Regular Season Game #3, Home Game # 2: Orlando 111, Minnesota 100
1. Not Enough Talent
The title of this trey is more than a tad melodramatic for what in many respects was the most mundane of the Wolves’ three losses thus far this season. "Sick" refers to the flu bug that made Theo Ratliff a game time scratch; "twisted" is what happened to Rashad McCants’ ankle late in the first quarter, sending him to the sidelines for the rest of the game.
Minus their best defender and most formidable counter to Orlando’s monster wunderkind Dwight Howard, then losing their principal perimeter scorer after he’d sunk all four of his shots in 10:41 of play and actually seemed to be playing in the flow of the offense, preordained defeat this evening. Because even under the best of circumstances the Wolves don’t have enough talent to beat most opponents on skill alone.
What happens instead is that players take on tasks and roles that are slightly beyond their ken. Take Greg Buckner for example. He’s a consummate pro, a smart guy with a good work ethic and a fairly solid, well rounded game; a reliable 7th or 8th man on a playoff team. But Theo’s sickness lands Buckner in tonight’s starting lineup as Al Jefferson gets bumped from power forward to center to replace Theo against Howard; Ryan Gomes moves from small forward to power forward to guard Rashard Lewis, and Buckner slots in for Gomes. Then McCants’s ankle tweak adds more playing time for Buckner, who ultimately logs 39:17 on the court. His final numbers look good: 18 points (on 7-13 FG), three rebounds and three assists.
But, with no disrespect intended toward Buckner, who has already exceeded my expectations, no team makes the playoffs having him average 13 shots (second most tonight behind Al Jefferson’s 20) and nearly forty minutes played per game (a team high). He is a spine-stiffening defensive specialist, a role player called upon for toughness and stability for significant but limited doses that ideally add up to about 15-25 minutes per contest.
Inconsistency is another byproduct of players assuming roles and burdens that are slightly larger than their perfect fit. Two of the most inept Timberwolves during the club’s first pair of losses–Marko Jaric and Corey Brewer–had by far their best games of the season. I’ll be shocked if Jaric puts up another 10 assist/1 turnover game the rest of his days in a Wolves uniform, and if Brewer nails a pair of contested three-pointers and pulls down as many as six rebounds in the same game again between now and the end of the calendar year, it will be a pleasant surprise. Meanwhile, Ryan Gomes and Bassy Telfair had by far their wrost games of the season thus far, further complicating the team’s player rotations and substitution patterms when everyone on the roster is relatively healthy. For Gomes, it evaporated some of his aura as Mr. Consistency. For Telfair it reignites questions about his viability in this league–he had an egregious, killer turnover with a minute to go and the Wolves down 6, and had another tough night shooting (1-5 FG). On a more talented and experienced ballclub, the roles are more clearly defined and players have the luxury of growing into (otherwise known as earning) them; or they get a longer grace period before they’re at risk of losing them.
2. Wittman Improved
The litany of reasons why Coach Randy Wittman didn’t have a good year last season go beyond his terrible 12-30 record (after his fired predecessor went 20-20) and have been amply discussed on this site. Promises were made by the Wolves braintrust that we’d see an improved Wittman (and thus a better ballclub) once he had the team under his control right from training camp. Yes, Witt essentially had nowhere to go but up, but there are tangible signs of a more assured and effective performance this year. For three straight games the Wolves have jumped out to large first quarter leads, for example, indicating that Wittman has his team prepared to play at the opening tip.
The coach’s postgame press briefing offered other hopeful signs. Although the Wolves were once again on the short end of a free throw disparity, 44-25, Wittman appropriately blamed his team for not penetrating to the hoop and drawing fouls on offense, and too often trying for the steal or the big play instead sticking to fundamental, foot-moving defense at the other end of the floor. He pointedly noted that Orlando was in the penalty with eight minutes to play in the final period.
When he subbed in Buckner and Jefferson for Gomes and Smith with 10:44 to play in that stanza and the Wolves down 14, 76-90, I thought: He is going with veterans (Jaric, Antoine Walker and Corey Brewer were also on the floor), he must really want this game. But as Wittman explained after the game, it went beyond experience. "We tried to get the floor spread with Antoine [going small at the power forward], create plays; not settle for jump shots but get to the line," he says. The result was a 14-2 run that put the Wolves back in the game.
3.Hit and Run
Wittman was tough on Al Jefferson too, claiming that Jefferson was being too indecisive and not immediately aggressive the first three quarters. But I saw the "indecisive" up-fakes, a Jeff trademark fans already can embrace, as a game-long weapon in his arsenal. Any time your big man can ring up 25 points (11-20 FG) and 10 rebounds in 35:11 against a highly skilled intimidator like Dwight Howard, it is a very good night’s work–especially sans McCants for three quarters.
On the flipside, this was by far the Wolves’ worst defensive effort thus far this season. Playing without starting point guard Jameer Nelson, the Magic shot 56 percent from the field (18-32) and compiled a 13/2 assist to turnover ratio in the second and third quarters, a testimonial to the lack of defensive pressure provided by the Wolves. This was in sharp contrast to the 4/5 A/TO the Magic posted in the first period. I think McCants’s injury played a role in that too.
Rashad Lewis temporarily silenced his many naysayers and earned a piece of that fat contract he signed during the off-season by canning three tough treys in two minutes of crunchtime, expanding Orlando’s lead from 92-90 to 101-95 with less than four minutes to play.
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