The Rake Magazine

Author: Britt Robson

  • Holiday Trey: Too Much LeBron

    Home Game # 6: Cleveland 97, Minnesota 86

    Season record: 1-8

     

    1. Shoddy Shaddy

    After the Wolves had been LeBronned by 11 Wednesday night at the Target Center, Coach Randy Wittman said in edgier, more frustrated tones what Antoine Walker had calmly laid out after Minnesota’s previous loss Saturday night. There’s no fight in this team, Wittman stated; if the opponent goes on a six or eight point run, the Wolves hang their heads and don’t respond. "When we get punched in the mouth we get down," he added, saying that the five guys who were playing most of the 4th quarter–Al Jefferson, Walker, Greg Buckner, Corey Brewer, and, surprise, Gerald Green–at least "threw some haymakers" in response.

    Leaving aside the tortured fighting imagery–if you want to watch jerks literally try to injure each other and thump their chests with gap-toothed bravado, NHL hockey is being played across the river–I thought the coach’s words might be foreshadowing why Rashad McCants only got 3:49 on the court during the second half. What do you need to see from McCants that you didn’t tonight? I asked. "He’s got to continue to *play*," Witt immediately shot back. "Very seldom does everything go right for you in a game."

    On to the locker room, where McCants was holding up his right arm as a Wolves’ cleanup guy affixed a bag of crushed ice to the inside of his elbow with circular motions of clear tape. When did you do that? I asked. "Practice," McCants said. Wow, did it affect your stroke any tonight? I said. "Well, I went 5 for 16 tonight; what do you think?" Shaddy said testily. His mood was sour enough, and my belligerence meter low enough, that I didn’t supply the natural rejoinder: Well, how smart was it to jack up 16 shots in less than 24 minutes with a bum elbow?

    As if the misfired gunning wasn’t bad enough, McCants did not visit the free throw line. "When [Cleveland big men] Ilgauskas and Gooden switched out on our 1 or 2, we’ve got to be able to go to the basket," Wittman lamented.

    2. The Gerald Green Bandwagon Is Taking Passengers

    Exploiting Shaddy doldrums was Gerald Green, who more than doubled the 16 minutes he’d been allowed to play in Minnesota’s previous 8 games, and canned more shots in half as many attempts as McCants while registering 13 points (6-8 FG in 20:15). Opinions on what Green has to offer, both now and in the future, vary more widely than perhaps any other player on the team. As one comfortably ensconced in the "hater" camp, I’m nevertheless happy to report that GG had a fine showing that is destined to get people clamoring for more court time for last year’s slam dunk champion and super-athlete.

    One of those people is Jefferson, who watched McCants jack up jumpers even when undersized Wolves castoff Dwayne Jones was defending him down low. Asked if he agreed with Wittman’s comments about not rallying back, Jeff said, "Yeah, I totally agree. We get in the habit of putting our heads down, myself included." Then Jefferson unilaterally brought up his teammate with the Celtics and Wolves. "Green came in and gave us huge energy. We’ve got to be in a fighting mood and Gerald gave it to us. He gave us the lift we needed." When I voiced the conventional wisdom that one reason for Green’s lack of minutes was him not knowing the plays, Jefferson frowned and disagreed. "No, I think it is just his shot, his shot selection sometimes and then him getting down on himself. But he put that away tonight."

    Yes, he did. Entering the game in second quarter, Green still had to be told where to go on defense by Buckner during the first play, and he still has a tendency to wander at both ends of the court. But he also closed out for a nice, partial block on a long-range jumper and then continued downcourt to receive a pass for a slam that ignited the crowd. And most of his jumpers were in the context of the offense. He added three boards and two assists, without a turnover, although his minus -2 for the game put his season-long plus total in jeopardy. (He still remains plus +1 for the season, the only Timberwolf on that side of the ledger.)

    The doubts I’ve expressed about McCants–the need to get his own shot, overconfidence creating tunnel vision–are magnified with Green, and that’s before noting that Shaddy is miles ahead of Green on defense, as a passer, and in his general knowledge of the game. I believe Green closely resembles Troy Hudson–a player who can single-handedly win you a game, and do some dazzling things out on the court, a player who can become electric; but also a player who will lose you twice as many games as he’ll win because, for whatever reason, he either can’t or won’t figure out how to best enable a team concept out on the court.

    And I’d love to be wrong about this, because Gerald Green has pogo sticks for hamstrings, and a sweet looking jump shot.

    3. Quick Hits

    Corey Brewer didn’t play the entire first half. "A little team discipline today. Corey missed the shootaround this morning," Wittman explained after the game. Actually the beat writers said he was there when they were allowed in late in the practice, so he must have been tardy. But the media wasn’t aware of the penalty until after the game.

    Antoine Walker had lousy game, twice throwing the ball into the stands in unforced errots (one was an out-of-bounds play), and too quick to jack up treys as the Wolves were trying to come back and he had a hot Gerald Green mentally pleading for the rock elsewhere on the perimeter. Also, whether by accident or design, there were about a half-dozen possessions when the 6-9 ‘Toine was being guarded by 6-3 Eric Snow in the half court and I recall only one basket resulting from that matchup.

    Those who continue to claim that Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s best player owe LeBron an apology. His drives to the hoop were effortless down both the right and (his preference) left lane, and he nailed six of 10 from beyond the arc in addition to 9-16 elsewhere. Throw in 8 free throws, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks (there were 4 turnovers too) to go with those 45 points–and the team lead in minutes for a defense that once again ceded less than 90 points to an opponent–and you’ve got the stats of the real best player in the NBA.

    Mark Madsen is back from injury. And Michael Doleac made it off the bench and into the starting lineup, Neither one attempted a shot in a combined 32:19 of play. Shrewd move by Madsen, but for a team struggling on offense and becoming increasingly reliant on the Jefferson-McCants combo, Doleac’s 13-footer is a viable option that should be utilized.

