The Rake Magazine

Category: Sports

  • The Three Pointer: Painless #60

    AP Photo by Carlos Osorio

    Game #81, Road Game #41: Minnesota 103, Detroit 115

    Season Record: 21-60

    1. One More Smallball Razzing

    Since this will probably be my last Wolves three-pointer of the year (I’ll either do a season evaluation and/or cover the team’s press conference later this week after tomorrow’s Milwaukee tilt), it’s appropriate that I jackhammer on the anti-smallball theme one more time, eh?

    Without being a conspiracy theorist, isn’t it odd that we finally got a long look at Jefferson-Gomes-Brewer-McCants-Foye the other night (a lineup one might think would be deployed on a more regular basis, given that it best reflects the five players this organization is probably most invested in right now) and tonight had not one but two stints where Al Jefferson and Chris Richard actually were allowed to play on the floor together? Now, granted, the first one was just 3:16 in the second period and the second only a tad longer at 3:33 in the fourth, which is hardly a large sample. But lo and behold, how did the Wolves and Jefferson fare in that combined 6:49?

    How about plus +9, factored out at plus +1 in the first half stint and plus +8 in the second half one. If you go plus +9 in 6:49 of a 12-point loss, that means the Wolves were a miserable minus -21 in the 41:11 Jefferson and Richard didn’t play together. Here’s another interesting stat: On a night when Jefferson labored hard to get his 30 points, shooting 12-26 FG, he was 4-5 FG during his time with Richard, and thus 8-21 FG without Richard. What makes this even more skewed is that Richard had a case of the dropsies tonight; he flubbed an easy slam opportunity on a pick and roll, frittered away a basic feed into the post, and couldn’t even retain possession of a rebounded free throw in the final period. Imagine Al Jefferson playing beside a center who could not only hang on to the rock a little bit, but stick a 12-footer just often enough to deter those double-teams. Imagine Ryan Gomes guarding Tayshaun Prince instead of Rasheed Wallace.

    2. The Foye-McCants Redundancy

    It is quite possible that Randy Foye and Rashad McCants can find a way to co-exist in the same backcourt, especially if they realize it is the only way they both get regular rotation minutes. But in a very fundamental way, they really do have a lot of overlap in their respective games. Neither one of them is really a point guard, in that point guards are working for a seamless blend and a synergistic ensemble above all else–they are the Anthony Hopkins or Gene Hackman of hoops, capable of greatness mostly in the context of their character role. Foye and Shaddy are more like Jack Nicholson, the shooting guard of actors, a guy who is essentially himself regardless of what role he plays, a guy who elevates the ensemble by being a shining star, not a blender.

    Everybody knows this about McCants, of course. Tonight he got up 17 shots (making 8, with 2-7 from 3pt range) in 30:30, and received a technical foul for banging into Rodney Stuckey heading back up the court after executing a spectacular dunk that facialed both Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson in the 4th quarter. Foye is a little less obvious, especially if you just read his stat line in the box score instead of watching him operate an offense. Tonight, for example, he had an impressive 9/1 assist-to-turnover ratio. But what the stats don’t show is after he nailed a jumper midway through the first period for his initial points of the night, he waited three seconds on the team’s next possession to give himself a heat check and try to stick another. Later that same period, he stepped back and made a trey for his second bucket of the night. Eight seconds into the team’s very next offensive possession, he launched another trey–heat check #2 (both heat checks missed).

    On a slightly more macro level, Foye very much buys into his 4th quarter mythology. Tonight, he was 4-7 FG with 4 assists after three periods. But in the final 12 minutes, he launched as many shots as he had in the first three quarters (going 2-7 FG) and doled out even more assists (5, versus zero turnovers). In other words, Foye’s governance of the offense was much more pronounced in the 4th quarter, in ways that were both good and bad.

    There are worse things than two Jack Nicholsons, of course, and by that I mean that both Foye and McCants have undeniable talent. Er, offensive talent, anyway. Neither one seems to be able to play a lick of defense. Randy Wittman has loosened the reins a little bit these past couple weeks, which has certainly made the games more entertaining in the sense of showmanship and skill-rendering, but in the process the Wolves are yielding a whopping 112 points per game during the month of April, and it starts on the perimeter. Tonight, both Chauncey Billups and Ronnie Stuckey could get pretty much anywhere they wanted off the dribble, and Shaddy’s defense was equally porous and lackadaisical.

    Getting a quality point guard would be a boon for this ballclub in more ways than one. It would shake up the pecking order and compel both Foye and McCants to redefine their styles and priorities. It would also nice to see Jefferson, Foye and McCants all benefit from a slick passer with good court vision who, unlike Mr. Telfair, could keep opponents honest with an accurate jumper and/or an ability to finish at the hole as well.

    3. Snyder and Brewer Are Not Redundant

    The largest stylstic difference the past few games has been when Brewer and Snyder have subbed in for one another. Even as Snyder’s defense has become more sporadic, he has gotten to the rim off the dribble more consistently than any of the swingmen or back court players on the roster. Brewer, on the other hand, is thankfully concentrating on defense and rebounding once more and letting the shots come to him by accident–he was an efficient 4-5 FG in 24:46 tonight as a result.

    The biggest similarity between the two small forwards is they both are anxious to exploit opponents in transition and are much less effective when the pace is slow and the offense bogs down in the half court. On the odd chance that Snyder is still around next year, it might be good to see them playing together on a quintet that tries to play three-quarter court traps and just generally pressures the ball. Of course that’s best utilized when you have a shot-blocker to help clean up the gambles of pressing, which brings us back to square one (or at least point one) and the need for a pivot man to prevent small ball from becoming the fallback position.

  • Confidence Game: A Case of the Yips in the Motor City

    AP Photo by Duane Burleson

    We’ve been spoiled. While the Twins starting pitching and offense have too often been an iffy, up-and-down proposition throughout most of the 21st century, the bullpen has pretty consistently owned the late innings and protected leads. It was easy, in fact, to take them for granted. It didn’t seem to matter what collection of spare parts and previously anonymous warm bodies showed up in Florida in mid-February; by the time opening day rolled around Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson would have assembled a pen that was generally one thing Twins fans didn’t have to spend a lot of time fretting over.

    Eddie Guardado, LaTroy Hawkins, J.C. Romero, Bob Wells, Jack Cressend, Tony Fiore, Juan Rincon, Mike Jackson, Johan Santana (remember him?), Jesse Crain, Aaron Fultz, Matt Guerrier, Joe Nathan, Dennys Reyes, Pat Neshek….I’m sure I’m missing a few, and, yeah, some of those guys took their lumps in Twins uniforms before they found their niche; others were salvaged from some other organization’s scrap heap. The bottom line, though, is that since the Twins millennial turnaround the bullpen has been a constant.

    Fans who have been paying attention long enough –anyone who, say, still shudders at the name Ron Davis, or remembers LaTroy’s brutal stint as the closer — know what a luxury that is. Still, the various meltdowns and injuries (Romero, Rincon, Crain, Reyes, Glenn Perkins) notwithstanding, the late-inning guys have been nothing if not resilient and relentlessly effective.

    Which is what makes what’s happened the last week –in Chicago and, especially, in Detroit –so startling. Coming into this season the starting pitching was, charitably speaking, a question mark, and with few exceptions the starters have been pretty damn good. Better, certainly, than any of us had any reason to expect. And they sure as hell should have won three games the bullpen has coughed up in spectacular and debilitating fashion.

    The culprits in the first two cases –a 7-4 loss to the loathsome White Sox, and Monday night’s 11-9 heartbreaker in Detroit– have been the uncommonly reliable Matt Guerrier and Pat Neshek. It’s too early to be seriously concerned, I suppose, but these weren’t just instances where Guerrier and Neshek were getting nicked. No, they were getting rocked. Granted, Jermaine Dye’s seventh-inning single off Neshek that tied the score in Chicago was the result of a decent pitch and a very ugly swing, but it seemed to open the floodgates, and they’ve been open pretty much ever since.

