Category: Timberwolves

Regular Season Game #72, Home Game #35: Miami 92, Minnesota 77

1. The Fab Five Strike Again

The Timberwolves were being blown off the court by the supposedly aged Miami Heat. In the space of 67 whirlwind seconds, the Heat had stolen passes, leaked out on Minnesota’s missed shots, and just generally hustled themselves into four layups, turning a three-point deficit into double digits in a blink, running the score to 10-21 with 3:26 to go in the first quarter. It was the latest shoulda-been embarrassment for the club that knows no shame.

Trenton Hassell was the designated scapegoat, banished to the bench after that flurry, never to return. Never mind that point guard Jason Williams assisted on three of the hoops (not counting the two he dimed before the run) and scored the fourth, while Minnesota point guard Mike James was…where? Never mind that Ricky Davis was guarding either James Posey, who had four points (two of those leak-out layups were his) and one assist, or Eddie Jones, who had six points at the time (Hassell had the other one in non-zone situations). This isn’t to defend Hassell, who played like crap, but did manage to have two points (and a pair of missed FTs) and an assist, plus a rebound and a turnover. James? He went scoreless–not just in the first quarter, but in the entire 19:22 *he* was allowed to play–but had two assists and zero turnovers at the time Hassell was benched. And Davis had zero points, zero assists and a turnover at that 3:26 mark when Trenton was banished.

Asked after the game if the flurry was why Hassell didn’t return, coach Randy Wittman, without mentioning Hassell, said, “Those four guys I just mentioned came in and gave me effort. Those are the guys who were going to play.”

Ah, those aforementioned four guys Wittman called out by name–Jaric, Foye, Smith, and McCants–who teamed with KG. *That* lineup: the one that won the game against Indiana in the 4th period and has been used only in high-substitution situations or garbage time, at best, ever since. The lineup that is so obviously meshes best in the present while building for the future, to the point that Wittman’s aversion to it has led to the suspicion that this squad is tanking games to ensure they keep their draft pick. That Fab Five did eventually play together–with 9:31 to play in the second period, a good six minutes after Hassell was given the hook.

Here’s the way Wittman got to that five: Jaric for Hassell with 3:26 to go in the first. Foye for James, and Smith for KG, with 1:33 to go. End of first period with Minnesota down 11, 14-25. Then, after Antoine Walker hit a six-foot bunny, Posey glided in for another layup, repeated it for a reverse layup, followed by a Udonis Haslem slam, all within the first 2:22 of the second period, Randy Wittman decided to use his most effective lineup down 16-33 with 9:31 to play in the half. He subbed in McCants for Davis, and KG for Mark Blount.

Boom. McCants drove for a layup. Garnett fouled Mourning, who hit both free throws, but then KG nailed a 17-footer, stole a pass from Walker and fed Foye for a layup as he was fouled (Randy completed the three point play), and McCants blocked Mourning’s shot. A slightly nervous Pat Riley subbed Shaq back for Zo and Eddie Jones in for Posey, which didn’t prevent KG from nailing a 21-footer off a feed from Smith; Garnett making another steal off a Haslem pass and eventually hitting another long J on an assist from Foye, and then, to top it off, Garnett barreling down the floor and just before he was about to go up dumping it back to a roaring Smith, who tomahawked home a slam dunk. That’s a 13-2 run, folks, cutting the lead to six, and although the Heat quickly doubled it on successive treys by Williams and Jones, the tenor of the game had changed from the absurd blowout that was brewing before the Fab Five were allowed to reunite.

Miami’s lead was 10 when Mark Madsen replaced Smith with 3:47 to go in the half, followed a minute and a second later by Davis replacing McCants, and 59 second after that by Blount subbing in for KG. We wouldn’t see that lineup again. Oh well: Wittman said those guys who gave effort were going to play–he didn’t say they were going to play together. Because you can’t have *too* much effort in one place when your personnel guy has fumbled away a draft pick if you play too well. Miami won going away, 77-92, making Minnesota a net -195 versus their opponents over the course of 17,388 minutes thus far this season. Because the Fab Five got to play a whole 5:44 together tonight and were a +7, that makes them a +46 in 64 total minutes of play this season. That works out to a 34 and a half point win per 48 minutes of play. And, not incidentally, it unites and energizes the team’s superstar by playing him alongside the team’s top three draft picks from the past two years, and a complementary player already signed through 2011.