  • The Three Pointer: Half Hearted

    Home Game #4: Washington 105, Minnesota 89

    Home Game #5: Washington 100, Minnesota 82

    Season Record: 1-7

     

    1. Swingman Glut Exposes Brewer

    There are a dozen ways to explain how the Minnesota Timberwolves posted their worst six-quarter stretch of the young season this weekend, a trudge of ineptitude that lasted from the second half of the loss to the Wizards on Friday to last night’s thoroughly desultory performance against the Hornets. Like the apocryphal blind men with the elephant, descriptions of all the individual, isolated flaws would be woefully incomplete yet partially accurate, and, if stitched together, would yield of realistic composite of what the thing is. In this case, the thing is a pretty sorry basketball team: Too young, with insufficient talent, comprised of mismatched pieces and not enough pegs.

    Al Jefferson is a peg. You can plant him at power forward and he’ll batten down one-fifth of a quality, perhaps championship-caliber, starting lineup. The rest of the roster? Nobody really knows, including coach Randy Wittman, who may be more confused about his ballclub today than he was at the beginning of the season.

    One of the reasons the Wolves, and by extension personnel guy Kevin McHale, became such a laughing stock was due to the lopsided configuration of position players: Nearly everyone was either an off-guard or a small forward. One of the things lost during the hubbub over the Garnett trade and the boatload of new faces arriving for the cull-and-keep process of rebuilding was that this year’s team likewise is jam-packed with swingmen, scrabbling over each other for minutes like crabs in a bucket.

    Let’s get specific. By dint of his 33-point explosion in the Wolves sole win last week versus Sacramento, Rashad McCants laid a pretty sizable claim on the off-guard spot. If Minnesota is to win, or even avoid being blown out against the better teams in the league, they need a legit perimeter scoring threat to complement Jefferson down in the low block; especially if that guy can also get to the rim and draw fouls off the dribble. McCant is far and away the most obvious candidate to fill that niche.

    But then there is also Corey Brewer, whose perimeter scoring is, to put it kindly, suspect, but who dogs people on defense, scrambles for loose balls, hits the glass with a daredevil’s impetuous focus, and is a coachable, mentally mature kid almost certain to improve dramatically with experience. Brewer, too, is a swingman. At 6-9, it’s reasonable to assume his best position will be small forward someday, but at 185 pounds, someday is not today, or tomorrow, or most any other time this season. Only one player on the entire Wolves roster is lighter than Brewer; Sebastian Telfair, spots him ten pounds–but is nine inches shorter. McCants is 25 pounds heavier than Brewer. Ryan Gomes, who is currently splitting the small forward spot with Brewer, is 65 pounds heavier.

    It’s reasonable to expect Brewer to bulk up at least a little over the next year or two. Looking strictly at the current roster and telescoping a likely 2009 starting lineup would put McCants at the 2 and Brewer at the 3. Consequently, Wittman is force-feeding Brewer at the 3 despite the fact that Brewer’s legs look like popsicle sticks from the knees down and he lacks the upper body to compensate. The alternative is to rob minutes from McCants, or steady vet Greg Buckner (Gerald Green is already a casualty). And when Randy Foye returns, he’ll bump Marko Jaric into the 2-and-3 fray in addition to claiming a few off-guard minutes himself.

    That’s the long-winded explanation for why Corey Brewer found himself a boy among men while trying to guard small forwards Caron Butler (6-7, 228) and Peja Stojakovic (6-10, 229) over the weekend. Butler scorched Brewer for 18 points (6-7 FG, 6-8 FT) in the 22:51 Brewer was trying to guard him. By contrast, Butler had a respectable but hardly dominant 11 points (5-9 FG, 1-1 3pts, 0-0 FT) in the 23:22 Gomes played him. When it was mentioned to Witt after the game that Butler might have been a bit much for the rook to handle, the coach wouldn’t hear it, noting Butler is averaging better than 20 points per game. "He’s been doing that to everybody," Wittman claimed. Uh, not 85% shooting from the field and more than 16 free throw attempts per 48 minutes (his totals against Brewer) en route to a season-high 29 points.

    The next night, with Theo Ratliff out with a troublesome, sore right knee, Wittman upped the ante. Against the tall and rangy New Orleans front line, he could have started banger Michael Doleac on Tyson Chandler, kept Jefferson at the power forward to go against David West, and set Gomes on Peja. Nope. Jefferson slid over to the pivot opposite Chandler, Antoine Walker was tossed in against West, and Brewer started over Gomes versus Peja.

    Well, all things considered, Jefferson and ‘Toine held their own. But at the end of the first quarter, Peja had 15 points, boosting the Hornets to a 25-21 lead. For the game, Peja finished with 20 points (8-13 FG, 4-6 3pt) in 21:50 against Brewer, and 2 points (1-3 FG) in 6:51 against Gomes. And although Brewer did chip in 6 rebounds and 3 assists, he was scoreless for the game (Gomes had 12 in 26:10).

    Is playing Brewer against large veteran small forwards the best strategy? I don’t know, and neither does Wittman. But with McCants showing flashes of explosiveness and Gomes surprisingly tepid the past three or four games, I understand the impulse. Wittman has faith that Brewer is mentally tough enough to endure these whuppings and profit from the NBA court time. I don’t recommend Brewer start at the 3 for the Wolves next game, however. The opponent has a small forward, first name LeBron.

     

    2. McCants–Best When Selfish?

    In the comments section of the last trey, readers and I had a good scrum about whether the emergence of McCants might get in the way of Jefferson’s alpha-dog status in the offense and thus simultaneously deter from the Wolves’ stated "score in the paint" philosophy and smudge the pecking order enough to hurt team chemistry. Over the weekend, McCants generally put those fears to rest by often looking to get his teammates off in the half court sets. In both games, he and Jeff executed the sort of nifty, rapid-fire pick-and-roll that barely waits for the switch–Jefferson slammed home the stuff on both occasions.