    Both Guerrier and Neshek are finding way too much of the plate with their fastballs, but also, most notably, with their breaking balls. Maybe it’s the cold weather, but Neshek in particular doesn’t seem to have either access to the velocity he’s showed over the last couple years or that Frisbee-like movement on his slider.

    I guess what makes these early struggles a bit alarming is the fact that both guys were in the A.L. top ten in appearances last year (74 for Neshek and 73 for Guerrier). Guerrier set a career high for appearances and innings (88), and pitched two or more innings 14 times. The rotation being what it is –and, sorry, Livan Hernandez is fun to watch, but the league’s eventually going to catch up to a guy with his stuff and his strikeout ratio– the fortunes of this team depend heavily on the seventh and eighth-inning guys getting the game to Joe Nathan. If this shit keeps up all those dollars the Twins are paying Nathan are going to be more a pension or a retainer than a salary.

    It’s probably also too early to get too concerned about Joe Mauer, but I don’t think it’s too early to start to recognize and perhaps accept what he is. And what he is is a very good catcher with a pretty swing. Folks, our Joe is not a superstar. He’s not a guy who can carry a team for a week or two at a time. He’s not even a middle-of-the-order guy. He belongs in the two hole until he demonstrates otherwise, and I honestly don’t expect him to ever demonstrate otherwise.

    When Carlos Gomez gets on base (and this looks like it’s going to be increasingly infrequent as other teams get the book on him: feed him a steady diet of sliders down and away and fastballs up and in), Mauer’s skills are ideally suited to move him over and even drive him in, provided doing so doesn’t require much more than an occasional line drive or sacrifice fly. He has excellent plate discipline and bat control –perhaps, as many people will tell you, too much discipline and control. Mauer is what he is, and moving him to third base or the outfield, I’m pretty sure, is not going to change the kind of hitter he is. He’s a natural, a controlled, instinctive hitter, but I’m afraid I’ve seen no indications over the last several years that he’s willing to change, adapt, or even learn anything new. If he gets better he might be Wade Boggs.

    I never much liked Wade Boggs.

  • The Three Pointer: The Last, Best Weekend

    AP Photo by Nikki Boertman

    Game #79, Road Game #39: Minnesota 102, Orlando 101

    Game #80, Road Game #40, Minnesota 114, Memphis 105

    Season Record: 21-59

    1. Wanting It More

    It does not significantly diminish the two wins posted this weekend by the Timberwolves by pointing out that neither Orlando nor Memphis bothered to be particularly resilient or really dedicate themselves to "the old college try." The Magic have a #3 seed in the east sewn up and didn’t seem especially distraught about allowing the Wolves to overcome a 9-point deficit in the final 4:23 of the game. The Grizzlies rested outside sniper Mike Miller (bad back) and benched their top two centers, Darko Milicic and Jason Collins (each DNP-CD) to get a longer look at the small (6-9) youngster Andre Brown in the pivot. Such are the vagaries of late-season hoops. Consider that the previous two years, the Wolves themselves bent over backwards to move the clicker upwards in the loss column.

    By contrast, the Wolves weathered a blistering 3-point shooting performance by Orlando in the first half and overcame the Magic with a balanced scoring (abetted by riding their most highly-touted quintet of the future at crunchtime) and more diligent defense; then blew Memphis out with a franchise-record 43-point first quarter and their most dominating performance of the season on the boards. What these things have in common–the resilience, the ball movement, the rebounds, the defense–is an abiding desire to win. It has been awhile since this team was demonstrably hungier than its opponent for two successive games.

    Let’s focus in on the pivotal movements of both games. After playing cat-and-mouse with the Wolves with a lead that fluctuated from 4 to 14 since the first 90 seconds of the game, Orlando and Minnesota each made key substitutions with 8:18 to go and the Magic up 5, 91-86. For Minnesota, it was Al Jefferson in for Chris Richard, giving the Wolves a lineup that includes their last three first-round picks–McCants, Foye, Brewer–and arguably their top two players this season, Jefferson and Gomes. Somewhat remarkably, despite the frequency with which the Wolves play smallball, this particular quintet does not even rank among the top 20 most-frequent five-man units this season for Minnesota (according to 82games.com), which means it hadn’t even mustered 36 minutes up this point.

    Well, for the final 8:18 they stayed intact, and the result was a 16-10 margin, including 12-2 over that last 4:23. A primary reason for this disparity was Stan Van Gundy’s decision to sub in Jameer Nelson for Carlos Arroyo instead of Keyon Dooling, giving the Foye-McCants backcourt a substantial physical mismatch versus Nelson (6-1, 190) and Dooling (6-3, 195)–especially when you consider that the Magic flank the beastly Dwight Howard with a pair of 6-10 swingmen (Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu) and throw the 6-5, 220 Maurice Evans in the backcourt as starters.

    Consequently, the Wolves were able to rally despite zero field goals from Jefferson, who went 0-4 from the floor while the rest of his teammates registered 10-18, including 4-4 from beyond the arc, two apiece by Foye and McCants, who played together over the last 17 minutes. For that matter, Foye played the entire second half, and all but 34 seconds of the entire last three periods, leading the team in points (25, on 10-21 FG) and assists (6). With Jefferson otherwise engaged with the giant speciment named Howard, Foye went off for a dozen 4th quarter points, McCants added 8–but more significantly, hit a vital crunchtime trey to bring the Wolves to within a point with 1:17 left to play. This was right after the Wolves looked doomed by a sequence where Ryan Gomes clanked a wide open jumper and Turkoglu drove the left lane for a layup. It was also the last field goal of the game. The Wolves’ defense clamped down, the Magic, worried about Howard getting fouled and missing free throws, chose to have Dooling and Turkoglu miss out side jumpers, and the game came down to a scrum where the Wolves battled for an offensive rebound that eventually fell to Gomes. Howard fouled him with 2 seconds on the clock. Whatever Gomes’s difficulties with jumpers with the game on the line, he’s money from the free throw stripe–swish, and swish. Ballgame, Minnesota.

    Still riding the high of their first road victory of the season against an Eastern Conference team, the Wolves ensured that there would be no drama in the game against the Grizz. They purely and simply blew out Memphis in the first period, led by Kirk Snyder, whose four turnovers and minus -14 in less than 25 minutes of play against Orlando stood in stark contrast to Corey Brewer’s fine outing. Against Memphis, he went hard to the hole, scoring nine points on a putback layup, dunk, and a driving layup, plus three FTs. Meanwhile, the Wolves doubled up the Grizzlies (who made the smallball Minnesota squad look rather large with their pipsqueak lineup) on the boards, 20-10. That set the tone, which had the Wolves racking up a monstrous 21 *offensive* rebounds in the first three periods alone, finishing with 62 boards overall. Four players–Jefferson, Gomes, Snyder and Brewer, had double-digit rebounding totals. McCants was again a deadeye from outside. The final 9-point margin really wasn’t that close.