When it was noted after the game that this Fab Five seems to have a nice rhythm and flow going whenever they do get the chance to play together, Garnett replied, “They do have a nice flow but if it ain’t on the floor, I have to flow with what’s out there. It is more of an energy group. They are agressive, they play with a lot of energy and a lot of confidence.” And KG, who had 22 points and 20 rebounds in the 15-point loss, mostly had to “flow” with the likes of Blount (33:02, 4 rebounds, -18), Davis (35:14, 5 turnovers, -22).

2. Tick Tock

Coupled with the Clippers win, the loss to Miami puts the Wolves five games behind the 8th and final playoff spot with 10 games left to play. Minutes for Foye: 28:38. For McCants: 15:14. For Smith: 14:31.

3. Talk Amongst Yourselves, or Chime In On the Diamond Diablog

There will not be a trey following the Wolves-Orlando game on Sunday. Instead, I will post a “diablog” between myself, David Brauer (former sports columnist for the Twin Cities Reader among many other things), and Brad Zellar (the author of the baseball blog Warning Track Power at this rakemag.com site) about the upcoming Twins season on Monday morning. Use the comments section vent and wax eloquent about tonight’s game and the Orlando tilt. Rest assured I’ll be posting Three-Pointers on most of the rest of the Wolves games this season, and into the NBA Playoffs. But this blog has a sort-of generic name for a reason: I’ll be posting about the Twins as well during their season, and if the response is good, may just keep it going until the suddenly coveted NBA draft and beyond.

Regular Season Game #71, Road Game #37, Utah 108, Minnesota 102

1. The Curse of the Rolling Roles
The best things you can say about last night’s six-point loss to the division-clinching Utah Jazz are that it removed the Wolves from the stench of their monumental collapse the previous evening, and set them further along the road to keeping their precious draft pick. Otherwise, the differences between the two clubs in terms of teamwork, roles, and substitution rotations were far more glaring than the final margin.

Under Jerry Sloan, everyone on the Jazz knows exactly what he should be doing, and why. The club’s starting five is beautifully balanced, with a large, physical, classic point guard in Deron Williams, a low post banger in power forward Carlos Boozer, an energy-oriented disruptor in small forward Kirilenko, an unconventional primary three-point threat in center Mehmet Okur, and a shrewd veteran glue guy cherry-picking his moments in off-guard Derek Fisher.

Now consider the Timberwolves. Let’s face it, there is a vacuum at point guard. Mike James was physically and mentally overmatched against Williams, staying with his “aggressive” mantra to the tune of four shots, zero assists and two fouls in the game’s first 5:37, sending him to the bench with the Wolves down 9-13. By that time, Willaims had already laid down three dimes and gone 1-2 FG. Randy Foye fared a little better, amassing 17 points and 4 assists in a sizable 38:05 that stemmed from James being unable to contain Williams without fouling (at least he tried that instead of the matador of his first three months). But when it was all done, the Wolves’ point guard had 23 points on 22 shots, 4 assists and 3 turnovers. On his own, Williams had 22 points on 9 official shots (he got to the line 14 times, versus 6 for Foye-James), 14 assists and 3 turnovers.

On this ballclub, KG must simultaneously be Kirilenko and Boozer, the banger and the disrupter. And at this point in the season, he’s toast, physically and mentally. Usually he has his way with Boozer, but last night Boozer not only matched his point total (25), but outrebounded (11-8) and outassisted (3-1) KG. When that happens, this team ain’t gonna beat Utah.

Which brings us to Ricky Davis, who must simultaneously be Williams and Fisher–the guy who initiates the offense and the one smart enough to flow to what is needed from the backcourt. Just for “fun,” I thought I’d compare the Wolves’ won-lost records with which players led the squad in points and assists. I’m not totally sure what it means–making definitive conclusions on what really is sort of a random correlation–except that the rolling roles on this squad bring a lot of different players into the mix. Anyway, the charitable way to put it is that Minnesota should rely more on Ricky Davis to carry the load for this squad. The uncharitable way to see it is that the Wolves peform much better on the nights Davis bothers to show up. On the team-high 26 occasions when he has led (or co-led) the team in assists, the Wolves are a gaudy 16-10; every other assist-leader sends the team to a sub-.500 mark. For KG, the margin is close, 9-10. For the point guards, it is not. The Wolves are a collective 7-15 when either James (4-10) or Foye (3-5) lead the squad in assists. They are even worse, 3-9, when small forwards Trenton Hassell (2-7) or Marko Jaric (1-2) are the assist leader.

