Howlin' T-Wolf

“Oh soo close…”

Wolves Record: 9-34

Well the Wolves put together one of their better games this season and still came up short in the end. That really is a testament to just how good this young Thunder team is this year. Really I thought this was the best game of the season for the Wolves. The only other one that stands out would be the Jonny Flynn game winner against the Jazz. That being said the reason I think this one was best is because it’s really the first game all season that the Wolves have put together constant effort for 48 minutes and stayed with a good team. Sure they missed a bunch of shots when the Thunder went on a 15-0 run in the 3rd but I thought most of those were good shots they just didn’t hit.

If there was one thing that I was really impressed with it was the defensive rotations. I don’t know if someone hit a switch with this team but all of sudden it was like the guys knew what they were doing rotating on D. Hadn’t seen it yet to this point so it was a very encouraging sign for this young team.

I also saw a very improved Jonny Flynn folks. Coming off the big 29 and 9 night I wasn’t sure what to expect. Anyone who didn’t watch the game would say it was a disappointing outing for Jonny finishing with only 10 points on 4-13 shooting, but I was really impressed with his 8 assists and only 2 turnovers. He was running the floor and setting up guys for lay-ups and he would have at least 5 more dimes too, if the Wolves only had someone that could knock down an open jump shot consistently. Most impressive was seeing Flynn pass up semi-open 3’s as the ball was being rotated and instead dribble penetrate and dish to the open man. I must have seen him do it 6-7 times in the first half. I’ll be a very excited fan and blogger if he can keep this up and once they get some shooters around him next year could easily see him averaging 10+ assists a game. One thing to note is that most of these drives were occurring within the triangle offense. It wasn’t him trying to force the issue after just bringing the ball up the court but rather about 10 seconds into the shot clock usually on the rotation after Jefferson was doubled. As a result Jonny already had a half-step on Westbrook who was rotating back to him and he was able to get by him every time. I don’t know if it was Rambis’ decision to keep Jonny at the top of the key, instead of his usual half-hearted cut to the corner never to see the ball again, but he really needs to be there from now on within the triangle.

As for Jonny’s best dime of the night? Well that was this no-look one from the baseline:

Wow where have you been hiding that Damien? Did uncle Dominique give you that for Christmas and you’ve just been waiting to unleash it?

However you got it I’ll take another order of that funk for sure!