    2. The Return of Corey Brewer

    How long has it been since you were excited about Brewer’s NBA future–a month? Six weeks? I daresay the same might be said of Brewer’s own outlook. But, as will probably always be the case with Brewer, he rekindled his nearly snuffed confidence with defense on Friday, particularly in the final 6:58 of the second period. It started with a steal of Arroyo and floor length drive culminating in two free throws. Then he went high flying sidewise to block Arroyo’s open court layup attempt a few minutes later, stuck a jumper after that, and filched the ball from Howard and generated another layup in the final minute of the period. Bottom line, in the second quarter alone, Brewer had 8 points, 4 boards (two offensive), two steals and a block. No doubt it helped that he and his former Gator college teammate Richard both had dozens of friends in the stands down in Florida. In any event, shaking off all those weeks of bad ju ju, he carried over the old Brewer hustle into the Grizzlies game and racked up 11 rebounds to give him 20 in less than 52 minutes of play his last two contests, along with four steals. Yes, he can get overamped–he fouled out against Memphis and had moments versus Orlando where he was ball-dogging a player who wasn’t his man–but when that enthusiasm is productive, he can flash back to the steals and blocks and boards rather than those hideous misses that have marred his play before then.

    3. Quick Hits

    Chris Richard also had dug his niche a little deeper as the backup center with a pair of nice games over the weekend. While it remains possible that Richard will become this year’s Bracey Wright–a kid with a flash of promise honing everything he can out of his game who just doesn’t have NBA ability in the long run–his attitude and work ethic have been a joy to behold this entire season.

    Another second-rounder who constantly works hard at refining aspects of his play–Craig Smith–has not been missed at all the past two games, which could help make some signing decisions a little easier in the off-season.

    During the trey for the Milwaukee finale, I’ll announce a couple of playoff games or series in advance that I’ll be covering along with delivering my choices for various awards, and guessing the winners of the first round matchups. If we can keep this beautiful conversation going into the postseason, I’m game.

  • The Postponement Blues

    Early April baseball in the Midwest can be a flat-out teeth-kicker. Baseball, of course, can kick your teeth in on a regular basis no matter the month, but shit like last night is brutal, even if it (literally) comes with the territory. Couldn’t they at least have given us a rain delay, so we could have stretched out the night a little bit?

    Remember when the Twins used to play in the American League West, back before the greedy fucks starting monkeying around with the divisions and came up with the utterly inane unbalanced schedule? Back then the Twins played in a division with teams like California, Oakland, Texas, and Seattle. Now you’ve got five northern teams in the Central, and at least for the next two years the Dome provides the only sure refuge from the dodgy weather in the first weeks of the season.

    Maybe somebody can explain to me how the schedule makers manage to send the Twins on their first road trip of the year –in the second week of April– to Chicago, Kansas City, and Detroit. It makes absolutely no sense.

    The weather we’ve been having –on opening night, for instance, and last night (both in Chicago and here)– has already had people wringing their hands about the wisdom of building the new downtown ballpark without a retractable roof. I understand that, certainly; I also wish like hell the Pohlads had poneyed up for a roof, and have some pretty raw memories of making the trek up to Met Stadium as a kid only to have to sit through rain delays that resulted in eventual postponement. I’ve also been rained out in Kansas City, both parks in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and New York.

    No doubt about it, it sucks. It always sucks. It messes with the day-to-day, day-after-day rhythms of the game, particularly early and late in the season. But while sitting through close to a thousand games in the Dome –the Twins moved into the dump the year I moved to town– I’ve gained a little perspective on rainouts. For the last ten years, for every game I’ve attended, I’ve made a plus or minus notation in my scorebook. Pluses represent all those games where I would have been at least relatively miserable sitting outdoors watching a baseball game. A double plus generally means either the game wouldn’t have been played were it not for the Dome, or I wouldn’t have slogged through the weather to sit through it. A minus has come to represent sort of the Dome version of a rainout: those are the afternoons or evenings where it felt like a crime to be sitting indoors on a beautiful day watching a game that was invented to be played outside on beautiful days.

    I can tell without going back through all of my scorebooks that the minuses probably outnumber the pluses by at least five-to-one, which is something I suggest we all keep in mind during the dark early days of this season, and when the Twins finally do move into that new ballpark in 2010.

    Shit, just on principle I’m going to feel obligated to gut out games in the new yard even on miserable April and September (and –knock wood– October) nights, because I know how damn grateful I’m going to be for all those beautiful days and nights in between.

  • Abbreviated Three-Pointer: No D in Wolves

    Game #78, Home Game #40: New Orleans 122, Minnesota 90

    Season Record: 19-59

    1. Trying to Trade Baskets

    The Minnesota Timberwolves shot 73.3% in the third quarter last night, 11-15 FG, including 3-4 from beyond the 3pt arc. The worst shooting performances were Ryan Gomes and Chris Smith at 1-2 FG; Al Jeffeson was 2-3 FG, Rashad McCants was 3-4 FG, and Marko Jaric and Kirk Snyder were each a perfect 2-2 FG. Eight of those eleven baskets were assisted, led by Gomes with three dimes.

    The Wolves were outscored 41-27.

    The front line of the New Orleans Hornets annihilated Minnesota’s frontcourt, shooting a collective 14-18 FG, including a trio of treys by Peja Stojakovic, for a collective 31 points. Chris Paul chipped in 8 points on 3-4 FG and 1-1 FT and dropped five dimes with nary a turnover. Morris Peterson went 2-3 from the free throw line to complete the scoring.

    In the fourth quarter, the Hornets cooled down a tad, shooting only 57.1% (12-21) after the blistering 77.3% of the third. Alas, Minnesota could only muster 5-20 FG, making the final a blowout 32-point loss after being a bucket down at the half.

    Asked how tough it was going up against MVP candidate Chris Paul, Randy Foye was begrudging. A lot of it is the people around him–they have great finishers," said Foye, adding, "we were stopping him."

    The operative word in that last sentence is "were." Yes, Paul failed to register a field goal in the field half, arriving with just two points (2-2 FT) and one rebound at the break. Foye, meanwhile, had exploded for 16 points in the first period, including 4-4 from three point range in his 6-7 FG overall. But Paul also had 8 assists in the first half, compared to Foye’s 2. So if we compared the two *point guards,*, Paul generated only four fewer points–his 2 points and the 16 from his eight assists–than Foye’s 22 generated points (18 scored plus 2 assists).

    And that was the first half. In the second half, Paul shot 6-7 FG, added 3-4 FT, grabbed four rebounds and again dropped 8 dimes in the half, to finish with 16 assists versus one turnover. Foye went 0-6 FG and 2-2 FT in the second half, with three assists and zero turnovers. Final line: Foye outscored Paul 20-19 but got out-assisted, 16-5. Asked about what happened in that second half, he was still begrudging, noting that "I got in a little bit of foul trouble, picked up some cheap fouls."

    Paul’s teammates may be great finishers anyway, but it helps that the frontcourt towered over Minnesota’s front line by 3, 4 and 2 inches, respectively at the center, small forward and power forward positions. That explains how five of Paul’s assists were alley oop dunks.

    2. It’s The Meat (Size) and the Motion (Penetration)

    After the game, coach Randy Wittman bemoaned the fact that his team went with the jump shot as the default position. "We need that guy who will put it on the floor," he said. "We have struggled all year getting free throws–we had 9 tonight–and we’re settling for jump shots." When Foye’s first quarter scoring explosion was mentioned, Wittman re-emphasized, "Yeah he made some jump shots but then he kind of fell in love with that…We moved the ball pretty good but we have got to look for people who will put the ball on the floor and get to the rim."

    Asked if that is the team’s biggest need, Wittman gave an answer that should be applauded for folks who are sick and tired of smallball. "No, we need to get bigger. What is prefereable?" he asked rhetorically, the penetrator or the larger bodies? "Whatever presents itself. We also need outside shooters. Al is a willing passer."

    3. McCants and Brewer

    Whatever drama may have existed between Wittman and McCants is again on the back burner, as Shaddy played 30:09 off the bench and was his usual self, leading the team in points and field goals and tying Foye for the high in FGA. Foye and McCants combined for a gaudy 9-17 in three-point shooting and yet the ballclub still got pasted by 32 points. Not coincidentally, defense has been an achilles heel for both Foye and McCants this season.

