Game Thread: Spurs (26-35) @ T-Wolves (36-29) -- Sun. 3/09/2025 - 7:00pm CST (3:00am Riga; 2:00pm Hawaii)

[BatManu20]

Tank continues tonight in Minny boys. Let's get it.


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[scott]

Curveball coming at you guys who so graciously include Hawaii time in the game threads... we don't do daylight savings time, so this game is a 2pm HST :lol

Another elite gameday poster from whoever does this for the Spurs... the only functioning part of the Spurs graphics department. Get them on the jerseys and fire whoever is doing them now

[scott]

Will the game thread even make it to 3 pages today?

Feels like a flashback to the darkest days of the heart of tank era

[heyheymymy]

water bottle jerseys

[heyheymymy]

welp 2 straight TOs to start

[scott]

We somehow average more rebounds per game that MIN… but they’ll probably out rebound us by 15+ today. A sight to behold.

[heyheymymy]

Fox fingers seem very fucked up. I'm not really reading too much into Fox's performances here with a wemby less tank final 30 games on a mangled hand. But even still, Fox has already impressed, hit a game winner, and shown he's exactly what SA needs

[Guru of Nothing]

Rest time, gramps.

[AusSpur]

A lot of Chris Paul defending McDaniels with this starting lineup, which is going great for Minnesota. But the good news is Paul's feelings are in tact.

[heyheymymy]

play dilly

[scott]

This jersey/court combo from MIN is elite.

Spurs need to poach whomever is in charge of these things for MIN instead of farming our designs out to Holt’s kids or whatever the fuck is responsible for our abominations

[Guru of Nothing]

KJ fire his personal chef?

[scott]

Credit to Devin, who has done a good job upping his defensive stocks the last month or so. If you’re not going to be a very good defender, it does help to at least create defensive events, which he has been doing quite well.

[LeBowen]

I really can't take watching this garbage, tbh.

[scott]

Credit to Devin, who has done a good job upping his defensive stocks the last month or so. If you’re not going to be a very good defender, it does help to at least create defensive events, which he has been doing quite well.

Devin is at 2.4 stocks/game his last 10 games, and 2.0 his last 30 games. For reference, 2.4 would rank 14th in the league, 2.0 would be 37th. (He’s only at 1.8 for the season and 1.4 in his career, so definitely improving these numbers)

[heyheymymy]

Rudys 3rd foul in 6 min of play wow I know it is his first game back from being out but damn

[scott]

Mitch saving his challenges for a play he might lose instead of wasting them on ones he can win. Big brain stuff.

[heyheymymy]

I'm just not sure about time outs taken in the first min of any quarter barring exceptional circumstances

[scott]

I'm just not sure about time outs taken in the first min of any quarter barring exceptional circumstances

Mitch is trying to send a message.

That message: “I don’t know what I’m doing”

[scott]

Mamu eruption game

[heyheymymy]

Mamu really has that magic in select mins

[scott]

Is there someone on the Spurs’ bench whose job is to count down “5-4-3-2-1” when there is 10 seconds left on the opposing shot clock? Seems like we try this little “trick” multiple times a game

[heyheymymy]

Blake Wes sighting

[scott]

Early Blake Wesley minutes… ah, the sweet smell of tanking.

I actually Blake is a guy who can really benefit from some Fox mentorship. Blake should look to model his game completely after Fox, IMO.

[Guru of Nothing]

Blake Wesley sighting.

[scott]

Is Dillingham hurt? I thought he was in MIN’s rotation now?

[onechance87]

sochan so soft at the rim

[ginobilized]

I thought Dillingham was a ballboy sitting on the bench for a second.
He looks so young.

In other news, are they teaching players to dribble into double and triple teams in SA? It seems like a staple of our offense.

[Manu-of-steel]

Steph is a bully in the court. It's good that the refs are calling fouls and Castle gets to the FT at will

[scott]

LOL Sochan trying to take Naz 1:1 on back to back possessions.

Block, turnover.

