Our defense definitely picked up. There was several shot clock violations and TOs. Minny stopped moving so much too and started jacking contested shots. What you're pointing out is also true, but I strongly believe we won this one because of our defense
We're underdogs in the series against Memphis which I think is advantageous. Storm their home floor early and lay the hammer down. Not be content with taking one game but both. Five days of rest...no excuses.
Agreed, offense wasn't working so they dug in and refused to lose. What great teams do and we are on our way to being a great team.
Looking at some replays: I think the Ham and Lakers deserve way more credit on D. Mitigating factor is no Gobert and McDaniels so maybe the Wolves ran out of steam w/o the bodies available the lack of Gobert really opened up the TWolves offense with the 5 out the offense. Wolves also had a bit of the Ewing theory bump playing w/o a guy who seems not to be that well liked. That being said the Lakers really changed their D: post-game comments seemed to indicate that this may have been the vets doing but they definitely went to an all switch defense. This caused the Wolves according to Kevin Pelton to not even attempt a shot within 22 feet till Edwards had a break away. Sure they got some decent looks but Pelton also noted 3 pt shooting percentage historically drops like a rock the final 5 minutes of a game so the Lakers basically took everything away but long jumpers. The team needs D.Lo's and Reaves offense to really make a run but the defense looks like it can be really good after being flaky for awhile. If they're willing to go from a drop coverage exclusive to a switch heavy defense that gives them a lot of flexibility going forward
this is my point, though. and maybe we're arguing several things at once. i just know the in-game narrative was that we weren't playing hard on defense in the first half or three quarters, but i thought we were. and if the strategy changed at halftime, it didn't work for the first 8 minutes or so of the third quarter. i just feel like they missed shots they were making in the first half. they were 16-32 from three at one point, and i think they missed their last nine, several of which were open shots they had been hitting. they make even one and we lose.
It's basketball, it goes both ways, if we make our shots in the 1st half, we win that game easily too. Those guys were shorthanded, it was unreasonable to expect them to keep making shots like that anyway IMO. I pointed that out in the game thread.
I've never been a fan of Draymond Green, but he makes a valid point. Sacramento and Memphis both benefitted from the injury situations going on in the West this season. They were both mostly healthy all season and have some talent. They both deserve credit for taking advantage of the situation. However the playoffs are not the regular season, and Golden State and the Lakers are healthy, and have better squads then they did during the regular season. Neither team should be considered the underdog in their series IMO.
sac was VERY healthy, relative to other teams. their top 8 players in terms of minutes per game all played at least 73 games (!). that's insane. memphis wasn't, though. morant, bane, and jjj all missed 20 games, and adams missed half the year. clarke missed 30 games. the latter are both out for the year now. i think our series is a tossup, with memphis the slight favorite. but i definitely expect gs to beat sac. i think people are really selling gs short. they're the defending champs, and when the playoffs start, they'll have their full team healthy, basically the same team that won it. i know people joke about flipping switches--because it's generally a myth--but this is one team that i believe has proven they have the switch. it will be them or phx (if paul miraculously stays healthy) coming out of the west, i think.