    On the other side of the ledger, Corey Brewer continues the out-of-body experience of watching his season disappear down the rabbit hole. As happens enough to be something of a pattern this season, Brewer came out and stuck his first two jumpers, including a nifty dribble-drive left, put on the brakes and nail a fade-away sequence early in the second period. But then he came down and chucked up a heat-check J on the very next possession that clanked, leading to five more misses that were lucky if they clanked. Also in the second period, Marko Jaric drove beneath the hoop and fed the rook on the baseline for about a 10-footer that he flat-out airballed, a shot so inept that the 12,000 or so people in the stands were murmuring about it for the next 15 seconds. Then there was the four footer he was gift-wrapped in the second half that barely grazed the front iron. In all seriousness, I’m not certain giving Brewer any more burn in these final four games is a good idea. Better just to let him keep practing and then proscribe an off-season diet of milkshakes, bench presses, squats and cheeseburgers along with a daily diet of about 10,000 jump shots. The boll weavils have infested his confidence and it will take a few months to clean them away.

  • The Three Pointer: Unprepared

    Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Kent Smith/NBAE via Getty Images)

    Game #77, Road Game #38: Minnesota 119, Charlotte 121

    Season Record: 19-58

    1. Plenty of Blame To Go Around

    Coach Randy Wittman thought the Minnesota Timberwolves came to play without passion or commitment tonight on the road against Charlotte, and he was spot-on. I wasn’t there to ask any of the players–and they wouldn’t tell me anyway–but I imagine they thought Wittman’s stubborn smallball strategy put them in a position to lose, if not outright embarrass themselves, and that might have had something to do with the half-assed effort. At the end of the night, the only mystery was how this wretched ballclub found itself with a chance to win the game on its last two possessions.

    Let’s deal with Wittman and smallball first. I’ve stopped writing about it because it’s arrogant and boring to be a johnny one-note when you have no influence on the outcome and the team has lost 39 more games than it has won–it’s not like there aren’t any other foibles to point out. But on a game like tonight, when the small lineup was immediately and definitively proven to be disastrous choice of matchups, it probably serves a purpose to grab some of the nearby factual ammo to highlight the stupidity, and then remind folks that it really doesn’t *have* to be this way.

    On Charlotte’s first two offensive possessions, center Nazr Mohammed fed an interior pass to power forward Emeka Okafor who shrugged off Ryan Gomes (if he noticed him at all) and laid the ball in. After the first time, color commentator Jim Petersen chuckled ruefully and said that Okafor would be a tough matchup for Gomes tonight. No kidding. Okafor is three inches taller than Gomes and much stronger in the upper body. He likes to score in the low block, mostly because he’s good at it. Meanwhile, on the other side of the lane, Mohammed was abusing Jefferson to the tune of 9 points in the first 5:40 of action.

    The first time Charlotte scored off a jump shot, they already led 21-12, having scored 21 points in the paint in a cool 6:21, which works out to about 80 points in the paint per 48. Petersen, who is paid to be diplomatic, began calling for Chris Richard to join Jefferson and Gomes on the front line. Instead, Wittman subbed out his entire front line, bringing in Richard, Craig Smith and Kirk Snyder for Jefferson, Gomes and Brewer with the score 27-12 and 3:26 to go in the first quarter.

    Randy Wittman is a hard guy to defend. Indeed, one could make the case that, even with personnel that has been mediocre to inferior in terms of overall talent, he has underachieved on that talent level pretty much every year he’s been the head coach in this league. I don’t know why he has continued to deploy Jefferson at center, but after 76 games and a couple weeks’ worth of steadily declining production, Jefferson finally said "uncle!" over the weekend and declared himself physically and mentally toasted. And how did he say he was going to prepare himself to play with more rigor next season? By losing weight. Now does that sound like a guy itching to remain in the pivot with the leviathans, or somebody sending a message that he’d like to go back to his natural power forward slot next year?

    Now, I didn’t say Wittman was an impossible guy to defend, and if I’m going to club him for the smallball, I owe him a little context. Jefferson *has* come out relatively weak and unwilling to mix it up the past three first quarters. He could barely dribble straight countenancing doing his patented spin moves and dipsy doodles against Shaq and a rejuvenated Amare the other night, and laid an egg in the first 12 minutes against Memphis and Darko, of all people. Tonight it was passive D on Mohammed and an inclination to settle for 15-foot jumpers.

    But Wittman hasn’t backed down. He called out Jefferson after the Memphis game and benched him alongside Gomes and Brewer. At halftime, Jefferson had gotten just four seconds more burn than Craig Smith, and less playing time than Gomes or Randy Foye. And for whatever reason Wittman did not play him for one second at power forward beside Chris Richard. Now do I think that’s stupid coaching? Yes, I do. But in Wittman’s defense it must be stated that Jefferson came out and destroyed Charlotte in the second half on offense, scoring 29 points on 12-13 FG and establishing himself as a horse that the Wolves’ rode to an amazing 68 points in the paint and 51.5% shooting for the game. The only shot he missed in the second half was a desperation jumper from the corner with .7 seconds left on the clock. It wasn’t like the team was running its offense through the guy who happened to register 40 points: 10 of his 18 field goals were unassisted, included 4 putbacks.

    So if one buys the argument that Al Jefferson is really the only sure thing this franchise has to work with, than an argument can be made that Wittman is tempering him with fire and ice and everything in between, wearing his ass out in the paint against bigger and stronger personnel. I don’t know if this is true, but nothing else makes sense. And to the extent that Jefferson is gathering himself up and rising as best he can to the occasion–and 40 points is a pretty good response–the drill sargeant bit is working.

    To continue along this track, Gomes is arguably the second best player currently on the roster and is also being fed a steady ration of pounding in the low block. Again, the only way this makes sense is to enhance Gomes’s toughness and durability over the long run. Personally, I’d argue he needs more time and seasoning at the small forward slot, learning how best to use his size and bulk out on the perimeter. Tonight, after Wittman did finally relent to the point of playing Smith at the power forward and Gomes at the 3 (prompting the Wolves’ comeback, not coincidentally), Gomes did some posting up of Jason Richardson, who, as a strong, athletic 6-6, probably isn’t used to defending it. Gomes customarily quietly had 24 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists tonight.

    Of course neither the coach nor the players operate in a vacuum. Wittman is justified in castigating his players for coming out flat and essentially losing the game in the first five minutes. But his smallball very obviously lessened the odds of his team’s success, something the players know better than anyone. And as he cracks the whip on a 19-win team 77 games into the season, is he surprised that some, if not most, of the players are rebelling is ways both passive and aggressive? On the other hand, while the players are justified if they note the coach blew the matchups and don’t appreciate the demonstrative scenes he makes on the sidelines in response to their mistakes, they aren’t coming out ready to deliver a solid night’s work either. Bottom line there is plenty of blame to go around.

    2. A Gold Star for Buckner, A Lump of Coal For McCants

    Both Petersen and Strib beat writer Jerry Zgoda appropriately lauded little-used reserve Greg Buckner for his catalytic performance (PiPress writer Rick Alonzo was less effusive but didn’t neglect Buck). After not playing for a month, Buckner climbed off the bench and delivered a game-best plus +17 (six better than second-best performer Raymond Felton of Charlotte) in 31:05. Even watching on television, you could see that Buckner was operating at a higher gear than every one of his teammates, a scathing indictment of their effort that almost certainly raised their caliber of commitment. Along with his example, Buckner provided a rare semblance of defense (Charlotte shot 62.3%, led by a combined 23-29 FG from Okafor, Mohammed and shooting guard Matt Carroll), and nailed 3-4 treys and 5-9 FG overall. Amid all the gushing, however, the cavaet must be inserted that Buckner fell prey to his primary weakness–trying to do too much once he gets on a bit of a roll. In a game decided by just one or two possessions, it would have been nice to see him deemphasize his offensive contribution in shooting and dribbling. Ditto Ryan Gomes, who let fly with a trey from the corner
    and another jumper that I’d really wished he’d pounded into Jefferson.

