ClutchFans Game Thread: Timberwolves @ Rockets 4/15/2018 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 1)

This is it. This is the moment. In my heart of hearts I think we have a chance. Like I believe this is the year. It's like everything the heart breaks led to this moment getting Gerald Green, luv, cp3, pj. I'm in love with this team. The whole team...every man on the roster has that hunger, something to prove. To a man, I never like going against someone that has something to prove. Watch. U gonna get things from people u didn't expect. Game winners, big time defense. A charge. I'm telling u. We deep. I can't wait to see a healthy Nene this playoffs. I serious feel when Nene with down that was a blow to the team we couldn't overcome. Call me crazy, the team really trusts him in the playoff. Then green playing for his city..man that's dope. Cp3 n harden the eyes are on them. They can rewrite the narrative of their great but. Gordon Ryan. Everything is there for the taking. After Harvey after the stros. This city man. Deserves that chip. I was 10 years old during clutch city. I live n die with this team. I wanna see it again man. I believe come on fans let's give them all the positive vibes we have. Let's never give up. We can do it

 

We need all hands on deck. It's happening this year.

 

any update on ryan?

 

50/50 to play per Feign. Didn't practice.

 

Oh trust me he playing. Everybody wanna be part of this

 

same goes for Clutch Fans. well, except for all the crybabies. crybabies can stay below decks from where they came, with all the other bilge rats . . .

 

It's time to put up or shut up! No more excuses! All games count from here on! Go Rockets!

 

I forgot Derrick Rose will actually get real playing time in this series. Rockets by 70.

 

Lets not allow the ghost of D Rose score how he did in the last game.

 

https://www.twincities.com/2018/04/...retch-run-prepared-timberwolves-for-playoffs/
Tom Thibodeau believes stretch run prepared Timberwolves for playoffs
The list of Timberwolves rotation players making their NBA playoff debuts Sunday in Houston is long: Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Gorgui Dieng, Tyus Jones and Nemanja Bjelica.

That’s why coach Tom Thibodeau thinks the regular season stretch run — while stressful as Minnesota flirted with missing the postseason — provided an invaluable experience for his young players.

Thibodeau said the win-and-in regular-season finale against Denver “had a Game 7 feel to it.”

Wiggins would agree. “It was like fighting someone physically and the loser dies,” he said. “So we were both fighting for our lives.”

That was Minnesota’s life the final month of the season, needing to win games down the stretch just to keep pace with the rest of the Western Conference contenders.

“The race was so tight and every night you had to be ready to go,” Thibodeau said. “And you can see the quality of play from all the teams in the West. We were all fighting it out.”

The Wolves, particularly their younger players, took some lumps in the process. In a road loss to Denver last week, Thibodeau thought his team played well without star Jimmy Butler but couldn’t corral a couple key rebounds late that swung the game in the Nuggets’ favor. A home loss to Memphis in March sticks out as a contest during which the Wolves looked unprepared for the physical level of play required to win games when the toughness rises and the whistles drop.

It was after that game that Thibodeau called for more toughness. In the days that followed, Butler followed suit. There was no need for such criticism after Wednesday’s Game 82 victory. Minnesota wasn’t perfect against Denver, but it was tough from the top down, from Butler and Taj Gibson to Wiggins.

“Everyone playing with a lot of toughness down the stretch, that’s what we needed,” Thibodeau said.

Towns rose to the occasion, matching the effort and energy of Denver center Nikola Jokic.

“He knew what was at stake,” Butler said of Towns. “He was ready to go. You didn’t have to tell him anything before the game. He’s a dominant big in this league. We’re going to need that every night from here on out.”

While he has not-so-subtly criticized the toughness of Towns and Wiggins throughout the season, Butler said Wednesday that “their hearts are pure, they want to win, they want to do what’s best for this team, this organization and this city, and they did that tonight.”

But as Butler said, Minnesota needs them to do that moving forward. Wiggins said the closing stretch of the regular season taught the younger players what it takes to win big games — with Butler missing a large chunk of the final quarter of the season with a torn meniscus, it was learn or be left out of the playoffs.

“We still pushed through,” Wiggins said, “fought through the adversity, and now we’re here.”

An exhausted Towns summed up the effort required to win big ones from his locker late Wednesday night.

“You’ve got to give everything you’ve got and you’ve got to give every single thing you have,” Towns said. “Especially in these kind of games, no matter how you feel, until that horn goes off and someone’s a winner, you’ve got to keep on.”

 

"Soon after"? As in Wednesday for Game 2? How badly did he sprain this ankle?

 

He didn't practice... It's a matter of concern to put it lightly. Ariza will have to take his place. Luc's absence
is of greater concern.

 

no luc or ryan anderson, which means joe johnson will prolly play 20+ minutes