    But much more frequently, McCants’ passing gambits were unwise. He committed 8 fat turnovers versus the Wizards on Friday (only two of them charges or travels), and, given that Jefferson misfired from point-blank range in the paint at least a half-dozen times while finishing a miserable 5-16 FG, probably should have called his own number more often. Against New Orleans, McCants joined the general dolor infecting the entire Wolves roster, hitting just 2-10 FG while committing another three turnovers. Yet those 10 shots in 27:04 again indicate the Shaddy was hardly ball-hoggin’. The more intriguing question now becomes, does he need to go for his own to maximize his scoring prowess?

    Wolves’ fans should cross their fingers and hope the answer is no. Instead, let’s offer two more reassuring explanations. First, McCants is neither a point guard nor should be expected to play like one. With the likes of Telfair and especially Jaric, however, he increasingly finds himself compelled to "set something up" out on the wing (hat tip to Garwood Jones for the original insight). Now at the rate things are going, Wolves fans are going to expect the return of Randy Foye to cure cancer–it certainly has been to go-to answer for every other thing ailing the Wolves and humanity. But in this instance, the return of Foye should be of great service to Shaddy, in part because Foye’s penetration and (hopefully) kick-out will provide McCants with a bevy of open looks from the perimeter, and in part because McCants will be freed to operate in shoot-first mode more often when he gets
    the rock. It will be Foye’s job to foster ball movement.

    The second explanation is that, after nailing so many sweet jumpers versus Sac, McCants forgot that scoring in the paint off the dribble is an important–and vital to his good standing with Wittman–part of his game. Just one of Shaddy’s seven baskets (in 16 attempts) was a layup against the Wizards. Versus the Hornets the next night, he simply didn’t score from the perimeter, registering his only points on a reverse slam in the first period and a spectacular left-handed jam over Tyson Chandler in the third (he egregiously traveled on the play, but no whistle so no harm).

    In short, by dishing to Jefferson in the first 85 seconds of play on Friday and looking for his teammates most of the weekend, McCants showed he wants to operate within the context of the club’s offensive schemes. And when Foye finally returns and McCants does the up-fake and go more often as a play off his jumper, the turnovers will diminish and the field goal percentage will rise. Maybe.

     

    3. Silver Linings

    It’s a shame the Friday night tilt versus Washington wasn’t televised, for the Wolves put forth a much better effort than the dog-like performance on Saturday. The key was the performance of the bench in the second quarter, with Telfair, Brewer, Buckner, and Walker joining Jefferson for a smallish quintet that swung the ball with verve and then moved after the pass to foster more ball-movement opportunities; rotated crisply on defense, especially doubling-down on passes into the paint, and generally played with a sense of fun, purpose and electric energy perhaps not seen since the opening quarter of the season opener against Denver.

    The quiet leader by example in all of this was once again Antoine Walker, reprising his role from the previous game versus Sacramento. Watching Walker’s on-court intelligence makes one wince in recognition of how clueless almost all of his teammates are by comparison. (No disrespect intended, but when ‘Toine is the brains of your outfit, your team is in very deep shit.) For example, knowing the multi-misfiring Jefferson was starting to swat at the mosquitoes buzzing his psyche, Walker fed Jeff in traffic for an easy layup he could have converted solo. Little things like that go a long way toward demolishing Walker’s checkered reputation.

    He also has a knack for a maneuver that I haven’t seen a Timberwolf do well since Fred Hoiberg enabled KG: Caught in a double-team, Garnett would dump it to Hoiberg. Freddie would wait just half a beat, perhaps make a feint like he was going to the hoop, then immediately zip it back to Garnett, now facing only one defender and no longer stuck on his pivot foot. Walker executed a similar "get it, wait a sec, give it back" twice with Jefferson to perfect effect (that is, if Jefferson could have hit any shots on Friday). And on offense, ‘Toine had the perfect mix of quick-release treys, and up-fake dribble penetration plus quick snap passes. Bottom line, he had 11 points and sparked a 16-2 Wolves run in the first 6:10 of the second quarter.

    The other Wolves’ player who boosted his internal standing over the weekend was Telfair. The differences between Bassy and Marko at the point, particularly with respect to pace in transition and probing in the half-court, were obvious. Two cavaets: On both Friday and Saturday, Telfair’s first stints in action much more productive than his second stints. And Telfair’s fabled defense was not in evidence on Saturday when New Orleans blew open the game in the second half. Neither Telfair nor any other self-respecting point should let the likes of Jannero Pargo waltz down to the foul line before seriously picking him up. That laxity was typical of the entire Wolves defense, which generated a mere 4 turnovers despite the absence of Chris Paul from New Orleans’s lineup. In any case, it is hard to lavish too much praise on any point who helps enable Pargo to go off for 15 points and 7 assists with just a single turnover.

    Nevertheless, Telfair had his best back-to-back outings of the season, and, if he maintains the momentum, should receive the bulk of the backup minutes when Foye returns. He also has a special chemistry with Brewer on the court–they find each other, and feed off the other’s energy–which made Wittman’s decision to start Brewer and not include Telfair on Saturday all the more perplexing.

  • The Three Pointer: A Breakthrough W

    Home Game #3: Minnesota 108, Sacramento 103

    Season Record: 1-5

    1. Mea Culpa–For Now

    I thought Rashad McCants had a horrible game during last Saturday night’s Wolves loss to the Kings in Sacramento, and quite righteously said so. Thought he was a narcissistic gunner who sabotaged the team’s offensive priority of pounding the ball into Al Jefferson in the paint. And when McCants stubbornly came out playing the same way tonight against these very same Kings at the Target Center–missing two shots and turning the ball over two times before Jefferson even got a touch in the half-court set as the Kings raced to a 7-1 lead in the first two and a half minutes of the first quarter–I started sharpening the knives to slice him up again in this trey.

