The Three Pointer: Heartbreak

Game #17, Road Game #8: Minnesota 89, Atlanta 90

Season record: 2-15

1. Brewer and Smith Lead the Paint Mob

After 10 pathetic quarters of play–from 1:25 to go in the 3rd against San Antonio until 1:34 to go in the 1st tonight–the Timberwolves found a pulse and fought to retain their diminishing fan base, clambering back from a 26-7 deficit only to lose on Joe Johnson’s last-half-second jumper in what was arguably the year’s most entertaining ballgame to date.

For Wolves fans, here are the stats that matter: 56 points in the paint. Eighteen rebounds for Corey Brewer in a game-high 44:17. Twenty offensive boards, 7 of them by Craig Smith. And a huge, as yet unposted plus-margin in second chance points.

Brewer is the king of second chance points, partly because his JV-caliber jumper snuffs so many first chances and partly because his hustle and hellbent for leather crashing of the boards–weakside, strongside, up the gut, it doesn’t matter–enables him to grab so many balls and keep so many others in play. No other Timberwolf has snatched 18 rebounds (14 on the defensive glass) thus far this year, but on the downside, his 3-15 FG is likewise a pretty rare clang quotient for that many attempts. Brewer’s 6 points came on a floor-length dribble and layup after grabbing a defensive rebound, a half-court dribble and layup after a steal, and a putback on the offensive glass. Total combined distance from palm to rim on those three buckets: Maybe 9 inches. Otherwise, he was 0-8 on jumpers, which makes him 3-7 on layups and tip-ins (or tip-outs).

But there are plenty of reasons to like having Corey Brewer on your team. First of all, his two glaring weaknesses–a horrendous jump shot and a scrawny physique–are among the easiest things for an NBA-caliber athlete to remedy in their early 20s. If he spends the next off-season or two pumping iron, pounding milkshakes and jackin’ jumpers, he’s going to keep getting better. Second, he’s obviously been extremely well coached–a tip of the buzzcut to Billy Donovan. Tonight, Florida Gator Al Horford led the Hawks with a plus +22 in 35:19; Brewer led the Wolves with plus +9 in 44:17, and Chris Richard was plus +4 in 2:50. All play so hard as to appear reckless, and yet they all also play smart and unselfishly. Which brings me to Brewer’s defense, which is very good both on the ball (provided he isn’t up against a much larger veteran) and in rotation (especially when he covers for the Wolves’ sliding bigs–despite going just a buck-85, he’s comfortable mixing in the paint). Needless to say, this was Brewer’s best game of the year.

By going 9-15 FG, Craig Smith actually lowered his shooting accuracy from the previous five games, when he was above 70%. It is a little disconcerting that Smith is thriving at precisely the time Al Jefferson is being increasingly dislodged from the paint and missing loads of bunnies when he does establish position. And, as is true with Brewer, the Hawks’ plethora of large but undisciplined, scrambling 6-7 to 6-9 swingmen, works to his advantage–both Smith and Brewer thrive on the chaos of loose balls, be they tipped in the air or battered along the floor, and Smith especially knows how to exploit eager defenders.

But the rhino sobriquet fits Smith well. His nine buckets tonight went like this: Tip-in, layup, putback, baby hook, layup, layup, layup, layup, layup. Every single one of his 20 points were paint-oriented, including the two free throws (he’s improving from the line, BTW). He and Brewer put in so much sweat equity tonight that it seems churlish to point out that the three members of Atlanta’s starting frontcourt shot over 50% and got to the line 26 times (Brewer had 5 fouls, Smith 4, and Michael Doleac 5 in 17:04). The rhino and the gator greyhound are not optimal for stopping paint production. But tonight they dished it out at least as good as they received it, and almost led the Wolves to victory.

2. The Value of Jaric

After the Wolves sleptwalked through two consecutive losses, interim coach Jerry Sichting, searching for causes for the lack of intensity, asked rhetorically, "We don’t miss Marko that much, do we?" On the basis of circumstantial evidence, Jaric is indeed a vital cog in this ballclub’s motor right now. With the Lima-boned (sorry, couldn’t resist) Serbian playing the best NBA ball of his life, the Wolves vanquished New Orleans, played Dallas tough, and led the Spurs in the first half. Then he turned an ankle and Minnesota collapsed: That ten quarter drought we opened this trey with corresponds almost exactly to the time Marko was on the sidelines.

Brewer will appropriately get the huzzahs and generate the warm fuzzies because he’s a current rook and future bedrock, but Jaric was the Wolves’ MVP tonight. His fabulous line–18 points (6-13 FG, 5-5 FT), 9 assists (albeit with 5 turnovers), 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and a plus +7 in 38:42 of a one point loss–wasn’t even quite as good as his actual performance. The way he was setting up Jefferson, Brewer, McCants and Gomes in the first half, he should have had 12 or 13 assists easily. More importantly, the two things that have always plagued Jaric in the NBA–his ineffectiveness and then timidity about penetrating to the hoop, and his crunchtime nerves–are in the process of being rebutted. The key to Marko’s resurgence this past two or three weeks has been his proclivity and prowess at getting to the hoop–and finishing. He’s been more aggressive off the dribble than I’ve ever seen him, and yet it seems to have simultaneously enhanced his court vision, because he’s dishing both off penetration and with pick-and-roll bounce passes, wrist-snap dishes to bigs in the paint and relays around the horn better than ever.

