1. Amir
2. Terance
3. Nico
4. DJJ
5. KPJ

In short, Dunn is the last guy you want out there in the crunch.

T-Mann getting only 9 minutes when he had a great start during his first stint was basically the difference. We got away with it for a brief moment in Q2 but it was fool’s gold. Mann and Dunn are the guys who drive people off the 3 pt line and chase down the opponent’s top scoring guards. Without either on the floor for long stretches, Minnesota got hot from the 3 pt line as Edwards and McDaniels went 9/16 from the 3 pt line. Deny 2 or 3 of those attempts and the Clips win the game.

The lineup at the end of the game made little sense. Although I don’t think KPJ played badly, him being on the floor was duplicative of Harden without providing an ability to stretch the floor or guard the Wolves’ key shooters/scorers. Putting Mann or Dunn there to be a connector or spot scorer on offense and chase down Ant or McDaniels off the 3pt line in the final 5 minutes would’ve been a much better move.

Kawhi – Great in Q1, mid in Q2, dead tired and hurt the team in Q3. He needs to get in shape. Ty Lue should’ve distributed his minutes a little better, and should’ve yanked him early in Q3 when he clearly didn’t have it.

Zu – was the team’s MVP. I really thought they were going to win it when Zu made a jump hook over Gobert, then blocked a shot, which Harden seized to streak down the floor and hit Norm for a 3 in the corner. Zu got absolutely abused on 2 fouls by Gobert (only 1 of which was called, and the one that was called should’ve been a flagrant 2). The refs generally sucked in this game, being unable to call out of bounds plays properly and having a ‘nothing to see here’ approach when Gobert was swinging his arms wildly.

Norm – though not as efficient from the field, I liked how he got to the line and I thought he won the game with that 3 pt play with about a minute to go before Ant went off for 2 3s. Hit some big shots in Q4.

Harden – was a beast in the 2nd half after Kawhi left the game. Made his share of mistakes but he gave the team a real chance to win.

Dunn – Really struggling offensively to shoot the ball and teams are ignoring him. I think DJJ or Mann should start, but I don’t think the team should not go away from Dunn. My preference would’ve been for Mann to close, but Dunn closing would’ve also made sense to keep Ant off the 3 pt line.

DJJ – Played well, but didn’t get enough run and wasn’t featured like he was vs ATL when he was in the game. Can’t rebound well against this size, though.

Coffey – Liked his effort and was +9 for the game. Ty gave him a shot in early Q4 to take the game over and he came up a bit short.

KPJ – +8 for the game and 7 assists on 3/5 shooting is a very good stat line. Made a few mistakes in crunch time and wasn’t a good fit with Harden on the ball. Not his fault.

Bamba – This was a game where Bamba should’ve played (if the coaches believed in him). Ty’s attempts to play Batum at the #5 against the big Minny front line did not really work. If there was any game for Bamba to showcase his value, this one was it. If Ty didn’t believe enough in Bamba for this game then I don’t see what value he has for the team.

Clips were -17 when Kawhi was on the court and +15 when he was off the court. Perhaps use him in 4-5 minute stretches so he has some legs in 3.

Why didn’t they pull KPJ? Because he was playing really well and sort of carrying the team—until he wasn’t. His athleticism was allowing him to make plays that our regular guys weren’t able to against that stingy defense. The brass obviously believes he’s going reach some star-level ceiling but Ty overplayed this hand and it came back to bite us. Perhaps this pays dividends either with improved play for us or enticing someone else to take a flier on him in a trade.

Why don’t we go to Zu more? If Zu has one achilles heel it’s stamina. He gets tired in the second half frequently so I think they try to let him coast a bit throughout games. He was F-in awesome tonight though. Solidly a top ten center now. Again, I wish he had some help so he could go full tilt whenever he’s out there.

Are we on to Denver now?

How does Tyus Jones on the vet minimum look now? Those type of blunders bother me more than losing a close one on the road to a good team.

Zu’s a monster and Kawhi appears to have weathered this well too so I’ll take that and move on.