    Except that after that heat check, McCants began looking for Jefferson and others a bit more. And then when he did start gunning again, and pirouetting through the lane, the ball was going in on a pretty regular basis. He finished with a career-high 33 points, on 13-22 FG, 4-7 from beyond the arc and 3-5 from the line. More importantly, that second turnover early in the first period was his last. Jefferson likewise got off, to the tune of 23 points (11-16 FG), including 13 first half points on just eight shots in a glorious display of footwork, shooting touch, and the psycho-physics of ignoring elbows and hands in your face, but it was McCants who made most of the big shots that cinched the victory down the stretch.

    I still think this is a risky circumstance. I don’t buy Kent Youngblood’s column in the Strib today, in which Shaddy says "We’re a post-first offense. Our main objective is to get it into Al and play off of that," and adds that he hopes "people will really see what I can do," followed by Youngblood opining, "But he won’t force it." Really? Right after he just compared himself to Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade earlier in the piece? And after we’ve seen him continually force it first, to see if he can take over, and only then defer to Jeff?

    Tonight, things worked the way they were supposed to work, with McCants and Jefferson forming a dynamic outside-inside punch that forced the Kings to pick their poison. And there are those who will logically ask, why can’t the team strive for that every game and just play out the hot hand? My response is that young teams create an identity by establishing patterns; and that one key to good team chemistry is a consensual pecking order. McCants has a strong enough sense of self confidence to believe he is the alpha option on offense, and not Jefferson, if his shots are falling early. And yes, that could disrupt the team’s progress this season.

    So why is this point called Mea Culpa? Because tonight the Wolves made it work and very effectively rebutted my kvetching. Because the greater lesson, for this game anyway, might well be that Minnesota does indeed have a dynamic scorer on the perimeter who can also take it to the hole, which was far from a sure thing before the season started, and must be taken as a very good sign, or at least a pleasant dilemma, should pecking order questions arise due to McCants’s continued strong production. I can suspect that the risk remains, and the situation won’t last, but those who were chiding me about this last time I brought it up were vindicated by this win. Hats off to both McCants and Jefferson for enabling the other.

     

    2. A Veteran’s Poise, and the Serbian Sidekick

    Even in this season of the post-Garnett rubble, it wouldn’t be productive for Coach Randy Wittman to just let all the kids play without salting in a few veterans for ballast. (How’s that for a multi-mixed metaphor?) A series of 20, 30, 40 point losses while the rooks and sophs and young newbies to the squad try to read the license plates of the trucks rolling over them isn’t quite the way to engender either confidence or perspective and context. The team needs some poise. And believe it or not, tonight–with Greg Buckner hobbled and Theo Ratliff merely adequate–that means they needed Antoine Walker, who filled the void with grace and intelligence.

    Everyone knows that ‘Toine and the Wolves have a footnote relationship, and that even under the best of circumstances, ‘Toine likes doing the big things. such as launching three-pointers and dominating the rock. But tonight he was the balm, the sage, the guy who was more valuable on the court than he appears to be in the box score. He dutifully banged with the Kings’ two very different bruisers, forward Ron Artest and center Brad Miller, and held his own defending against both.

    When it was apparent that the Wolves didn’t have numbers in their favor on the fast break, it was Walker who slowed it down and brought the ball back out to set up a play. It was Walker who knew the Wolves had a foul to give–and committed it to waylay a Kings’ play–near the end of the third quarter; Walker who also fouled Miller from behind before he could dispose of an easy putback through the hoop; Walker who drove the lane with the shot clock going down; Walker feeding both Jefferson and Shaddy and fostering ball movement in general. He finished with 19 points in 29:33, plus a pair of steals and four rebounds. Given that his presence on the Wolves means that Ricky Davis and Mark Blount have taken their dysfunction to Miami, any other positives he produces for the rest of the season is all gravy.

    Some might wonder why I didn’t cite Marko Jaric as the veteran poise tonight. After all, he’s been with the team much longer than Walker, plays the point, and had a game-high plus +12 and a game-high 8 rebounds in 25:24. The quick answer is that Marko is not poise, not balm, not sage. I suspect you will cut him much more slack and like him a lot better if you realize he is not a leader in most any way. He is, however a glorious sidekick when you’re bent on stoking an adrenaline rush. When bodies are flying around and the ballclub is in that sweet, overlapping zone in the venn diagram of being loosey-goosey and razor-sharp, Jaric thrives like no other and winds up being a super character actor in the prevailing drama. Tonight, given the added advantage of matching up against Slovenian Beno Udrih, whose game Jaric almost surely knows well, he was a large pain in the Kings’ posterior, crashing the boards, diving on the floor for loose balls, snatching a pair of steals and dropping three dimes on his teammates.

     

    3.The Boon of Defensive Aggression and other Quick Takes

    Last Saturday the Wolves limited the Kings to just 40.5% shooting (30-74) and 100 points. Tonight Sacramento shot 50% (39-78) and scored 103 points. Yet I think Minnesota’s defense was more effective tonight. The reason? Pick and roll defense. "We worked on it this week and decided to just be aggressive," Wittman said in the postgame press conference. "Before we were playing one part soft and then one part aggressive." Sometimes this varied approach confuses the opposition. But it also brings forth a cascade of whistles from the refs.

    Flip Saunders used to preach that "the more aggressive team gets the calls." In other words, if you are consistently laying a body on somebody and dogging their every dribble, the refs become accustomed to it and consider it part of your "normal" defense. But if you play loose or soft on one play and aggressively the next, the disparity is heightened and is the aggression seems harsher.

    Coming into tonight’s game, the Wolves had been hamstrung by an exorbitant disparity in fouls, and thus free throws. Opponents were getting to the line an average of 30 times; the Wolves, just 13. Obviously, that’s a huge disadvantage. Tonight, the Wolves were pretty much on their standard pace, generating 12 before the Kings were forced to foul in attempt to overcome a fairly big deficit late in the game, resulting in an additional ten free throws for the Wolves in the final minute and four seconds of play. But
    the real difference was that the Wolves enabled the Kings to get to the line only 14 times, or less than half the season average for Wolves opponents. Yes, the Kings made more field goals and ultimately more points in tonight’s second meeting than as compared to Saturday’s game, but there is something energy sucking and momentum-depressing about frequent stoppages in play that allow opponents to score when the clock isn’t ticking. Making hard, aggressive "shows" on the pick-and-roll, and then sustaining that aggressive approach to the end of the play reduced the whistles. So did better footwork and a slightly more lenient officiating crew.

