Category: Sports

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.

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.

1. Theo In the Pivot
Let’s begin with some positive news, eh? Theo Ratliff, valued first and foremost for the $11 million he will take off the books when his contract expires at the end of the season, is alive and swatting, providing the best interior presence this franchise has ever seen, at least as long as this 34-year old seven-footer fresh off a 44-minute 2006-07 season due to a bulging disc in his back can remain healthy. He had four blocks and 5 boards in 20:53, and the ballclub has a totally different feel when he’s patrolling the paint. Coach Randy Wittman says if it was a regular season game rather than a warm-up during tonight’s 95-106 loss to the Pacers, he would have gotten more burn. Against large opposing front lines, it’s possible we’ll see 28-35 minutes from Theo, for as long as it lasts, and probably half that when teams go small and quick.

Who expected this when the blockbuster KG trade was made?

Now, the cavaets. As much fun as it is to watch a legit panther-poacher looming around the hoop, Ratliff is almost destined to break down if he gets the kind of playing time his current upside merits. And even if he doesn’t, will it help the Wolves’ grand rebuilding to rely on a guy who will almost certainly be either retired or toiling for a contender as the 2009 version of Mutumbo or Mourning? Probably not. But this is the equivalent of Eddie Griffin on blocks, without EG’s emotional seesaw, screwy shot selection, or clueless pick and roll D. So let’s savor the tastes we get this season, some rare sweetness amidst the tart and tough rebuilding campaign.

2. Ricky At the Point?
The best stretch of play for the Wolves vs. Indiana was when Witt threw Ricky Davis on Pacers point guard Jamaal Tinsley in the third quarter. In the first quarter, Pretty Ricky languished while Mike Dunleavy sped to the corner to receive a pass and bury a trey en route to an 8-point first frame. And he committed five, count ’em five, turnovers, compared to just one assist in those opening twelve minutes. But matched against Tinsley to start the second half, Davis naturally rose to the challenge. Thus engaged on defense, he also doled out five dimes (versus just two turnovers), four of them to pivotmen in the paint (three for Al Jefferson, one for Ratliff) and one out to Marko Jaric for a trey.

After the game, I asked Wittman why–if Davis is going to lead the team in assists (he did tonight with seven) and guard the point guard in crucial stretches, and if Minnesota is already without a pair of points in Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair, resorting to Greg Buckner as the backup to Jaric–he doesn’t officially make Davis the part-time point guard. The coach essentially answered that it takes a lot out of Davis and robs the Wolves of Davis the scorer at shooting guard.

Bah. If anything, I worry about the Wolves relying on Davis too much this season, as he and Ratliff provide a double boost of contract expiring glory on their way out the door. Hey, if you’re playing Greg Buckner at the point and you’ve got last year’s assist leader more poised and primed when he’s guarding the point and controlling the rock, who cares if his minutes get cut? Isn’t that a good thing; easing the sting on RD’s ego and opening up time for the young’uns who are expected to carry this franchise when Davis takes his yo-yo show on the road to some other teased out sucker next season?

Meanwhile, point guard remains the biggest obstacle to this squad reaching 30 wins. Maybe Randy Foye will become The Most Improved Player in the NBA, as more than one national magazine has predicted (albeit some of them fantasy-oriented stat-freak pubs). But right now he and Telfair have lost two-thirds of the preseason games to injury and you have Al Jefferson filling the Garnett role of barking loudly at Jaric in the second half of last night’s tilt. The Strib’s Kent Youngblood asked Jeff about it after the game. “We’re just playing ball,” Big Al replied diplomatically. But stick another small shiv in Jaric’s chances of getting a lot of point guard time when Foye and Telfair are healthy. And let the team’s best passer and largest potential malcontent run the squad every now and then to keep his focus up and his mood chipper.

3. Gomes, the New Glue
Ryan Gomes didn’t have a very pleasant first half, especially a horrid stretch in the second period when Danny Granger got in a rhythm and burned a guy most of us expect to play stolid defense for a bevy of quick baskets. But come the fourth quarter and the chance to log time at power forward beside Jefferson instead of chasing Granger around the perimeter, Gomes put on a nice little understated show, canning 5 of 7 shots, grabbing three rebounds and dishing two assists–all team highs for the period, and all done with an economical anti-flourish that is destined to make Gomes a purist-fan favorite.

Like Theo and Davis, Gomes has an expiring contract, and an appreciative mass of fans who saw his handiwork the previous two seasons back in Boston. That’s the franchise with three stars and a great need for a large swingman with glue-like qualities. So let’s hope this isn’t merely an appetizing rental.