Game #69, Home Game #33: Minnesota 94, Portland 93
1. Two Cheers For Wittman, Davis and James
I originally wasn’t going to post after the Portland game, if only because I usually only go once on the weekend when the online traffic is down and already posted yesterday after Friday’s loss. But the Wolves pulled out a win in the last second against Portland this afternoon and some of my favorite targets of late did well for themselves. Specifically, I’ve ripped coach Randy Wittman, Ricky Davis and Mike James to varying degrees over the past month of two–and still regard them heavily responsible for the team’s disappointing season–and have been particularly scornful during the recently concluded five game road trip. So, silence after a rare win didn’t seem quite fair.
I really started sharpening my fangs when Wittman replaced Rashad McCants with Mike James alongside Randy Foye in the backcourt with 5:04 to play and the Wolves down 80-82. The Trailblazers had a big lineup in the game and on Portland’s first possession after the substitution, James was on soon-to-be Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy. As soon as Roy received a pass, Minnesota went into scramble mode and Zach Randolph eventually was fouled to save a slam dunk. The next time down, Martell Webster nailed a trey. Then Randolph tipped in a miss. Blount and KG were pressuring the perimeter to help out the small backcourt, opening up the inside. When they didn’t help, Portland had open looks. I expected a substitution adjustment.
But Wittman stuck with it, and Ricky Davis began playing some monster defense on Roy, compelling two turnovers in the last two minutes, one occurring when he forced a jump ball with Zach Randolph and then won the jump with a perfectly timed leap on the toss. This was in addition to Davis’s eight assists, including one beautiful stretch early in the third period when Pretty Ricky fed James for a 19-footer on on possession, Blount for a 20-footer on the next, and KG for a finger roll on the next–3 dimes in 65 seconds, taking the Wolves from one down to three up.
“Ricky was huge,” Wittman said after the game. “Forget about his offense–his defense ignited us. At 89-84 [the Wolves down five], he started us getting us back into it, which obviously he can do.” Then Wittman addressed the little backcourt. “I decided to go small because I liked Randy and Mike giving us more pressure.” When it was pointed out that Randy Foye went off in the 4th quarter once again with a series of beautiful drives right up the gut of the defense, Wittman pointed out that the plan was to spread the floor, putting James on one corner baseline and Davis on the other so that Foye had room to penetrate in the middle or dish it to a three-point threat. And he was right–James and Davis were worthy decoys if that’s what Portland chose to cover, and decent threats to hit the big one if they didn’t. So, nice work all around.
2. KG Saves the Day He Almost Lost
It was a beautiful turnaround jumper by Kevin Garnett at the buzzer which won the game by a single point, and that’s probably what is being shown on the television highlights tonight. But Garnett’s traveling violation when he didn’t anticipate Roy come down to double on him with 20 second left and the Wolves up 1, and then his (and Blount’s) inability to keep Lamarcus Aldridge off the boards for a tip-in that gave Portland the lead had Garnett pencilled in as the goat of the game without that sweet swish at the end.
I’ve been reluctant to criticize Garnett for not going to the hole over the years (and months, and days), because he has done it more than his reputation would indicate, because even though he is 7-1 and the best rebounder in the NBA over the past 5 years, he is not a paint-oriented warrior, and because it feels like nit-picking compared to all the marvelous things he does do. But the last two games have seen KG especially reticent about going hard to the hoop and drawing fouls. As I mentioned in the Seattle trey, he was almost always double and triple teamed versus the Sonics and still only got to the line once. Today, he tried three finger rolls, the sort of pastry moves that don’t earn you the respect of officials even if you do get wacked a little. Yes he was 10-19 FG, but only got the line 4 times, had but 9 rebounds (a rare non-double-double) and four turnovers. Getting just two calls on the rook Aldridge in 29:15 seems a wasted opportunity.
3. Foye versus Roy
I know there is quite a pitched battle going on in some internet hoops circles about the whole Foye-Roy switcheroo the Wolves pulled on draft day, with many claiming that Roy’s wonderful year coupled with Foye’s inability to immediately grab the point position and make it his own indicates that Minnesota made a mistake and should have kept Roy all along. Color me brightly ambivalent. I’ve been very impressed with Foye most of this season, and likewise really have enjoyed Roy’s game the three of four times I caught him on television. But live, Roy is even better, a tough sonavagun (ditto Foye), simultaneously unselfish and with a nose for the hoop. The Wolves obviously spent a lot of their pregame planning figuring out how to stop him, and frequently displayed a zone with KG at the top of the key to disrupt his playmaking. When it was over, Roy had 22 hard-earned points (9-14 FG), 5 boards and 2 assists in a team-high 35:56, with the two crunchtime turnovers the major blot on his line. (One occurred when Davis and Blount mugged him on a pick and roll that got a no-call from the refs.) Foye had 17 points (7-10 FG, 1 rebound and three assists) in 23:13 and, characteristically, put up 13 points (5-6 FG) in the final period. It may sound like a cop-out, but I honestly think there is no “loser” in this competition–or if there is, we won’t know which for at least another three or four years. I’ll close with this bit of info from Wolves stat guru Paul Swanson on Foye’s crunchtime proclivities.
Randy Foye, 2006-07
* Has scored 319 of his 646 total points in the 4th & OT (49 percent)
* Shooting 47.9% [from 2], 38.7% [from 3] 90.3% [from the line] for the season in the 4th & OT
* Has seven double-digit scoring 4th quarters (four in the last nine games)
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