    Randy Wittman coached a good game from the sidelines, voicing his verbal displeasure more frequently in the first half at a plethora of mental mistakes, and deploying a crisp rotation schedule that had nine different playing logging at least 20 minutes of action. But even the mere 3:42 that second-round pick and backup center Chris Richard received is instructive of Witt’s acumen. Richard subbed in to be matched against another, younger rookie in Sac center Spencer Hawes. In addition, Richard’s college teammate Corey Brewer was with him on the floor during his stint and assisted on a nifty pick and roll that resulted in a Richard slam dunk. Nice of the coach to give the kid an optimal chance to succeed.

    Point guard Sebastian Telfair had one of those inexplicable games where he recorded eight assists and three steals in merely 20:13, yet still seemed inept at decision-making and ineffectual on defense en route to a team-worst minus-3.

    Finally, I never would have thought that less than three weeks into the season scrappy rook Corey Brewer would be giving currently moribund vet Ryan Gomes a run for his money at the starting small forward position.

  • Electronica!

    This program of cutting-edge, contemporary classical music for amplified cello isn’t likely to give Yo-Yo Ma a run for his royalties, but might be the perfect antidote for the benumbing holiday hubbub. Cellist Lauren Radnofsky made her Carnegie Hall debut last year, premiering a Brad Lubman composition. Now she will be conducted by Lubman in a fascinating and varied program that includes John Zorn’s “Orphée for Chamber Ensemble and Electronics,” Pierre Boulez’s “Derive 1,” and Lubman’s own “Fuzzy Logic for Amplified Cello and Ensemble.” Both Radnofsky and Lubman have worked directly with Boulez and recorded for Zorn’s Tzadik label. And they’re not interested in giving you yet another rendition of “The Nutcracker Suite.”

    SPCO Center, 408 St. Peter St., St. Paul; 651-291-1144.

  • Matt Wilson’s Carl Sandburg Project

    Nearly five years ago, drummer Matt Wilson brought a quartet into a fledgling, soon-to-be shuttered jazz nook called Brilliant Corners in downtown St. Paul and blew about sixty listeners away with music that blended visceral skronk with the sort of exotically forceful swing that could summon forth dancing elephants. Now former Brilliant Corners proprietor Jeremy Walker runs Jazz is NOW!, the nonprofit organization bringing Wilson (who has a justifiably higher profile these days) back to town for a gig that will weave the poetry of Carl Sandburg with Wilson’s original compositions. The band includes superb bassist-composer Ben Allison, vocalist/guitarist Dawn Thompson, and reed man Jeff Lederer, a holdover from that Brilliant Corners Wilson quartet.

    8 p.m., Minnesota Opera Center, 620 N. First St., Minneapolis; 612-333-6669.

  • Tegan and Sara

    Tegan and Sara have a quirky combo of high-concept modifiers to grab your attention—they’re lesbian twin sisters from Calgary—but their strengths are much more mundane and potent than that. Their latest, The Con, retains a handcrafted, DIY spirit, but the vocals are less girlish and the arrangements less cheesy than their 2004 breakthrough, So Jealous. In terms of songwriting, Sara’s tunes are more brainy and assertive, Tegan’s more emo and introspective. Their confessions are vague—“I’m not unfaithful/but I’ll stray,” and “Nobody likes to/But I really like to cry,” for examples—but the sincerity is straightforward enough to carry such lyrics past preciousness, where they become verbal hooks that are as catchy as Tegan and Sara’s spare but memorable melodies. Some people call it folk-punk, but it’s really a couple of impish Canucks flying by the seat of their considerable intuitions.

    8 p.m., Pantages Theater, 710 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-339-7007; $25-$27.50.

  • Against Me!

    How many anarchist punk bands from Gainesville, Florida, actually get better with age? The only one that matters thus far certainly has. Worthy heirs to Bad Religion if not The Clash, Against Me! have always curlicued their snarl with a knowing smirk—“Cliché Guevara” is a song title from back in 2003. But this year’s New Wave, their major-label debut adorned with big-time producer Butch Vig (of Nirvana’s Nevermind fame), invites the ire of the righteously betrayed skateboard brigade, ups the ante by ranting against the ineffectiveness of protest songs in the middle of a protest song (against the war in Iraq), and laces together a rapid-fire collection of tunes that are too pretty and yet too harsh to make anyone feel completely comfortable. Sage Francis opens.

    5:30 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Ave. N., 612-332-1775; $16/$18. 

  • The Three Pointer: Ingraining Bad Habits

    Road Game # 2: Minnesota 93, LA Lakers 107

    Road Game # 3: Minnesota 93, Sacramento 100

     

    1. Half Empty

    The die-hards among us who pledged to ride with the Minnesota Timberwolves throughout the 2007-08 season know that higher levels of tolerance and different parameters of success will be required. Put bluntly, wins and losses take a backseat to player development and team synergy. For those who merely peruse the stats or want to view things in isolation, there were some promising things to take away from this weekend’s losses to the Lakers and the Kings. Those who saw the games, however, might be finding their patience tested by this seemingly willfully callow crew.

    In Los Angeles, the Wolves jumped out to a big first quarter lead–albeit only 8 points, the first time in their first four games it wasn’t double digits–and was still within 7 points with 4:15 left to play. In addition, Sebastian Telfair has his best offensive outing, posting 15 points (6-12 FG), to go with 17 from Ryan Gomes and yet another double-double for Al Jefferson, who scored 24 to go with his 15 rebounds, seven on the offensive glass. In all, the Wolves racked up 42 points in the paint.