    Rashad McCants was among those not ready to play tonight. With the Wolves down 9 after just 6:21, Wittman threw him in for Foye and it took Shaddy all of 12 seconds to dribble around two opponents out on the perimeter and jack up a trey. After that, his only smudge on the box score was for two silly fouls, the first catching Carroll on the follow-through to his missed jumper, the second simply crowding his man too much in the corner. Wittman sat him after that and never brought him back–he played a scoreless 3:11 and was a minus -8 during that brief period. After the game, according to the beat writers (again, I wasn’t there), Wittman said he didn’t bring Shaddy back due to a lack of professionalism and was quoted as saying that McCants knows what he did. For his part, McCants left the locker room before the media could reach him.

    I’ve been accused of being both a McCants-lover and a McCants-hater and I plead guilty on both counts, and suspect Shaddy wouldn’t have it any other way. It is certainly possible McCants did something Wittman considers unprofessional, but it would frankly surprise me if it was heinous or malicious–until the situation gets explained further, there is no way to know.

    What I do know is that Wittman and McCants mix like oil and water, for obvious reasons of temperament and personality. I also know that this is a situation engendered by the front office. When Kevin McHale selected McCants in the draft three years ago, he openly acknowledged that Shaddy had some baggage but that the Wolves, unlike at least a handful of other teams, believed his talent was worth the gamble. Then a year and a half ago, the same McHale tabbed Wittman to replace Dwane Casey because he felt the team needed a little discipline and a kick in the pants. So you gamble on the volatile McCants and then you hire a taskmaster coach and everything is supposed to go well?

    I find it disappointing but not surprising that Wittman met with both Jefferson and Foye, but pointedly not McCants, the other day to talk about what is expected of them as future leaders of this team. In a comparison of Foye and McCants, I believe Foye is the more likely player to put together 6-8 solid seasons in the NBA, but that McCants has more star potential. True, he is a gamble, which is precisely why a team like the Wolves–who are looking at pretty formidable competition from Portland and Seattle in the next 5 years–need to cultivate him. I see the scowls and the ball-hogging and all the rest. I also know that McCants has produced as many important assists–synergistically creative ball-sharing–this season as Foye. Granted, Foye hasn’t played as much, but on the flip side, Foye is supposedly a point guard.

    Yes, Foye has been felled by injury. But that doesn’t change the fact that, flat-out, McCants has been a better player than Foye on the Wolves thus far this season. Or that he is the team’s best perimeter scoring threat–it isn’t even close. Now, does that mean McCants is or should be superior to Foye on the pecking order of this ballclub? No, not necessarily. But consider that tonight in crunchtime, with the Wolves down three with 30 seconds to play, Foye bulled his way to the hoop and tossed up a too-strong airball layup that was fortunately rebounded by the Wolves and converted into a Jefferson bucket. Consider that with 12 seconds to play and the Wolves down one, Foye turned the ball over on a misguided feed to Jefferson–flashing it too strong and not realizing Jefferson had a bad vision angle because he was visually screened by the man guarding Foye. Consider that Foye continues to have difficulty stopping dribble penetration and has increasing difficulty executing his own dribble penetration because defenders properly seek to take away his right hand.

    This is not to say that the Wolves should abandon Foye, who had a solid 19-6-7 and was plus +2 in over 40 minutes of action tonight. But it is to point out that his play does not suggest him to be a sure bet as a team leader. And to add that if he is regarded that way, to the point of publicly announcing meetings with just him and with a no-doubt leader like Jefferson, then somebody ought to consider that McCants would be offended. I don’t know if that was related to the recent spat or "unprofessional" behavior that Wittman views Shaddy as having committed. But if you are going to go buy a can of oil and a jug of water, don’t be surprised if they don’t mix–and think long and hard about which is more valuable or what else can be done to improve the situation.

    3. Nice Guy Finishing Close To Last

    Of all the players wishing the season would end, Corey Brewer is probably near the top of the list. After a brief stint of decent accuracy, Brewer has shot 3-13 FG over his past three games and increasingly seems to be melting on defense as well. Jason Richardson had about as much regard for his physical prowess as Okafor had for Gomes tonight. A year from now, Brewer needs to be in conversations about "most improved player." Right now he is hurting the club more often than not when he steps on the court. He hustled down floor on the fast break tonight and finger-rolled an airball. Just by watching him this season it is hard to imagine him as anyone other than a proud, hard-working professional who is used to being respected and rewarded for the results he creates. This must be a hellish spring for him.

  • The Three Pointer: Two Ugly

    Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)

    Game #75, Road Game #37: Minnesota 88, Phoenix 117

    Game #76, Home Game #39: Memphis 113, Minnesota 101

    Season Record: 19-57

    1. Jefferson Finally Cracks

    The Timberwolves offered themselves and their fans a choice of embarrassing performances over the weekend: Which do you prefer, an annihilation so complete there was literally 38 minutes of garbage time (the Wolves trailed Phoenix 32-12 with 2:10 to play in the first) or being sluggish early and tepid late in order to drop an eminently winnable home game against one of the few opponents with inferior personnel (Sunday’s loss to Memphis)?

    The Phoenix blowout was the more sobering because it was the first time this season that Al Jefferson was plainly rattled. Even when he was getting lunched a half-dozen times by Samuel Dalembert back in ’07, Jefferson was indomitable and his aggression with respect to both wiles and willpower have been the signature virtue for this ballclub this entire season. So when Jefferson seemed so out of sync and disinclined to bull his way into the paint–and, not incidentally, Shaquille O’Neal–that he couldn’t even coordinate his footwork with his dribble, the Wolves were doomed, injured in the head as well as the heart.

    After torching Phoenix for monster games that keyed improbable Minnesota wins twice this season, it just flat-out looked like Jefferson didn’t want to be out there Friday night. After Sunday’s game, someone remarked to coach Randy Wittman that Jefferson only had one shot in the entire first half against Memphis, and Witt was quick to pounce, saying "That was Al, nothing but his doing." The coach added that the second half Sunday was the first time in awhile Jefferson "had been Al Jefferson," that what he had been doing before was "asking for the ball 15, 20 feet from the basket" and the Wolves weren’t going to reward that. Asked if fatigue was a factor, Wittman said yeah, it probably was, but that the guy Jefferson was replacing–KG was inferred, not mentioned outright–played all 82 most of the time. He added that he was proud Jefferson had played all 76 games for the Wolves this year and that it was important to finish strong.

    I sat next to Stephen Litel of Hoopsworld, who mentioned that Jefferson’s voice indicated he had the flu or something before the game. He mentioned some other things about their interview that were interesting and that I imagine he will publish soon if he hasn’t already.

    In any case, the daily beat writers have duly noted that Jefferson is in a bit of a slump, at least statistically, lately. He’s already exceeded his career highs in games and minutes-played by a fairly wide margin. I still think his defense has begun to improve, although it is hard to know against Phoenix because Amare Stoudamire is like a man unleashed since the Shaq acquisition–he’s not only going beserk on offense, but deigning to cover his man with some diligence lately. Today against Memphis, the large mobile swingmen, Mike Miller and Rudy Gay, were the tandem that thrashed the Wolves, neither of them Jefferson’s man on D.

