Game # 70, Home Game #34, Seattle 114, Minnesota 106
1. Parade of Goats
At this point, you really do just have to shake your head and laugh, don’t you? Up 88-63 with 5:56 left in the third quarter, the Wolves caved and crumbled like never before in their history, scoring just 18 points in the final 18 minutes while allowing 51 to get buried 106-114 to a putrid Seattle squad without Ray Allen, a team that vanquished the Wolves by 3 on Friday and then lost to San Antonio by 41 on Sunday.
This is one diseased ballclub, folks. This is a team that just walloped the Sonics for 71 points in the first half, shooting 60 percent from the field and from the trey while racking up 21 assists on their 27 baskets versus just 5 turnovers. Midway through the third, the assist/turnover ration had swelled to 26/6 and the 19 point lead bumped to 25. After that? Three assists, 10 turnovers. Sclerotic defense at the other end. The worst aspects of panic and apathy, mixed together into a toxic combo of willful selfish ignorance about the right way to play the game of basketball. Ladies and gents, your parade of goats…
Kevin Garnett. Three dimes in the first 1:49, five in the first quarter, eight for the half. Two rebounds and an assist away from a triple double at the end of 3. Then a 4th quarter of exerting leadership right into the dumpster, an inept and ill-advised performance. He wasn’t tired, going only 17:20 in the first half as coach Wittman rested him with a big lead and Utah on the road tomorrow night in the second half of a back to back. He had a decent sit from 2:59 to go in the third to 10:29 to go in the 4th, during which time the Wolves lead was only whittled from 18 to 14.
But in the last five minutes–crunchtime–the Big Ticket was a torn stub. He missed the second of two free throws, holding the lead at 10. Then he traveled. Then he threw a pass that Randy Foye had to use all his hops to snag standing at the baseline (before Foye himself turned it over on a pass back to the cutting but covered KG). Then he missed a 20-foot jumper instead of trying to draw contact. Then he threw the ball way over the point guard’s head for a backcourt violation, on a basic pass to the top of the key that he executes successfully a dozen times a game. Then he fouls Wilcox driving baseline on a three-point play. Then he misses an easy, open jumper. This is all within 5 minutes.
Randy Foye. Two assists and zero turnovers after three quarters of action (12:00 overall), then one assists and four huge turnovers–at least three of them, silly, unforced passing errors–and three fouls in 9:14 of play in the 4th. No poise. No court vision. Shoddy defense, continually pulled on a string via jumpers and penetration from backup point guard Mike Wilks, the co-MVP of the game with Rashard Lewis, who also roasted Mike James, who played like a less assertive version of Foye, which in this case lessened the damage.
Trenton Hassell. Rashard Lewis started to get hot so Wittman went small, putting in Hassell for Smith with Minnesota up 10 with 5:19 to play. It is the job of Hassell, the team’s defensive stopper, to stop Lewis. Nope. Lewis proceeds to score 12 points in the last 5:19, capping off a 21 point 4th quarter that included nine trips to the free throw line. For the game he had 35, and was 16-17 FT.
Ricky Davis. The only guy with a pulse in the 4th quarter, he helped keep the lead at 15 for nearly half the period with two nifty assists and other nice ball movement. But his showboating in the third–a behind the back pass in traffic on the fast break when the Wolves were up big–sent a message that the squad erronously figured it had the game won (this after choking up a sizable lead to this same team four days ago) and was ready to screw around. There was also a few missed shots, a missed free throw, and a costly turnover in the 4th. And his second half defense on little Earl Watson was abysmal.
Randy Wittman. Many timeouts during the collapse, and many substitutions. No response from his team. He may as well have drawn straws for a player rotation and diagrammed plays in invisible ink on his chalkboard during that 4th quarter.
Dishonorable mentions to Smilin’ Mark Blount crossing guard allowing little men into the painted area and a man who enjoys a good internal joke on the bench while his teammates are vomiting up a 25-point margin.
2. Verbatim
Randy Wittman: “It has been the same thing all year; we play the right way for three quarters and then we stop. They trap and we don’t swing it. We try a behind-the-back pass in traffic and they get a layup and suddenly a 20-point lead is an 18-point lead and it begins. They [his players] don’t respect the game and don’t respect the opponent.” During timeouts in the huddle “we didn’t have anybody wanting to step up. When it got tight, they were hoping the clock would run out. This isn’t the first time it has happened this year. We don’t have the mix of guys who want to put their foot on their [opponent’s] necks. They don’t move the ball or make the easy pass with a guy open standing right next to you. For three quarters we didn’t care who shot the ball or made the points.”
Kevin Garnett: “I told everybody when I came in [the locker room after the game] that I felt like it was my fault…I’m very good at dissecting things, figuring out how we take teams apart. I didn’t initiate and do those things and that bothers me…[In the huddles] Ricky kept saying ‘Let’s pick it up! Let’s pick it up!’ but we didn’t have the same people in the game. They had a small lineup in and we didn’t take advantage of it. We stopped playing as a team.”
Media question: “This 25 point lead was the biggest one blown in franchise history. Can you put that in perspective?”
Garnett: “No I can’t. That’s fucked up. That’s fucked up.”
3. Tick Tock
With tonight’s loss, the Wolves are 4 full games behind the Clippers with 12 left to play. If they go 10-2, say, losing only to Dallas and San Antonio while beating the likes of Utah, Golden State and Denver on the road and Miami, Cleveland, and Toronto (Sam Mitchell is undefeated vs. Minnesota) at home, the Clips would only have to split their dozen games to tie at 40-42–and that’s assuming the other three squads ahead of or tied with the Wolves (Golden State, New Orleans and Sacramento) don’t rally.
Playing time for Rashad McCants: 10:09. For Craig Smith: 21:14. For Randy Foye: 24:48.
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