    Sacramento’s statistical high points were even better: A whopping 52-34 advantage on points in the paint, a career-high 15 points from Corey Brewer to go with 16 from Rashad McCants and another team high 17 from Jefferson. Oh, and six blocks by Theo Ratliff.

    Yet even by the new and downgraded 2007-08 standards, it was a discouraging couple of games.

    The Timberwolves rarely put together extended stretches of solid team play in either contest. One would think the offensive gameplan would always be to establish Al Jefferson in the low block, compel the double and even triple-coverage that might ensue (as happened in Sacramento), and then utilize ball movement to create open shots and/or open seams for penetration.

    Nope. Far more often, the Wolves’ perimeter players saw fit to take the game into their own hands, with by far the biggest offender being McCants. Out with a sprained ankle versus the Lakers, Shaddy was inserted into the Kings game late in the first quarter, and wound up playing a little more than 26 minutes, enough time to jack up 14 shots and do a credible imitation of someone fantasizing about being Michael Jordan while working on moves alone at the playground. The most memorable stretch occurred when McCants replaced Gomes with 5:53 to play in the third period and ran amuck until he sat with 20 seconds left in the quarter. During those five and half minutes, he performed some beautiful things, including a trey caught and shot in rhythm right off the bench, and a couple of strong, literally beautiful moves through traffic to get to the rim. But the predominant vibe was palpable, purposeful narcissism–McCants uber alles. Along with five shots in 5:32, he also turned the ball over four times and committed three personal fouls, heedless of anything resembling a practical, incremental action. And despite his seven points, the Wolves were a net minus-1 during his stint. For the game, McCants was minus-9, the second worst total on the team.

    The worst total, minus-13, belonged to Brewer in his "breakout" game. Announcers Tom Hanneman and Jim Petersen helpfully pointed out that Brewer is more prolific offensively when "he doesn’t have to think," and it’s true: Those one-on-five drives that McCants utilized and Brewer dutifully copied also got Brewer some fabulous buckets in traffic, as well as notching him 7 free throws, all of which he sank. But do you think there was a reason the normally mild-mannered Al Jefferson started screaming at his teammates to get him the fuckin’ ball about midway through the fourth quarter? Was there a reason the Wolves made two, count ’em, two, field goals in 21 attempts in the 4th quarter? And do you think one of the reasons McCants and Brewer had some success drawing fouls on dribble penetration had to do with the fact that the Kings were minus Ron Artest and were playing their beefiest front line–Brad Miller and Kenny Thomas–to deter Jefferson, who would have enabled Shaddy and the rook even more had they dumped it to Jeff enough to further take Miller and Thomas out of the picture and open up seams.

    Meanwhile, the guys McCants and Brewer were supposedly guarding, Kevin Martin and the unheralded John Salmons, went off for 29 points (25 in the second half!) and 19 points. And Spurs (and Wolves) castoff Benno Udrih had a profitable plus +5 running the point in the second half, after the Kings started out-of-position Francisco Garcia at the point due to the absence of Mike Bibby. Such was the juggernaut that handed Minnesota its fifth straight loss.

    2. Painted Ugly

    Ah, but what about those combined 94 points in the paint this weekend? Yup, that’s a legitimate glass-half-full stat to hang on to. Jefferson is a bona fide bulldog, and both Craig Smith and Theo Ratliff had their moments.

    Here’s the rebuttal: The Lakers game on Friday night turned on the fact that Bynum and Odom simply overwhelmed Jefferson and Smith on the occasions when they were the frontcourt matchups. Bynum was simply too big for Jefferson to handle–it is becoming increasing obvious that "Big Al" is big as a power forward but not capable of negating classic NBA centers–and Odom was waaay too quick for Smith. (For that matter, Odom was too big for Gomes, and a matchup nightmare all game, which is why he scored 18 points on only ten shots (7-10 FG), registered 10 boards, didn’t turn the ball over once and finished with a game-high plus +22.) Yes, the Wolves got 42 points in the paint. The Lakers, alas, got 56.

    Against the Kings, the problem was more situational–like crunchtime. With 2:42 to play and the Wolves down by just a single point, the Kings grabbed six offensive rebounds on a single possession before Ratliff finally fouled Martin at 2:03. And with the Wolves down three with 10 seconds to go, Brad Miller had a tip-in to ice the game.

    On paper, a front court of Ratliff, Jefferson and Gomes would seem to be rock-solid defensively. But the problem is positioning. Theo’s thirst for blocks is a high risk strategy that frequently leaves his team vulnerable to put-backs on the offensive glass. Here’s an amazing stat to chew on: In 123 minutes of play thus far this season, Ratliff has more blocked shots (14) than defensive rebounds (13).

    Back to the basic parameters by which fans should judge this team. Looking over the roster, it makes sense that the Wolves should be tenth worst in the NBA in points per game (94.6), because they are minus point guard Randy Foye and, with the likes of Greg Buckner and Marko Jaric in the backcourt supplmenting a front line of Ratliff-Jefferson-Gomes, have the makings of being a pretty good defensive oriented team who needs to depress the score in order to triumph. Consequently, the Wolves’ rank as 9th worst defensive team in points per game allowed (102.8) is the bigger disappointment of the season thus far, especially when you consider that the aforementioned five players rank in the team’s top 6 in minutes played (Telfair, second on the team with 155 minutes, is the other).

