” It’s a demonstration at the Target Center. The local TV commentator could not find a better way to describe the Warriors’ exceptional first quarter on the Wolves floor tonight. After five minutes of play, the two teams were nevertheless tied (15-15).
But the following minutes turned into heaven for some, and hell for others. Draymond Green suddenly turned into an assist mill and the army of shooters, Andrew Wiggins, Stephen Curry or Donte DiVincenzo, only had to punish behind the arc.
The Californians thus passed a terrible 25-2 in about… four minutes of play (17-40). It was only the first quarter but the match was almost folded since the Wolves will not go back below the ten point mark.
Led by a gala Stephen Curry (13 points in the quarter) and a Draymond Green (7 of his 11 assists to start!) far too mobile for Karl-Anthony Towns, the Californians chained nine successful shots in a row and finished the period with a sumptuous 19/25 to shoot.
“It’s a well-oiled machine”
Despite their position in the standings, the Wolves (10 wins – 10 losses) have become aware of the collective gap existing with the Warriors (11-10). ” They are the defending champions. They showed why they are a great team. Their cohesion speaks for itself. We have great videos to study from which we can learn and understand where our mistakes are, what good they did against us. They have a level of trust between them that we have to achieve. It’s a well-oiled machine. Everything they do has such cohesion, it’s thanks to the time they spent with each other “, praises Karl Anthony-Towns.
His Wolves, still in the integration phase of Rudy Gobert, are still far from such fluidity in the game. This is particularly true in defense. Their game that night, with 47 points conceded in the first quarter and 137 in total, was their worst defensive performance of the year. And by far.
Despite the arrival of the triple best defender of the year, the Minnesota franchise only occupies 15th place in the ranking of the best defenses in the country (112 points out of 100 possessions). The fault in particular with errors of rotation and problems of communication. Pick-and-roll coverage varies from giant to giant: Rudy Gobert doesn’t get on the ball carrier, unlike KAT, as is well explained in this video.
” I will take responsibility for (the bad start to the match), I was behind on everything. There are matches like that… I have to do better than that, set the tone before anything else “, Displays the French, author of 9 points (4/9) and 10 rebounds.
Right now it’s a good game then a bad one
This collective poor performance comes after a defeat in Charlotte, and especially after a series of five straight wins, including their “best performance of the season” in Indiana, marked by a much more marked defensive seriousness. ” At the moment it’s a good game and then a bad one. We are irregular but we try to put things in place collectively “Describes Austin Rivers, tenured last night in place of Jaden McDaniels, sick.
“ We are very irregular in terms of identity. It’s very Jekyll and Hyde. We’re not as physical or as tough as I would like. It’s something we gotta try to fix “Abounds their coach, Chris Finch. Of the physique, of the hardness and all ” little things » that allow you to change a game, such as coming back on defense or putting down screens to secure rebounds reminds Rudy Gobert at BeIn.
This start to the season with Wolves, he calls it “ encouraging “. ” We have a young team, new automatisms must be done. The defence, because of my arrival, is no longer the same. In attack, we have to play a totally different style too. Alchemy takes time. I find that we progress every night “, Positive the pivot, also surprised by the qualities of passer of “KAT”.
The Frenchman, who would like to see his new team reach the Top 4 or even the Top 2 of the conference, notes that their ” goal is to be the best team possible in april “. Because his Wolves have “ the potential to fetch a ring. Provided you take advantage of this size advantage because Austin Rivers did not hide his frustration after the defeat against the Warriors: “If we bet on the inside, we must dominate in the racket. If we play with greats, we have to play on our greats. Their interior was Draymond…”
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Anthony Edwards | 19 | 36.3 | 45.9 | 35.4 | 70.5 | 0.5 | 5.4 | 5.8 | 3.8 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 2.9 | 22.1 |
| Karl Anthony Towns | 19 | 34.5 | 50.5 | 33.3 | 89.4 | 1.8 | 6.9 | 8.7 | 5.4 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 3.9 | 21.4 |
| D’angelo Russell | 19 | 30.9 | 43.5 | 32.1 | 75.6 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 6.7 | 2.8 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 14.2 |
| Rudy Gobert | 17 | 32.2 | 63.4 | 0.0 | 72.7 | 3.9 | 8.9 | 12.8 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 3.1 | 13.8 |
| Jaden Mcdaniels | 19 | 29.9 | 53.5 | 35.7 | 76.5 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 3.5 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 3.7 | 11.4 |
| Jaylen Nowell | 19 | 16.5 | 40.4 | 26.4 | 77.3 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 9.5 |
| Taurean Prince | 18 | 19.5 | 49.5 | 38.9 | 86.4 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 7.9 |
| Naz Reid | 13 | 12.3 | 56.3 | 32.0 | 72.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 7.8 |
| Kyle Anderson | 14 | 20.1 | 51.6 | 37.5 | 81.8 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 3.6 | 2.6 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 6.3 |
| Jordan McLaughlin | 15 | 15.8 | 43.4 | 24.1 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 3.7 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 3.9 |
| Bryn Forbes | 9 | 10.1 | 29.0 | 25.0 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 2.9 |
| austin rivers | 9 | 9.0 | 33.3 | 22.2 | 87.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 2.1 |
| Aj Lawson | 1 | 1.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Nathan Knight | 7 | 2.3 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Luka Garza | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Wendell Moore, Jr. | 2 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