    2. Wittman Still Barking; Are Players Listening?

    Last year, I disrespected Randy Wittman’s performance because he walked in declaring that he was going to hold players accountable and then called out some players directly (Trenton Hassell) and indirectly (Kevin Garnett and his locker room leadership) while Ricky Davis personified corrosive dysfunction and Mark Blount laid down like a dog without a public peep out of Witt in either case.

    This year, Wittman hasn’t been afraid to pull out the carrots or the sticks on any and every player on the roster, and the absence of a double-standard represents an improvement. In the past week or so, the coach has also seemed particularly caustic–and specific in both the nature of his criticism and the punishment. Against Memphis, he told Marko Jaric and Corey Brewer exactly why they were being yanked as they went to the bench, and didn’t mince words with Randy Foye either.

    But there’s a chicken-or-egg dynamic that needs to be addressed here. If I was coaching the team the past two games, I’d go batshit on them too, probably–but is all that haranguing precisely why the effort and grit have begun to wane as the meaningless games pile up in the spring? It’s a very subtle line, but the body language exhibited by the players as they’re being blistered is less deferential and respectful, and certainly more dismissive. It is way too dramatic to say that Witt is "losing the team," given that there literally isn’t that much to lose, quite frankly, and that it is hard to motivate any ballclub that owns less than 20 wins in April. But if the idea was to finish strong–for example, Wittman said he was disappointed because overcoming Memphis in the standings had become a late-season goal–well, that isn’t happening, and there’s only six left to play.

    3. Shaky Cornerstones and Robust Afterthought

    There are few things worse that Rashad McCants knowing that it is garbage time–the "I’ll get mine" shots rain down–but two of them are Al Jefferson and Randy Foye being the abysmal catalysts for that premature garbage. Jefferson we’ve already discussed. Foye followed up two dreadful defensive performances against Detroit and Utah with a totally disinterested and mentally casual game versus Phoenix. After he inexplicably launched a airball three pointer for no reason whatsoever with about 15 seconds on the clock Friday, Wittman almost had no choice but to give him a quick hook, and indeed, McCants climbed off the pine almost before that stupid shot hit the floor.

    The theory I’ve been toying with as for why Foye has regressed recently has to do with leadership. He was obviously the heart and soul of a very talented Villanova team in college, and I assume the same was true in high school. His rookie year he’s naturally going to be very deferential to KG, yet he still manages to snag a niche–"4th Quarter Foye"–and make the all-rookie team. After Garnett was dealt this summer, Foye attended preseason media day loudly announcing that he was now the leader of this ballclub.

    Then he goes down before all this new personnel really gets a chance to see anything out of him. While he’s rehabbing, Jefferson steps to the fore, slathered in gushing praise from the VP of Personnel, who is essentially saying that Al Jefferson is the next Kevin McHale, and will someday eclipse even that. Now McHale had his reason for touting Jefferson so highly that are bound up in basketball philosophy, kindred styles, and butt covering on a huge trade that, even if successful in the long run, represents a failure for McHale for having to make it in the first place. But the net effect is that it is impossible for Foye to assert himself as even co-leader of the club any time this season.

    Foye’s most egregious mistakes this year–some weird statements about the point guard position, for example, and a lack of deference and feeding of Jefferson at crunchtime in favor of taking the shot–make more sense if you consider that he’s had to grapple with a setback in the pecking order as well as physically with his own body this season. The "little" things he hasn’t done well, like defend, and generate some consistency in terms of shot selection, reflect a player trying to figure out for himself what his role is on this team–and I don’t mean point guard or shooting guard; I mean co-leader with Jefferson, chief sidekick to Jefferson, crunchtime go-to guy, etc. As much as Wolves fans worry about him being able to play a set position, maybe an equal concern is whether he can accept a set role–like #2 guy, or less.

    Then there is Kirk Snyder, who w
    as probably the best overall Wolves player this weekend. Yes, Snyder’s defense has slipped a bit recently–he was one of the multitude who couldn’t guard Rudy Gay Sunday, but he draws fouls, gets to the rim, and dishes off penetration better than any none point guard on the club, and plays a hard, physical style that is very handy to have contained in your 8th, 9th or 10th man. Snyder could carve a role for himself at the end of a bench on a very good team, the one who steps in for 10-20 minutes a night for 2-3 weeks when injuries have depleted a roster and prevents a steep drop in quality of play and emotional momentum. He might even be more than that. Yet for about three solid weeks now, he has outplayed Corey Brewer. It says something about the Wolves’ doldrums that that passes for good news nowadays.

  • Paper Tigers, etc: Seriously, People, It's Still Too Damn Early to Even Have This Conversation

    AP Photo, by Paul Battaglia

    I walk away happy as a clam from any baseball game that features a successfully executed suicide squeeze. It’s a great, gutsy, and increasingly rare play, and last night, with the Kansas City Royals in town (I actually heard some radio guy refer to them as the "red hot Royals"), the Twins –with ex-Astros (Adam Everett and Mike Lamb) at both ends of the squeeze– worked it to perfection. That, of course, was a good thing, since the Twins in the early going are once again playing like a team that needs to scratch and claw for every run.

    Eventually you have to suppose opposing teams are going to figure out a way to keep Carlos Gomez off base (the obvious solution: don’t give him anything to hit, let alone bunt), but right now he’s making it look easy, and with a guy who has that kind of speed leading off –and Joe Mauer hitting behind him– the Twins have the potential to manufacture a run every time he gets on base; once he gets on first he’s demonstrated he knows how to get around.

    As far as the anemic offense is concerned, there’s probably no point in getting too wound up about it just yet, even if the production (12 runs in five games) is disconcertingly reminiscent of last year’s misery. Surely, though, you’d think, the middle of the order will come around, and surely, you’d think, the bottom of the order can’t possibly be as bad as it was last year, even if you have the sinking suspicion that the bottom of the order very well could be as bad as it was last year.

    We’ve had several years now to watch Justin Morneau –and I’ve watched him very closely– and when the guy is going bad he’s an absolute train wreck. Right now he’s not even close to being right. I know he and hitting coach Joe Vavra have access to videotape up the wazoo, and I can’t for the life of me understand why Morneau has such a hard time figuring out what he’s doing wrong. I mean, yes, I know, it’s an extremely difficult thing, hitting major league pitching, but he looks anxious and off balance and he’s jumping at pitches and beating them into the ground. His first (and thus far only) hit this year might have been the only truly decent swing he’s had in five games, and it was exactly the kind of swing –waiting on a pitch he can’t pull and driving it the other way– that keys his success when he’s going good.

    The Cuddyer injury is unfortunate, but if it gets Jason Kubel a chance to play every day for a couple weeks it might be a blessing in disguise. I’m already tired of Craig Monroe (five strikeouts in nine at bats), and Kubel’s present situation resembles nothing so much as where Cuddyer was a few years ago. Kubel is now a couple years removed from his catastrophic knee injury, and it’s time to see what he can do when given a chance to play every day. I know there are plenty of folks out there who have given up on him, but anybody who saw the guy swing the bat in his minor league stops before the injury can’t help hoping he can still be the player he was once projected to be. And naysayers should keep in mind that Kubel is still just 25 years old.

    Another guy I really don’t like in the early going is Brendan Harris. He showed he could hit a little bit last year in Tampa Bay, but he appears to be seriously lost on defense. Even watching him in pre-game drills he looks stiff and hapless and clumsy around the bag. A good hitter can go through slumps at the plate that temporarily obscure how good he really is, but first impressions on defense are generally pretty reliable. And given the emphasis the Twins place on making the plays in the field, I think Harris is going to be on a very short leash.

    The good news: the starting pitching has actually been pretty damn stout. That was a very sharp and very encouraging comeback from Scott Baker last night (the guy had thrown 41 pitches through two innings, and managed to leave with two out in the sixth, a one-run lead, and a respectable pitch count of 84), and the bullpen looks to be as outstanding as ever. And after one turn through the rotation the starters have walked just one batter.