For points, on the 20 times Davis has led the team, they are exactly .500 at 10-10. For everyone else, not so good. When KG tops them in points, it is 17-24; when anyone other than Davis or KG is the point leader, the team is 3-12.

As I say, making definitive judgments on this stuff is very dicey, if not specious. But it does seem to indicate that the point guards are currently incapable of successfully leading this squad in either shooting or dishing; that they are, at best, complementary pieces to the KG-Ricky Show. As for those top two, one might think their versatility would be an asset, and on a more experienced, better-coached ballclub, perhaps that’s true. But it has not worked out on this club in this season.

2. Blount Trauma
The sad thing about center Mark Blount is that he literally can’t win for trying. Like most Timberwolves observers I’ve been critical of Blount’s absence of intensity and, by extension, integrity, as he has seemingly mailed in his performances since the All Star break, routinely torpedoing Minnesota’s hopes for victory in the process. During the 4th quarter Seattle debacle, Blount sat on the bench frequently sporting a “what me worry?” smirk and exchanging pleasantries with other scrubs like Justin Reed and Troy Hudson, oblivious (or not: it is damning either way) to the carnage taking place on the court.

But last night, Blount was hustling his rear off. Not only did he continue showing hard on the pick and roll (his one strength aside from that sweet jumper), but he fought for rebounds with a diligence nearly always in limbo when it comes to Blount and boards. It got to the point where the tables were ironically turned in crunchtime, as Wolves color commentator and fairly steadfast Blount booster Jim Petersen excoriated him for not covering Mehmet Okur on a crucial trey that bumped Utah’s margin from 5 to 8, a crippling difference with just 2:58 to play; while I, a fairly steadfast Blount ripper, protested to the heavens that Blount had shown hard on the perimeter to Deron Williams, who deftly zipped it to Mehmet while no other Timberwolf rotated over. Now, it is quite possible Pete knows the defensive rotation strategies in play for Utah, and that Blount was supposed to stay with Okur rather than hound Williams so far outside. In any case, Utah’s spacing and savvy trumped Blount’s move, and my sense of inner justice when Blount promptly slammed home a feed from Foye at the other end was tempered when Wittman removed Blount from the game after the next possession.

But here’s the thing: popcornmachine.net had Blount getting annihilated at -18 during his 35:31 of action, way ahead of Davis and Hassell as the next worst entries at -8. And this was a game in which Blount’s hustle and demeanor, if nothing else, were beyond criticism.
The popcornmachine.net numbers also clearly indicate, in reiteration of point one in this trey, that when Jerry Sloan had his main guys working his system, the Wolves were buried. The first Minnesota bonus was when a pair of late draft picks, Craig Smith and Paul Milsapp, were matched up with each other and the Cookie Monster went off, eventually finishing with 14 points for the second period on 5-6 FG and 4-4 FT as Minnesota put up a +11 margin. (Outside of the second period, Smith was 1-4 FG, 0-0 FT and -4 in 9:58.) The second eye-opening stat is that Utah was +18 in the 39:22 that Deron Williams was manning the point, and -12 in the 8:38 he wasn’t.

3. Tick Tock
The Wolves have slipped behind Sacramento to 12th place in the West, out of the playoffs by 4 games with 11 left to play. Minutes for Rashad McCants: 6:48. There is still a mathematical chance for the Wolves to bag that 8th spot of course, but the odds are steep enough that you have to wonder if Coach Wittman really is invoking a “tanking with vets” strategy. The lineup of McCants-Foye-Smith-KG-Jaric was actually allowed to play the bulk of that second quarter last night, and went +2. If you go to the 82games.com website and click on their 5-man floor units page (here’s the link: http://www.82games.com:80/0607/0607MIN2.HTM), you’ll see that that quintet of the three kids plus KG and Marko is a +39 in just 58 minutes together, a rate 82games extrapolates out to a 10-1 record. Giving that unit more time would certainly maximize the potential talent already on this team, but would be hell on securing that draft pick.

Game # 70, Home Game #34, Seattle 114, Minnesota 106

1. Parade of Goats

At this point, you really do just have to shake your head and laugh, don’t you? Up 88-63 with 5:56 left in the third quarter, the Wolves caved and crumbled like never before in their history, scoring just 18 points in the final 18 minutes while allowing 51 to get buried 106-114 to a putrid Seattle squad without Ray Allen, a team that vanquished the Wolves by 3 on Friday and then lost to San Antonio by 41 on Sunday.