And tonight, he executed a coup de grace on that "choker" aura that has followed him around like a bad odor since his opening months at point guard seemed to conclusively demonstrate he was the anti-Cassell in the clutch. With the Wolves down a point with 20 seconds to play, Sichting calls a play out of a timeout that has Marko outfoxing Joe Johnson to get the feed off the inbounds and lay the ball in. After Josh Smith twirls for a banker to tilt the lead back to Atlanta with a hair more than seven secs to tick, Marko inbounds to Craig Smith, gets the ball back and drives the right lane, guarded from the foul line in by Josh Smith, who has 7 blocks on the evening already. Shielding Smith with his body, Jaric again lays it in with two seconds to play. If Joe Johnson doesn’t hit that 16-footer with the buzzer going off, Jaric is in the headline of tomorrow morning’s paper. For all kinds of reasons justified and not justified, he’s been a special target of scorn for Wolves fans since soon after his arrival. I’ve done my share of ripping on the guy–and daresay I will again, in the not too distant future. All the more reason to give it up for him right now.

3. The Other Stuff

So how did the Wolves hawk up a 19-point deficit in the first 10 and a half minutes of the game? Sichting thought his best swingmen would be glue guys Gomes and Buckner. Nope. They were outhustled right to the bench–Gomes lasting 8:26 before departing at 21-7, Buckner staying two minutes longer for the full 26-7 nadir. Neither one returned. I don’t know how badly the duo lagged in transition, but with 2:50 to play in the half, color commentator Jim Petersen said the Hawks had 21 fast break points and they finished the game with 26.

Along with the aforementioned Smith and Jaric, Michael Doleac provided a stolid low post presence at both ends of the court and seemed to help staunch the bleeding when he entered the game. Doleac and Mark Madsen are a bit of a push on defense (pun intended), with Madsen quicker and Doleac taller but both understanding help and switches and the need for a hard and/or strategic foul. The difference is that Doleac has a low-post game and can stick the little jumper if he has to.

And what of the 1-2 scoring punch of Jefferson and M
cCants? Well, Jefferson’s shooting slump continues–he was 8-25 FG tonight and many of those misses were automatic buckets in the first few weeks of the season. The longer this bricking continues, the more I’ll suspect that his knee bruise is more harmful than anyone is letting on. For whatever reason, he doesn’t seem to be in rhythm, and looks both slower and less crafty than usual around the hoop–he owned Al Horford in their first meeting and that certainly wasn’t the case tonight. He’s also getting pushed out of his favorite spots more easily–it feels he’s put up more jumpers from 12-feet and beyond during the past three games than in the Wolves’ previous dozen combined–and with a marginally better percentage. It is his bread and butter stuff in the paint that is suffering. Oh, and if Jeff goes 75% from the line instead of 1-4 FT, Minnesota wins tonight.

McCants is the enigma, the talent that isn’t mixing. Coming off the bench, he bombed in a couple of treys that first kindled the notion that the Wolves might actually have a hope of surmounting that 19-point disadvantage. But even with Buckner getting himself banished from Sichting’s rotation for the night, Shaddy only logged 17:33, pushed aside by the success of the backup-point backcourt of Telfair-Jaric and Brewer’s Chinese fire drill heroics (did I mention Corey also had 4 steals, and that plus +9 in 44:17 means the Wolves were minus -10 in the 3:17 he sat?). One disturbing note is that even when McCants is not gunning (he was 3-6 FG, 3-3 FT tonight), his natural wont is to hold the ball and study his options before furthering the play. It’s like having the sniffles while singing in a barbershop quartet (or in this case quintet)–not always ruinous but disruptive and of petty annoyance to the overall blend and musical rhythm. And since McCants has not been especially brilliant on defense or in taking care of the ball, he is slowly playing himself out of the mainstream of the Wolves’ grand plan for progress. On the other hand, his three buckets–those flammable treys and a nifty 4th quarter move when he split the coming double team and slashed to the hoop for a layup + one (which he converted)–again demonstrate that McCants is the team’s premiere scoring threat on the perimeter by a wide margin. Not only is the jury still out on his future, the defense and the prosecution are both making compelling arguments.

Being in street clothes due to a bum ankle didn’t prevent Antoine Walker from slapping palms, barking advice into players’ ears during timeouts, and otherwise performing as a more sage, more subdued Mad Dog on the sidelines.

Twice in the last 46 seconds of the game, one of the Wolves’ bigs heatedly called out one of the point guards for not getting them the damn ball when they had great, relatively unfettered positon in the paint. First it was Al Jefferson yelling at Telfair with 46 seconds to go; then Craig Smith let Jaric have it with 20 seconds left. This is both a good and a bad thing. You want your big men not only demanding the rock with the game on the line, but knowing they’ve earned it and (correctly) thinking that’s the identity the team wants to establish. You don’t want that desire to spill over into potentially hurtful bickering when the game’s in the balance, however. Understandable though it may be, Jefferson and Smith need to stow the seething and grow up a little.