    Today we’ll get our second opportunity to marvel at Livan Hernandez, one of the most brazen slop tossers in the big leagues, a guy with the stuff to be a Town Ball ace. Try to just enjoy the show, and for the time being I’d advise you to fend off all thoughts of Ramon Ortiz and his April tease of a year ago.

  • The Three-Pointer: 3rd Quarter Fold

    Game #74, Road Game #36: Minnesota 100, Utah 117

    Season Record: 19-55

     1. One-Way Jefferson

    Those who check the box score will surmise that Al Jefferson had one of his worst games of the season tonight as the Wolves were routed by Utah, who turned a close and enjoyably contested first half into a blowout with a 38-22 pasting in the third quarter en route to a 117-100 final. I’m posting this quickly and thus am unaware if Jefferson was benched for the entire 4th quarter because he was ailing, or Wittman was displeased with his performance, or merely because it was the frustrating back end of a two-nighter that the Wolves weren’t going to pull out in the final 12 minutes anyway.

    The line shows Jefferson with a remarkably anemic two rebounds, zero assists and 12 points on 5-13 FG and 2-2 FT in 27:49 of action. What the box score doesn’t reveal is that Big Al had one of his more dedicated and effective defensive performances of the year, limiting Carlos Boozer to 5-12 FG and just 12 points (although Boozer did grab 7 rebounds and pass for 4 assists). There weren’t any of the gaudy blocked shots that have raised the shoddy reputation of Jefferson’s defense in recent weeks (although he had a beautiful block that Joey Crawford, a once-great ref who had another in a series of bad nights in recent years, ruled a foul). But there was a stauch commitment to preventing points by the opposing team’s top scorer. For all the times I ripped Jefferson’s D while he was posting 24 and 15 in a mid-winter Wolves loss, I owe him the nod that he did himself proud on one end of the court once again tonight.

    And there’s the rub: Although not to the dramatic extent we saw tonight, there seems to be a correlation between the improvement in Jefferson’s defense and a slight dropoff in his points and rebounds. I remember two or three years ago when the Wolves started asking Trenton Hassell to play a larger role–a #2 or #3 option–on offense, and he told me in the locker room that quality defense took so much out of him that he wasn’t sure he could step up like that. (Hassell’s scoring did improve fairly significantly during that experiment and his defense dipped slightly.)

    The point is, Jefferson expends an enormous, and underappreciated, amount of energy getting his points. He’s scoring in the toughest part of the court, the paint, against teams whose top defensive priority is to stop him, usually with two players and/or specific schemes. And being an undersized center all year long, he’s also had to battle folks as big or bigger than him for rebounds. Throw in the bump and grind of deterring a gritty and wily low post scorer like Boozer on the tail end of a home-road back-to-back and it’s not surprising that the man came up short.

    2. Foye or McCants

    I am becoming convinced that there are Foye people and McCants people. Both players have really excitable and excreable aspects to their games and honest appraisals of both should resemble a roller coaster, given how inconsistent both players have been and how capable they are of engendering hope and disgust not only from game to game but stint to stint within games. I know I’ve lauded and lambasted each one with a yo-yo regularity.

    I confess that Foye has genuinely raised my ire more often this season, despite the fact that he’s played fewer games than Shaddy, and I think it’s because I believe Foye is more a part of the future firmament for this franchise than is McCants. I don’t imagine the Wolves are going to keep both players around for the next two or three years and if a choice is made, McCants will be the one packing his bags.

    The reason I feel this way is because when the team wiped the slate clean with the KG trade, much was made internally about getting high character guys who mesh in the locker room and on the court and foster the kind of synergy required to be a perpetual playoff team. And Shaddy’s volatility doesn’t fit that definition as well as Foye’s comparative "maturity" and magnanimity. Now there is a good chance this intuitive thinking on my part is inaccurate (for example, the entire dynamic may change if a stud point guard falls to the team in the draft or another ballclub likes Foye or McCants enough to make an attractive trade offer). That’s why I haven’t raised it before, and wouldn’t be talking about it now, except that I have to acknowledge that Foye’s foibles are more irksome to me than Shaddy’s.

    Like his complete inability to guard his man. A night after rook Rodney Stuckey showed him up, he stepped up in class in a major way going against Deron Williams, and Williams toyed with him. Sure, as happened last night, Foye posted decent numbers, and finished with 15 points and 6 assists. But after three quarters, Williams was a perfect 7-7 from the field, and had 13 assists and no turnovers. Can a defender be undressed any more thoroughly than that? D-Will’s dribble penetration consistently broke down the Minnesota defense, setting up a large advantage in points in the paint *and* better than 50% shooting from behind the arc. That’s why after three periods, Williams had a game-best plus +21 and Foye had a game-worst minus -21.

    Given that Foye is more the rugged type of point guard at 6-4, 213, and is coming off a significant knee injury, one might think a quick opponent like Stuckey would give him trouble. But then he should be a better matchup for Williams, who is 6-3, 205, and quicker of thought than he is of foot. Nope, resoundingly nope. So if Foye can’t guard Stuckey (27 points last night) and Williams, who can he guard?

    Now folks who are aggravated by McCants were probably throwing things at their televisions when Shaddy was ignoring his teammates and jacking up treys, or coming up a step slow on defense himself on occasion. It certainly felt that way on occasion. But the thing is, McCants made more than half his shots (6-11 FG), including his treys (3-5 from 3pt), and, as usual, posted a plus/minus (minus -5) that was relatively better than most of his teammates, an ongoing phenomenon that has occurred whether he’s starting or coming off the bench. Announcers Tom Hanneman and Jim Petersen frequently mentioned that McCants had a bad game last night against the Pistons–and he did shoot 1-9 FG. But I thought Foye’s performance was more injurious in the loss, and there was no mention of Foye’s bad game versus Detroit. Maybe Hanny and Pete are "Foye people."

    3. And As For the Small Forwards…

    Kirk Snyder has taken a step back since Wittman’s decision to reinsert Corey Brewer into the starting lineup. Tonight, defending Matt Harpring (the matchup that prompted Witt to give him more minutes early in his Wolves tenure), he was outhustled in the paint and in transition more often, and just didn’t have that spark he showed in his first few appearances off the bench and then always as a starter.

    Meanwhile, Brewer continues to be a high energy, high IQ performer who is a suspect shooter, to put it charitably, and physically overmatched on many occasions. Tonight he popped for a decent 4-9 FG and got to the line 4 times (albeit three of them in garbage time), but had just one rebound and zero dimes in 24:24.

    Bonus fourth point: J-Pete noted how Jefferson was being bodied by Mehmet Okur on D, who was also able to wrest rebounds away from Gomes down low, and called for a little Jefferson-Chris Richard tandem on the front line. It was a temporary plea to short-circuit the smallball. But I’ve talked about that enough already.

  • The Three Pointer: Giving One Away

    AP Photo by Paul Battaglia

     
    Game #73, Home Game #38: Detroit 94, Minnesota 90

    Season Record: 19-54

    1. A Rough Night For Foye

    There is more than one goat in a game where the Wolves blew a 21-point lead and wilted down the stretch against a Detroit Pistons team resting arguably their top three starters–Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton. But in a contest that was obviously Minnesota’s for the taking, point guard Randy Foye was especially noticeable in his inability to deliver at either end of the court.