This is the difference of what a professional NBA PF looks like versus a guy with potential still learning how to be a pro basketball player.

[onechance87]

sochan is worthless on offense...Dude is hurting us.Ya he needs to go and i like him.

[Manu-of-steel]

Another offensive rebound, with Keldon not boxing out his man. Basic knowledge, Spurs dobt get it. It's the IQ

[heyheymymy]

"I'm a big Keldon Johnson fan"

wolves broadcast, to instant lols

[LakerHater]

Dammit vassell

[heyheymymy]

Castle able to get what he wants at times just feels crazy to have on your team

[onechance87]

cut vassell after that rebound...wtf was that.

[heyheymymy]

Fox triple cuts it to 5 on a 8-2 SA run

[lefty20]

Interesting lineup we had out there to close the quarter.

[Manu-of-steel]

WTF Vassell.

[scott]

Fast forward to next season. Brian Wright has traded for Naz in exchange Branham and a second round pick, another heist for GM Wright.

Mitch responds by playing him at backup C for 12 minutes a game while he continues to start CP3/Fox/Vassell/Barnes/Wemby.

Fans wonder why Naz isn’t living up to the hype.

”I can’t believe we’re paying this guy $25MM/yr” is a common thread in game threads.

Vassell continues to have big showings every 10th game while we fight for the 11th seed.

[LeBowen]

The scoreline isn't that bad, but it feels like Timberwolves are playing with minimal effort.
Castle is great to watch, others not so much.

[onechance87]

how is vassell not benched yet.Guy proves he has no balls or heart.Why do we keep rewarding him to start.
This is pathetic from our coaching.

[ginobilized]

I hope Castle's shoulder is ok. I think he injured that same shoulder earlier this year. He's the main attraction at this point.

[scott]

One of Fox’s better halves since he came over… naturally we played him fewer minutes than CP3 :lol

[ginobilized]

Fast forward to next season. Brian Wright has traded for Naz in exchange Branham and a second round pick, another heist for GM Wright.

Mitch responds by playing him at backup C for 12 minutes a game while he continues to start CP3/Fox/Vassell/Barnes/Wemby.

Fans wonder why Naz isn’t living up to the hype.

”I can’t believe we’re paying this guy $25MM/yr” is a common thread in game threads.

Vassell continues to have big showings every 10th game while we fight for the 11th seed.

That's a dystopian roundball hellscape except for the Branham/2nd round pick part.

Ironically, the T-Wolves broadcast just showed Reid's high school jersey retirement and mentioned what a great teammate and person he is.

[scott]

That's a dystopian roundball hellscape except for the Branham/2nd round pick part.

Ironically, the T-Wolves broadcast just showed Reid's high school jersey retirement and mentioned what a great teammate and person he is.

It’s a Rubik’s cube that Mitch has to figure out…

[scott]

People talk about CP3 as a future coach, but I feel like that might be HB’s calling as well

[ginobilized]

It’s a Rubik’s cube that Mitch has to figure out…

I hope Mitch can turn the corner

[Dex]

:lmao at the Minny announcers calling Paul's hand touching the back of a guy "should have been a flagrant foul"

[Dex]

Good loss.

On to the next one.

[scott]

Do you think the coaching staff ever sits around and wonders “man, it’s weird how teams always hit all these wide open 3s against us… we just must be unlucky!”

[ginobilized]

Mark your calendars for May 12 and the Draft Lottery and June 25 for the 1st Round of the Draft

It's going to be a brutal few months

[Manu-of-steel]

Vassell with the miss, wide open lay up

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Mitch absolutely should not be in the running if Pop can’t coach anymore

[ginobilized]

Do you think the coaching staff ever sits around and wonders “man, it’s weird how teams always hit all these wide open 3s against us… we just must be unlucky!”

Either that or it's "This three-point shot is just a passing fad. Don't fall for it"

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Mark your calendars for May 12 and the Draft Lottery and June 25 for the 1st Round of the Draft

It's going to be a brutal few months

Gonna be even worse if we only end up with the 12th and 15th pick.