This is one diseased ballclub, folks. This is a team that just walloped the Sonics for 71 points in the first half, shooting 60 percent from the field and from the trey while racking up 21 assists on their 27 baskets versus just 5 turnovers. Midway through the third, the assist/turnover ration had swelled to 26/6 and the 19 point lead bumped to 25. After that? Three assists, 10 turnovers. Sclerotic defense at the other end. The worst aspects of panic and apathy, mixed together into a toxic combo of willful selfish ignorance about the right way to play the game of basketball. Ladies and gents, your parade of goats…

Kevin Garnett. Three dimes in the first 1:49, five in the first quarter, eight for the half. Two rebounds and an assist away from a triple double at the end of 3. Then a 4th quarter of exerting leadership right into the dumpster, an inept and ill-advised performance. He wasn’t tired, going only 17:20 in the first half as coach Wittman rested him with a big lead and Utah on the road tomorrow night in the second half of a back to back. He had a decent sit from 2:59 to go in the third to 10:29 to go in the 4th, during which time the Wolves lead was only whittled from 18 to 14.

But in the last five minutes–crunchtime–the Big Ticket was a torn stub. He missed the second of two free throws, holding the lead at 10. Then he traveled. Then he threw a pass that Randy Foye had to use all his hops to snag standing at the baseline (before Foye himself turned it over on a pass back to the cutting but covered KG). Then he missed a 20-foot jumper instead of trying to draw contact. Then he threw the ball way over the point guard’s head for a backcourt violation, on a basic pass to the top of the key that he executes successfully a dozen times a game. Then he fouls Wilcox driving baseline on a three-point play. Then he misses an easy, open jumper. This is all within 5 minutes.

Randy Foye. Two assists and zero turnovers after three quarters of action (12:00 overall), then one assists and four huge turnovers–at least three of them, silly, unforced passing errors–and three fouls in 9:14 of play in the 4th. No poise. No court vision. Shoddy defense, continually pulled on a string via jumpers and penetration from backup point guard Mike Wilks, the co-MVP of the game with Rashard Lewis, who also roasted Mike James, who played like a less assertive version of Foye, which in this case lessened the damage.

Trenton Hassell. Rashard Lewis started to get hot so Wittman went small, putting in Hassell for Smith with Minnesota up 10 with 5:19 to play. It is the job of Hassell, the team’s defensive stopper, to stop Lewis. Nope. Lewis proceeds to score 12 points in the last 5:19, capping off a 21 point 4th quarter that included nine trips to the free throw line. For the game he had 35, and was 16-17 FT.

Ricky Davis. The only guy with a pulse in the 4th quarter, he helped keep the lead at 15 for nearly half the period with two nifty assists and other nice ball movement. But his showboating in the third–a behind the back pass in traffic on the fast break when the Wolves were up big–sent a message that the squad erronously figured it had the game won (this after choking up a sizable lead to this same team four days ago) and was ready to screw around. There was also a few missed shots, a missed free throw, and a costly turnover in the 4th. And his second half defense on little Earl Watson was abysmal.

Randy Wittman. Many timeouts during the collapse, and many substitutions. No response from his team. He may as well have drawn straws for a player rotation and diagrammed plays in invisible ink on his chalkboard during that 4th quarter.

Dishonorable mentions to Smilin’ Mark Blount crossing guard allowing little men into the painted area and a man who enjoys a good internal joke on the bench while his teammates are vomiting up a 25-point margin.

2. Verbatim

Randy Wittman: “It has been the same thing all year; we play the right way for three quarters and then we stop. They trap and we don’t swing it. We try a behind-the-back pass in traffic and they get a layup and suddenly a 20-point lead is an 18-point lead and it begins. They [his players] don’t respect the game and don’t respect the opponent.” During timeouts in the huddle “we didn’t have anybody wanting to step up. When it got tight, they were hoping the clock would run out. This isn’t the first time it has happened this year. We don’t have the mix of guys who want to put their foot on their [opponent’s] necks. They don’t move the ball or make the easy pass with a guy open standing right next to you. For three quarters we didn’t care who shot the ball or made the points.”