    It certainly didn’t begin that way. In the first quarter it seemed apparent that the Wolves were keyed up to win their 5th straight home game and that the Pistons were mailing it in. Especially impressive was the chemistry between Foye and Al Jefferson, starting 70 seconds into the game when Foye fed Jefferson for a slam dunk. It happened again at the 7:21 mark, and a third time–this one finishing with a Jefferson jump hook–at 1:09 to play. The period finished with Jefferson going 4-4 FG, three of them on dimes dropped by Foye. Couple with an aggressive 5-5 FG by notorious clanker Corey Brewer, the Wolves had raced to a 30-18 lead via 9 assists and a 14-6 rebounding edge.

    The pattern continued with both benches on the floor during the first half of the second quarter, Minnesota pushing the lead to 43-22 with 6:50 to play before the break. A Flip Saunders team had just 4 assists in the first 17:10 and Wolves were heading for a blowout.

    Then coach Randy Wittman subbed back in his starters (Jaric, who had entered at 11:43, was already in the game. Brewer came back at 6:16; Jefferson and Foye together at 5:30; and Gomes at 4:35. Yet the Wolves didn’t score a single field goal in the period after Chris Richard’s put-back dunk with 5:38 to play. "Up to that point, we were moving the ball and making the extra pass," Wittman said, and indeed the team’s assist/turnover ratio at the time was 13/4. Added Wittman, "I think we gave this game away in the last six minutes of the second quarter."

    Pistons’ coach Saunders agreed, and even pointed to the specific moment. "I’ve always said one play can change a game and for us no question it was when they missed those four free throws in a row [two by Jaric and two by Jefferson] and we went down and scored and cut the lead to nine." That was during a 16-2 Pistons run that had them back in the game, down just 5, 49-44, at the half.

    Coming out for the second half, Minnesota went back to their bread and butter–Jefferson in the low block. After getting one measly FG attempt in the second period, Big Al scored 7 of the team’s first 10 points in just the opening 2:25 of the third to bump the lead back up to 59-51. At that point Jefferson had 19 very efficient points on 7-8 from the field and there was still more than 21 minutes to left play. But Saunders found a pair of matchups he liked–Tayshaun Prince posting up either Corey Brewer (for 6:43) or Kirk Snyder (for 5:17) and rookie backup point guard Rodney Stuckey (playing for Billups) taking Foye off the dribble. Together, Prince and Stuckey combined for 19 of the Pistons’ 21 points in the third to keep the Wolves’ lead contained at 7, 72-65, heading into the final period.

    But with Jefferson on the pine, the Wolves endured another scoring drought in the first three minutes, enabling the Pistons to tie the game once more. Jason Maxiell in particular was owning the boards, and a cold Rashad McCants kept clanking jumpers. But then Craig Smith executed a nifty pass in the corner to set up Jaric for a trey (The Rhino’s 4th assist) and McCants finally stopped shooting and started dishing, finding Richard for another slam and then, after Gomes and Jefferson returned to action at 5:46, Shaddy fed Big Al for a layup 17 seconds later as Pistons big Amir Johnson committed the foul. Wittman chose that time to sub in Foye for McCants. I asked three journalists around me who they’d rather have in the game right then, Foye or McCants. Everyone (including me) said McCants–it just wasn’t Foye’s night. Jefferson converted the free throw to make it 83-80 with 5:29 to go. And then Foye pissed away the game.

    Yes, Foye nailed a trey to flip a two point deficit into a one point lead with 2:33 to go. Yes, Foye hit a back-arching floater driving across the lane to make cut a three-point deficit down to one with just 31.6 seconds left to play. And yes, Foye’s line doesn’t look that shabby at all: 18 points (on 6-14 FG), 5 rebounds and 4 assists versus just two turnovers.

    But Foye couldn’t stay with Stuckey on D, as the rook drew four fouls on Foye in the final 4:29; none of them the sort of strategic grab meant to pray for missed FTs to cut a lead. In fact all of them occurred with the teams within two points of each other. Stuckey was 7-8 FT as a result, and also stuck 14-foot jumper to break an 88-88 tie in the final minute. Asked why Foye couldn’t stay with Stuckey, Wittman at first pretended he didn’t understand the question (or maybe he was just fatigued). When I clarified–was it bad foot speed, overplaying the dribble, inexperience?–the coach replied, "By labelling it that, you are just making excuses. You [meaning Foye] have got to defend."

    At the other end of the court, Foye’s inability or disinclination to get the ball to Jefferson was driving Big Al crazy–his last field goal attempt occurred with 4:45 to play. With little more than a minute to go in a tie game, Jefferson was literally jumping up and down demanding the ball in the half court. This display of pique was most unwise because it practically obligated Foye to force-feed the rock–something the Pistons well knew, and stole the entry pass Foye attempted on the left block. (Pin that Foye turnover on Jefferson. Pin the half-dozen times Jefferson, who finished 9-12 FG, didn’t get the ball when he should have in the 4th quarter, on Foye.)

    After the steal, Stuckey came down and canned that pull-up jumper over Foye. Wittman called a timeout and subbed in McCants for Brewer to spead the floor a little bit, as the Wolves were down 2 with 45 seconds to play. Out of the timeout, with 15 seconds still on the shot clock, Foye attempted and missed a difficult fadeway over a charging Maxiell. Asked if he’d gotten the shot he wanted on the play, Wittman didn’t play dumb. "No," he said flatly. "There was a switch and we didn’t take advantage of it. Maxiell [Jefferson’s man] switched out and we didn’t take advantage of the mismatch." As the Wolves walked off the floor, there was steam coming out of Jefferson’s ears as he pursed his lips and shook his head. Foye finished at minus -14, five points to the bad of Brewer’s second-worst minus -11.

    In the first and third periods, Jefferson was 8-9 FG, Foye was 4-7 FG with 4 assists, and Wolves outscored the Pistons by 14. In the second and fourth quarters, Jefferson was 1-3 FG, Foye was 2-7 FG with zero assists, and the Pistons outscored the Wolves by 18.

    2. Blistered By the Bench

    Their bench kicked our rear end," Wittman announced after the game–no mean feat, given that three typical Piston benchwarmers were starting in place of Billups, ‘Sheed and Hamilton. McCants and Craig Smith–two Wolves with eFG% that are among the highest on the team–combined for 3-19 FG and 0-4 from beyond the arc. Overall, Detroit’s subs outscored Minnesota’s 40-17, led by Walter Hermann, who dominated the Brewer/Snyder tandem and occasionally Jaric for 11 points.

    3. Kudos

    In tonight’s press kit, Wolves stat guru Paul Swanson put together individual totals for the players both in the past 12 games (not counting tonight’s loss) when Minnesota went 7-5, and in the previous 5 contests, all of them losses. The biggest difference in the
    7-5 and 0-5 playing rotations is that Marko Jaric get the minutes normally allotted to the injured Sebastian Telfair. And whereas Bassy’s assist to turnover was an impressive 6.0/1.6 during that 5-game losing streak, Jaric’s marks over the last dozen are 5.0/1.1, and he shot 50% (versus Telfair’s 40.5% in the previous five) besides.

    Kirk Snyder likewise is shooting well–50.6%–over the past dozen, is getting to the free throw line through aggressive penetration, and is defending as well as Corey Brewer. Bottom line, if no one knew who was the heavily-invested first-round pick and who was the recently-acquired player from whom not much was expected, people would be as likely to name Snyder as the keeper right now as they would Brewer. No bias there (I actually like Brewer, as most folks are aware), just fact. Tonight Snyder tied Jaric with a team-best plus +9, while, despite his hot early shooting, Brewer finished at minus -11.

    Ryan Gomes was among those who had a tough night shooting (3-10 FG), but in classic Gomes fashion did enough little things right to register a plus +2. Before tonight, Gomes had converted half his field goal attempts and was averaging 17.8 ppg over the last dozen. His improvement and the development of Foye in the backcourt have enabled the Wolves to shoot a surprising 49% as a team since the all star break.