Some post-game thoughts (Wolves edition)

I had forgotten what scrub time looked like . . .

• When Patty Mills gets a solid five minutes of playing time to close the game, you know it went well for the Blazers.  If only we could play the Timberwolves every night.  The Blazers have now blown them out four times this year, which represents the vast majority of the Blazers' blow out wins all season.  


• The story of the night, of course, was the play of Nicolas Batum, who exploded for an astounding 22 points in the 3rd quarter, finishing with a career high 31 points, along with 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals.  Oh, and he was +27 for the night.  He was hitting threes, driving to the hoop, gliding down the court in transition, and picking up second chance points, all while playing great defense.  Did I mention that he's only 21?  On nights like tonight it is hard not to salivate at the thought of Batum's potential. 


• An interesting subplot tonight was Nate's apparent shuffling of the point guard rotation.  Instead of bringing in Bayless when Miller first rested, McMillan went with a Roy/Fernandez backcourt, with each of them taking turns bringing the ball up the court. Nate tried that for a while in both the first and second half, and it's the first time I remember him doing that all season.  I found it odd that he would choose tonight to try that, given how well Jerryd Bayless played last night.  Jerryd only played 9 minutes tonight and much of that was in scrub time.  I'm not sure if this a reflection on Bayless' play or an attempt to find a way to get Rudy some minutes without taking them away from Batum and Webster.  I suspect the latter.   It will be interesting to see how the backup point guard minutes are distributed in the next few games.  


• I'm not sure Rudy really proved his chops as a point guard tonight, but he had a decent night anyway, for the second night in a row.  He finished with 18 points in 23 minutes.  


• Lamarcus Aldridge started out really hot and wasn't needed much after that.  He finished with a solid 21 points and 7 boards.  


• Everyone else was pretty quiet tonight, including Brandon Roy and Andre Miller, who combined for just 11 points.  Brandon did have nine assists, though.  And Marcus Camby had four blocks.


• Finding the exact right balance of minutes between all the talented players on the Blazer roster is no easy task, and it's easy for someone like me to sit here and second guess Nate's choices.  I generally think he does a pretty good job divvying up time.  That said, the one rotation choice he's currently making that puzzles me greatly is the decision to continue to play Juwan Howard significant minutes even after the acquisition of Camby.  I love Juwan Howard and appreciate the contributions he has made filling in for an injury depleted squad this season.  But with Camby now in the lineup, I really don't think it makes any sense to be playing Howard 20+ minutes a game (he played 24 tonight), especially when that results in Dante Cunningham and Jeff Pendergraph getting virtually no court time.  Prior to the arrival of Camby, Cunningham was getting around 20 minutes a night and was really contributing.  Dante's PER is 14.20 and his adjusted plus/minus is 4.36 (third best on the team).  Juwan's PER is 10.19 and his adjusted plus/minus is -8.65 (worst on the team).  I realize stats like these don't capture everything that goes on the court, but in this case they mesh with my own observations, which are that Dante always plays with a ton of energy and is probably the second best help defender on the team (behind Batum).  He really should be getting more minutes than Howard.  When Camby is resting, Aldridge should slide over to the five and Cunningham should play the four.  At the very least, ALL of the backup power forward minutes should go to Cunningham.  I cringe when I see a Howard/Camby frontcourt, as we saw for stretches tonight.  Letting Howard crowd out Cunningham (and Pendergraph) of all but spot minutes is also a very short-sighted move.  Neither Howard nor Camby are likely to be on the team next year.  Cunnigham and Pendergraph probably will.  They need this experience.