard Antoine & Antawn shifts the mismatches into our favor. This was his best shooting night as a T'Wolf. His shotblocking is a definite asset. 3. JHo should've gotten ejected for undercutting Mad Dog. When I replayed the game, I specifically watched him to see if he's just an aggressive player or if he's dirty. I'm now convinced that he's a dirty player & that Fortson is, too. I would've loved it if GT would've thrown a forearm into Fortson's fat throat after Fortson grabbed Trent's leg after GT's steal late in the game. Fortson could've hyper-extended GT's knee with a stunt like that. What's worse is that he started laughing afterwards. 4. Sam only played 24 minutes tonight but dropped 10 dimes while he was out there. Sam's finally getting rested & THud's shooting lights out. What an asset they'll be down the stretch & in the playoffs. There's alot of Leastern Conference teams that wish they'd have either one of those guys. 5. Spree did a great job on FinDawg tonight, holding him to 16 points tonight. FinDawg didn't hit a trey all night, which is a major reason for the lopsided score. Spree's offense made FinDawg work hard defensively & might've caused him to not do that great offensively. 6. This is Dirk's 2nd mediocre night against us this season. He scored 15 in the first half & didn't score in the 2nd half. Our defense was great in the 2nd half. Dallas scored 39 in the 2nd quarter & only 35 in the 2nd half. 7. I thought that our depth was THE difference-maker tonight. We got over 40 points off the bench, which helped us be relentless offensively. In the end, we just wore them down. We also were the better team from the opening tip but the depth just put this thing away.
That's a pretty good assessment, GARY. I'm glad the Wolves took this one. I'm wondering though 5 rebs for Kandi is not much. Unfortunately the Spurs still hang in the race without Duncan, too.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting DDC:</div><div class="quote_post">That's a pretty good assessment, GARY. I'm glad the Wolves took this one. I'm wondering though 5 rebs for Kandi is not much. Unfortunately the Spurs still hang in the race without Duncan, too. </div> Thanks for the compliment. I'm currently unemployed & have plenty of time to watch film of the game. As for Kandi only getting 5 boards, that isn't even a tiny worry in the context of tonight's game. Mad Dog, GT & KG were all active on the boards. Kandi's job tonight was to intimidate shooters & clog things up defensively, something he did well. As for the Spurs, I'm kinda hoping that they'll stay where they are in the standings. That way, the Lakers & Mavs would stand a great chance of meeting in the first round, which would be sweet. I'd LOVE meeting the Spurs in the 2nd round because we're so much deeper than they are & have tons more firepower than they do. If Kandi did a terrific job on TD, it'd tip the series in our favor bigtime. That means we'd likely meet the Kings in the WCF, which is very winnable for us.
I'm not sure we'd win the WCF even if this scenario works out. Getting the Spurs in the second round (provided we beat Houston in the first) would be a good matchup and very winnable. In that case the Lakers would probably play the Kings in the second round, which the Lakers could as well win. However the Kings seem pretty much unstoppable now. I'd be glad if we won the Midwest and went to the WCF. Anything beyond that is just the icing...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting DDC:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm not sure we'd win the WCF even if this scenario works out. Getting the Spurs in the second round (provided we beat Houston in the first) would be a good matchup and very winnable. In that case the Lakers would probably play the Kings in the second round, which the Lakers could as well win. However the Kings seem pretty much unstoppable now. I'd be glad if we won the Midwest and went to the WCF. Anything beyond that is just the icing...</div> There's no sense in setting your sights at anything less than the O'Brien Trophy. IMHO, the Lakers' defense is still mediocre at best. Payton is nicknamed the Glove for his tight defense. Watching him play defense now, I think it's time to call him the Mitten. He still plays defense but it isn't nearly the defender he used to be. The Kings don't scare me because CWebb simply can't compete with KG & it isn't even close. Kandi matches up well with Miller & I like the Hassell-Peja matchup, not because I expect Trenton to shut Peja down but because he'd harass him all series long. After that, I LOVE the rest of our matchups.
