Team looked faster yesterday. Better spacing on the offensive end

[SHAQATTACK]

Lee moved decent for his age .  With the fast young guys .

If he could just knock down his shots more consistent .


When Smart returns ......the pace will increase ......I think that is what Crowder wants .....he and Marcus are awesome together.

[ssspence]

The team 'looked' faster yesterday because Lee, Olynyk, Zeller, and Jerebko move better than Sully and Johnson.

Doesn't necessarily make the Cs better, just a little more nimble.

[Evantime34]

I think the team looked faster because the wolves weren't playing any defense. It always takes longer to run your offense when your opponent plays hard defense.

[PhoSita]

I agree the spacing and pace looked better, but I also agree that facing a crappy defensive opponent helps.

The Wolves have some solid defensive personnel in their starting lineup -- Rubio, Wiggins, Towns, Dieng, plus KG and Prince.  Nobody else on their team can play D though.

[Tr1boy]

I agree the spacing and pace looked better, but I also agree that facing a crappy defensive opponent helps.

The Wolves have some solid defensive personnel in their starting lineup -- Rubio, Wiggins, Towns, Dieng, plus KG and Prince.  Nobody else on their team can play D though.

it was similar 2nd half of the 2nd half of last season.

Pace and space is better for this team

[chambers]

The Wolves are just a bad team defensively. They don't guard the perimeter, they have Towns and Dieng inside who are both (especially Dieng) mediocre defenders.

Think about how easily Dieng scored around the basket last night. He literally walked into the paint, headfaked and dunked/easy layup multiple occassions.

There is no difference in pace last night compared to our normal pace, and we actually shot less threes last night than our season average this year...

We looked really good, but when your two best opponents are 20 years old and they don't have anyone that can defend the perimeter properly then you're always going to struggle against a team shooting 50% from three point land.

Our win last night had much more to do with our poor defensive opponent and hot shooting from three than anything else.

[Rosco917]

Sometimes this team gets diverted from it's ball movement offense. Especially with Smart on the sidelines, (not that Smart is a great PG, but he encourages the search for the best option) and with the duties falling mostly to Thomas. This has helped IT's scoring average a little, but maybe slowed the ball movement down. The offense is much more predictable with IT getting the lions share of the PG minutes.

That was the best part of the Smart-IT point guard combination, the different look the offense received when each is in the game playing the point. 

[flybono]

We looked better because the Timberwolves aren't very good.

Amen

[Tr1boy]

We looked better because the Timberwolves aren't very good.

Amen

I disagree. Not 100 percent.

Let's see what happens the next game.

[hwangjini_1]

I missed the game.  Saw David Lee got the start and put up some stats. Did he help?

He forced a ton of shots down low early and missed badly. No defense as usual, so it's a very good showcase game -- as in, showing us all how cooked he is. I can't believe he ended up 5-11, I could have sworn he was 0-8 at some point (or at least it felt like that).

On a related note, Sam Mitchell is a prick. You're going to bring KG for his final visit to the Garden, he'll be in uniform, and you won't play him. Really?!

koz, can  you please stop with all the endless and relentless optimism. your happiness is getting to me.