[rascal]

Good loss.

On to the next one.

Spurs have two home games with Dallas. Should win both of those games. Then tanking Charlotte and NO at home.

[scott]

Spurs have two home games with Dallas. Should win both of those games. Then tanking Charlotte and NO at home.

For these reasons, this would be a good game for the team to decide was Fox’s last

[SPURt]

This Spurs team is bad enough without these refs needing to help the wolves

[AusSpur]

Chris Finch challenging when up 24 and coasting to victory, and we can't get Mitch Johnson to challenge in any situation.

[scott]

Extended JMac minutes!

[ginobilized]

JMac looks serviceable

Someone remind me why we extended Branham?

[scott]

JMac looks serviceable

Someone remind me why we extended Branham?

JMac would be a fine backup PG for us next year on a cheap (vet min?) deal… but he’s getting the Devonte Graham treatment here

[scott]

LOL @ allowing a team to shoot 50% from 3 on 42 attempts. Shameful.

[LeBowen]

Idk how am I going to take 20 more games of this just to move up by one or two positions in the lottery.

[rascal]

Idk how am I going to take 20 more games of this just to move up by one or two positions in the lottery.

You should be able to cheer wins against Dallas in the next two games but don't complain when the spurs fall to 12th in the draft.

[gilmor2002]

Idk how am I going to take 20 more games of this just to move up by one or two positions in the lottery.

Go watch Celtics.. cheer for White..

[baseline bum]

JMac looks serviceable

Someone remind me why we extended Branham?

I have been one of the biggest Branham haters on this forum for the last couple of years, but thought extending him made sense as it made him a cheap piece for salary matching purposes in trade. Never imagined they'd get someone to take Zollins instead though in the Fox trade so I can't complain.

[BackHome]

Vassell continues his bi polar play

[baseline bum]

Idk how am I going to take 20 more games of this just to move up by one or two positions in the lottery.

I just stopped watching after they lost the back to back games in New Orleans. Don't know if it's Vassell or Mitch or WTF but this team is unwatchable without Wemby and with Fox out of position and not at 100%.

[ambchang]

New motto for the spurs: anyone playing more than 15 mins against us will score double digits.

[dn0774]

Couple thoughts...

-once again, Spurs roll into town and everyone on the other team who has been missing games is suddenly healthy and ready to go. Clearly the Spurs are a tune up team that people love to go against.

-game never felt in the balance, even when Spurs made it close it didn't feel close.

-good to see Fox get his offense working, loved the Castle bully move on Reid for the dunk too.

-I know he is young, but I just cant see Sochan being a dependable, featured piece on a winning team. Even when his defense is locked in, he is too much of a detriment on offense that it still feels like a net loss.

-Didn't understand Fox's minutes/substitution pattern in the first half...came back in in the 2nd quarter then sat down again after like 2 mins from what I recall? huh?

-this game actually felt like a "meh" game from Castle and you look up and he still produced nicely, got to the line etc...bodes well.

[RC_Drunkford]

Idk how am I going to take 20 more games of this just to move up by one or two positions in the lottery.

just don’t watch games. I don’t even watch highlights since Wemby been out. Waste of time

[Knoxxx]

Johnson coaching has been sublime. The lineup with Barnes at C and KJ at “PF” would be unlikely to go above .500 in college ball even. Castle goes for 20 and we lose comfortably. Can’t really do a more perfect job of coaching down the stretch when we only have two goals: lose every game we possibly can while Castle still gets RoY.

[Ice009]

Well, darn, just watched the game all the way through and the team didn't compete as hard as I would have liked them to. Gave up way too many threes at a high percentage.

I don't think I can handle this type of defense/this era's rules on defense. It's a far cry from the 84ppg record breaking defensive season. The rules have changed, but over a 30 ppg difference is such an unfathomable number to me in this era compared to the Spurs' best defensive teams.

[Brazil]

Well, darn, just watched the game all the way through

hats off bro... I could not inflict that to myself tbh... I am not a perfect human being far from it but I don't deserve that