    One significant problem, for whatever reason, is that the Wolves have had trouble defending the pick and roll. It fosters the surfeit of fouls the team commits, or otherwise yields situations where open midrange jumpers and interior passes for layups become the norm. Perhaps, as against the Lakers, it is a matter of matchups and having to worry about Kobe so much that a talented ‘tweener like Odom can burn you and a big burgeoning galoot like Bynum can make hay cleaning up. But one could hardly accuse the Kings of being stocked with talent, yet they were still able to post a triple-digit score. The Kings, as with every other Wolves opponent, lived on the free throw line, shooting 40 times, including a whopping 30 attempts in the second half. And while it is true tha
    t the refs have been stingy and biased about giving Minnesota the calls on offense, most of the whistles against them on D are legitimate. Put simply, this team isn’t moving its feet diligently enough and isn’t building that flowing trust relationship on rotations and other pick-and-roll decisions that create a defensive identity and place a body in front of a defender at the moment a shot is inevitable. Instead, we see the reach-in, the desperate lunge, or the "whistle is better than an  automatic bucket" mentality. Blame for that lack of precision and cohesion (which isn’t getting better) starts with the coaching staff and goes right through the team, including Jefferson, who for all his blue-collar effort this season has been lackluster defending the paint.

    3. Quick Observations

    Sebastian Telfair sure seems like fool’s gold at the moment, if that isn’t overestimating somebody with such a shaky rep. The past two games he’s come off the bench for Jaric and played the entire 4th quarter. Against the Lakers the Wolves were down 14 entering that final period and in that nothing-to-lose circumstance Telfair shot 4-7 FG, including a pair of treys for 10 overall points, and chipped in a pair of assists and two rebounds. Versus the Kings, it was tied with a quarter to play and he missed all four of his shots (1-8 FG for the game) and had one rebound and zero dimes. If he missed ’em all equally in both games we could chalk it up to a lack of skill. But this discrepancy seems psychological–not good for a wannabe NBA point guard.

    Gerald Green finally saw some action in that same 4th quarter of the Lakers tilt and immediately showed that he too does not play well with others. Yeah, he nailed a couple of nice jumpers in his 9-plus minutes of action, but also got tunnel-visioned about winning the game himself, resulting in a pair of forced misses and a pair of turnovers. I know he’s scored 33 points before in an NBA game, but without looking, it wouldn’t surprise me if his team lost that night. Here is yet another example of a player who would have greatly benefited from being bossed around–schooled–by an autocrat like Roy Williams, John Thompson or Billy Donovan, rather than grabbing that NBA teenager dough. Among Green, McCants and Brewer, it sure was a sour weekend for smart, disciplined play at the swingman slot.

    The exception, of course, is the vet Buckner, who continues to do most of the little things (that I expected and saw out of Gomes until his steps back on the West Coast): Play generous, rotational defense to help his teammates; enhance ball movement; and know how to draw and avoid fouls. Yes, Buck too occasionally gets the shooter’s itch at inopportune moments, no doubt from his exasperation at the prevailing low basketball IQ happening all around on the court, but compared to the gloryhounds with whom he shares the backcourt, he is a paragon of discretion.

    Craig Smith was felled by a sprained ankle late in the Kings game, which contributed to the loss, given that Ratliff fouled out and Coach Wittman was forced to use the rook Richard, who promptly ceded Miller’s tip in in the final seconds. Up to then it had been a good game for Smitty, who ranks with Jaric and Gomes thus far this season as inexplicable performers, capable of shining one stint and stinking it up the next. It is too early to know if it is matchups or that he plays better with some teammates than with others, although as On the Ball commenter Andy B noted–and Jim Pete reiterated during the Lakers game–Smitty was better suited to Kevin Garnett’s game than Al Jefferson’s. Nevertheless, what this squad will get out of Smith or Jaric is up to your ouija board. At least Gomes’s doldrums can be attributed at least in part to him missing wide open jumpers and not being able to handle larger players like Odom. The former, at least, will be rectified often before game 82.

  • The Three Pointer: Sick and Twisted

    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.

  • The Three Pointer: A Decent 0-2

    Home Game #1: Denver 99, Wolves 91

    Road Game #1  Wolves 93, New York Knicks 97

    1. Egos in the Backcourt

    For people who imagined that the Timberwolves might surprise the dour prognosticators and post thirty wins or more this season, it was probably a frustrating opening weekend to the 2007-08 campaign. But for those of us intrigued by the olio of young and old skill sets on this squad and how they might be sifted, culled and exposed to the harsh light of competition, it was a mostly pleasurable experience; one that indicates that our curiosity might continue to be piqued and our hoops aesthetic not completely insulted.

    Or, in less lofty parlance, this team has come out of training camp pulling for each other and squeakin’ their sneakers with hustle. Coach Randy Wittman doesn’t seem like the clueless sideline stalker and hypocritically faux disciplinarian he portrayed last season. There’s much to laud, and to wince at. Above all, the first two games were neither dull nor hopeless.

    One bit of good news is that both members of the starting backcourt, Sebastian Telfair and Rashad McCants, have shown up eager to play. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much to make them forget how. Both have been hyped and hated on during their brief careers, both have recently been handed a golden opportunity (the Foye injury and the Davis trade), and both know they have a declining window of time (for Telfair it may be a matter of weeks) to justify a significant role on this team. Consequently, both find it difficult to resist the impulse to take matters into their own hands.

    Their offenses aren’t equal. To my mind, McCants has the bigger upside and better future, yet he’s actually been a more egregious disrupter of controlled, intelligent, team basketball. During the Wolves’ opening night loss to the Nuggets, Shaddy frequently drove into traffic or otherwise strove to make the great play when a mundane one, let alone good, would have better served the ballclub. The result was five turnovers, four fouls, and a lousy minus-9 in 29:47. Versus the Knicks it was more foul trouble, resulting in his disqualification halfway through the fourth period and just 22 minutes of PT overall (he was minus-2). Furthermore, Shaddy was extremely unhappy with the way the game was being called against him, and petulantly stood with his hands on his hips, not sitting down, after going to the sidelines with his sixth foul.

