I, like many House M.D. fans, remember lupus being hypothesized so many times on the show that it became a sort of meme. Lupus has a very wide range of symptoms and can mimic other diseases. Thus, in the differential diagnosis, lupus should never be excluded from the list. Let’s try to consider all the symptoms and try to offer our plan of salvation in Minnesota. Go!

On November 27, Minnesota played against the GSV, who scored 47 (!!!) points in the first quarter. This quarter of the game was the litmus test of all the current problems of Minnesota in the first half of the season. The GSV players did not show anything outstanding, Curry scored “only” 25 points, but the “warriors” played “correct” basketball, making the most of their strengths and at the same time methodically finding weaknesses in the opponent’s defense. For example, Minnesota’s Achilles’ heel this season is poor defense against fast offense: we see how easy Greene was to run into the lead, deliberately leaving Looney and Curry to struggle on the defensive rebound because Green knew he was faster in the shuttle run. than both big Minnesota Gobert and Towns.

We see FGP snipers deliberately attacking Minnesota’s defense in any form of “drop” scheme: drop into a drop – get the throw unopposed. In the absence of McDaniels‘ top defenseman, Minnesota had no chance of winning.

On the example of this match, I made the following conclusion: the “collective mind” of the players of the GCF defeated the “collective mind” of the Minnesota players. And before that, there was a match against the Phoenix, Minnesota in full force with the star big Gobert and Towns, against whom the centers Biyombo, Landale played under the leadership of 37-year-old Chris Paul. Watch how Phoenix puts Johnson on the shot, realizing Minnesota’s defense can’t keep up with perimeter screens. As a result – a natural defeat.

Everything looks likeour team has a failure of team defense and attack, the players cannot properly respond to threats, in other words, something similar to a failure of the immune system is happening. And then for the first time I thought about systemic lupus erythematosus: a rare disease that has many symptoms and no one universal treatment. Another factor that makes it difficult to “diagnose” is the injuries of the Minnesota players, which greatly affected the first half of the season: Prince, Anderson, Gobert, Reed and, of course, McLaughlin and Towns were in the infirmary. On November 28th, Carl suffered a calf injury and was out tentatively before the MVZ break. Two contradictory facts that only tell me that it’s too early to draw any conclusions now: the balance of wins and losses of Minnesota without Towns is 14-14, the balance of wins and losses of Minnesota with Towns is 11-11 (not counting match where he was injured).

Therefore, one can often see how the doctor prescribes observation and rest, in order, looking at changes, trends and trends, to prescribe or correct treatment.

What has changed since Towns’ injury?

Firstly, “Minnesota, as expected, began to play better in positional attack and defense, there is more ball movement and more structure in defense.

Secondly, “Minnesota has evolved from a team that shoots a lot from behind the arc to an old-school team that scores a lot in the paint and near the rim.As of January 16th, we are in second place in the NBA in terms of Paint PPG differential (+7.1) and Rim PPG Differential (+6.7).

Last but not least, Gobert, who has recovered from the EuroBasket performance and recovered from COVID, is the best rim defense by a combination of two factors: the frequency with which opponents attack near the rim and the efficiency with which they score near the rim.

It is also expected that McDaniels, who works against the ball carrier and on the back, has a career-best 52% of shots from the field and 39% from behind the arc.

In the absence of Towns, Edwards became the main striking force of the Wolves. At the beginning of the season, Anthony had a lot of complaints, largely due to his poor physical shape, but starting from December, the Minnesota defender began to show a stable game, spectacular dunks appeared again in the “menu”, gradually it came to a record 44 points in the season against Houston.

Edwards began to adapt to Gobert’s presence, recently presenters on the ESPN channel showed statistics that I interpret as follows: despite the presence of a safety net in the defense of the opponent, Edwards is able to find an opportunity to get to the ring, while if he does not attack himself, he creates a situation for his partners to throw. And by both indicators, he is in 8th place in the NBA.