     Yes, the free throw disparity has been glaring–the Wolves were outshot at the line 38-19 on Friday and a whopping 39-10 tonight–and some of it is disrespect for young no-names by the refs. But McCants also isn’t displaying the sort of fundamentally sound defense he often flexed last season, and that seems to happen more often when his shot if falling and he’s more prominent on offense (he been 9-18 and 5-11 from the field in about 52 total minutes thus far this year). He isn’t moving his feet as well and he’s more apt to go for the high-risk, high-reward play like a steal, blocked shot, or taking a charge. It’s not incurable, and when he does work within the flow of the offense, he’s proving to be a potent scorer who may be putting some of those microfracture aftermath worries to rest, so even a slight attitude adjustment and dialing down of the ego would be benefical all the way around.

     Telfair has on balance been a pleasant eye-opener, especially compared to the prevailing opinion of his game when the Wolves first acquired him in the Garnett trade from Boston. On opening day, he did a decent job on Allen Iverson (albeit was less stellar when AI and Mike Wilks comprised a small backcourt tandem in the fourth quarter), coming up with three steals and registering a mere minus-1 in 35:17 of an eventual eight-point loss. Tonight agains the Knicks, it was seven assists and zero turnovers (for a composite 12/3 assist/turnover ratio thus far) and a nifty plus +5 in 36:58 of a four point loss.

    But missed shots can be akin to turnovers, especially when you’re the point guard assigned with the task of getting your more accurate shooting and advantageously matched-up teammates the rock. Telfair is a career .387 shooter who has never converted 40 percent of his heaves in any of his three NBA seasons. In the third quarter tonight he received a nice, creative feed from Al Jefferson (a rare occurrence), blew the layup, and then immaturely strained to atone by driving into traffic and hoisting an airball on the very next possession. For the season he is 8-27 FG, with no free throw attempts, in a combined 72:15 of action while Jefferson is 14-29 FG in 74:49. In other words, the bricklaying point guard is shooting at almost exactly the same frequency as the meat-and-potatoes franchise cornerstone who is supposed to be the focus, and primary locus, of the offense.

     

    2. Theo The Magnificent–At One End of the Court

    The Nuggets-Wolves tilt Friday night was one of the more enjoyable games performed at Target Center in recent years, and the primary entertainment was watching a pair of defensive masters, Denver’s Marcus Camby and Minnesota’s Theo Ratliff, ply their craft. Nobody was getting anything unscathed in the paint, and when Melo Anthony went straight at Ratliff for an attempted slam, Theo met him well above the rim and almost earned a non-call for the graceful control of the sky-wire ballet on the collision.

    Ratliff owns three NBA shot-blocking titles and Camby is the reigning champ, but both also know position defense, and the subtler intimidation of looming without committing and risking a foul. Whenever one of them went to the sidelines, the other team seemed to enjoy a huge advantage, and when both rested, the incredible intensity that seemed to pervade the game mostly drained away. Except for a 31 second stint at the very end of the game, Wittman always substituted Craig Smith in for Ratliff. Smith was a team worst minus-15 in 18:12, while Ratliff was a team-best plus +7 in 29:16.

     Ratliff also seemed thoroughly integrated in the Wolves’ offense on Friday, with ten FGA and a team-high 9 FTA in 29:16. It made some sense because Denver had obviously scouted Minnesota enough to know that priorities one and two were taking the ball out of Jefferson’s hands, and with Camby and Najera and Nene and K-Mart, they had the guile and muscle to work the agenda. But Ratliff still seems best suited for a small modicum of touches, for a variety of reasons: At 34 and coming off back surgery (and two other operations before that), you want him conserving his energy for what he does best, which is at the defensive end of the court. Second, Ratliff is a one-year rental, and while it is wonderful to have him enable a little risk and confidence for his teammates on D, no point in habitualizing anything he does on offense. Besides, at best he is merely adequate at generating points.

    After the Denver game, I asked Wittman if he called any plays for Theo. He replied that with all Ratliff contributes, he does call his number every now and then. But I think Ratliff is mature enough and cognizant enough of his own strengths and weaknesses, to understand why he’d be utilized almost completely for his defensive prowess. In any case, Theo turned the ball over four times tonight, at a time when Jefferson had turgid defender Zach Randolph guarding him. Sure, Ratliff’s man Eddy Curry is equally inept on D, but the point is, Minnesota needs to establish the long and the short term habit of force-feeding Jefferson, particularly when the matchup is so skewed in his favor. Ratliff should be rewarded for running the floor, as happened tonight when he beat Curry in transition for a slam dunk, and when he’s wide open because of the attention Jefferson draws. But it wouldn’t bother me, or seem inappropriate, for Ratliff to adopt an offensive identity very similar to what Ervin Johnson executed during Minnesota’s most successful season a few years back–as a very infrequent, but sneakily effect
    ive option when teams totally ignored him down in the paint.

    But in any case, if you enjoy lunch-bucket defense from a wily, still extraordinarily wiry maestro in the paint, Ratliff is perhaps the best reason to attend a Wolves game. Catch him while he’s still healthy.

     

    3. Quick Hits

     Ryan Gomes got into some foul trouble guarding Melo on Friday, but he completely snuffed out Quinton Richardson against the Knicks. Richardson was scoreless in 29:53; Gomes led the Wolves with 19 points in 36:03. On the other hand, Greg Buckner looked like a world beater, and maybe a mob henchman, for the way he bodied up Melo and meted out a couple of choice fouls down near the hoop Friday. But against the Knicks, unless the Wolves’ pick and roll rotations got screwed up or someone blew an assignment not apprarent to the folks in the stands, Buckner regularly got toasted off dribble penetration by Jamal Crawford.

     The learning curve for Corey Brewer looks to be long and slow. It is a tad disconcerting to see how lost the 7th pick in the NBA, a three-year collegian, looked in his first two games.

    Sound observations from others: Jim Petersen commented about how sluggish the pace became when Marko Jaric subbed in as point guard for Telfair. Pete also ripped Jaric for his perpetualy whining attitude and unhappiness over his role on the team. And in media row on Friday, KFAN/Vikings/Canterbury voice Paul Allen approvingly pointed out the nastier enforcement edge the Wolves seemed to be adopting after a flagrant foul by Jaric was followed by a hard foul by Buckner.