Kevin Garnett: “I told everybody when I came in [the locker room after the game] that I felt like it was my fault…I’m very good at dissecting things, figuring out how we take teams apart. I didn’t initiate and do those things and that bothers me…[In the huddles] Ricky kept saying ‘Let’s pick it up! Let’s pick it up!’ but we didn’t have the same people in the game. They had a small lineup in and we didn’t take advantage of it. We stopped playing as a team.”

Media question: “This 25 point lead was the biggest one blown in franchise history. Can you put that in perspective?”
Garnett: “No I can’t. That’s fucked up. That’s fucked up.”

3. Tick Tock

With tonight’s loss, the Wolves are 4 full games behind the Clippers with 12 left to play. If they go 10-2, say, losing only to Dallas and San Antonio while beating the likes of Utah, Golden State and Denver on the road and Miami, Cleveland, and Toronto (Sam Mitchell is undefeated vs. Minnesota) at home, the Clips would only have to split their dozen games to tie at 40-42–and that’s assuming the other three squads ahead of or tied with the Wolves (Golden State, New Orleans and Sacramento) don’t rally.

Playing time for Rashad McCants: 10:09. For Craig Smith: 21:14. For Randy Foye: 24:48.

Game #69, Home Game #33: Minnesota 94, Portland 93

1. Two Cheers For Wittman, Davis and James

I originally wasn’t going to post after the Portland game, if only because I usually only go once on the weekend when the online traffic is down and already posted yesterday after Friday’s loss. But the Wolves pulled out a win in the last second against Portland this afternoon and some of my favorite targets of late did well for themselves. Specifically, I’ve ripped coach Randy Wittman, Ricky Davis and Mike James to varying degrees over the past month of two–and still regard them heavily responsible for the team’s disappointing season–and have been particularly scornful during the recently concluded five game road trip. So, silence after a rare win didn’t seem quite fair.

I really started sharpening my fangs when Wittman replaced Rashad McCants with Mike James alongside Randy Foye in the backcourt with 5:04 to play and the Wolves down 80-82. The Trailblazers had a big lineup in the game and on Portland’s first possession after the substitution, James was on soon-to-be Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy. As soon as Roy received a pass, Minnesota went into scramble mode and Zach Randolph eventually was fouled to save a slam dunk. The next time down, Martell Webster nailed a trey. Then Randolph tipped in a miss. Blount and KG were pressuring the perimeter to help out the small backcourt, opening up the inside. When they didn’t help, Portland had open looks. I expected a substitution adjustment.

But Wittman stuck with it, and Ricky Davis began playing some monster defense on Roy, compelling two turnovers in the last two minutes, one occurring when he forced a jump ball with Zach Randolph and then won the jump with a perfectly timed leap on the toss. This was in addition to Davis’s eight assists, including one beautiful stretch early in the third period when Pretty Ricky fed James for a 19-footer on on possession, Blount for a 20-footer on the next, and KG for a finger roll on the next–3 dimes in 65 seconds, taking the Wolves from one down to three up.

“Ricky was huge,” Wittman said after the game. “Forget about his offense–his defense ignited us. At 89-84 [the Wolves down five], he started us getting us back into it, which obviously he can do.” Then Wittman addressed the little backcourt. “I decided to go small because I liked Randy and Mike giving us more pressure.” When it was pointed out that Randy Foye went off in the 4th quarter once again with a series of beautiful drives right up the gut of the defense, Wittman pointed out that the plan was to spread the floor, putting James on one corner baseline and Davis on the other so that Foye had room to penetrate in the middle or dish it to a three-point threat. And he was right–James and Davis were worthy decoys if that’s what Portland chose to cover, and decent threats to hit the big one if they didn’t. So, nice work all around.

2. KG Saves the Day He Almost Lost
It was a beautiful turnaround jumper by Kevin Garnett at the buzzer which won the game by a single point, and that’s probably what is being shown on the television highlights tonight. But Garnett’s traveling violation when he didn’t anticipate Roy come down to double on him with 20 second left and the Wolves up 1, and then his (and Blount’s) inability to keep Lamarcus Aldridge off the boards for a tip-in that gave Portland the lead had Garnett pencilled in as the goat of the game without that sweet swish at the end.

I’ve been reluctant to criticize Garnett for not going to the hole over the years (and months, and days), because he has done it more than his reputation would indicate, because even though he is 7-1 and the best rebounder in the NBA over the past 5 years, he is not a paint-oriented warrior, and because it feels like nit-picking compared to all the marvelous things he does do. But the last two games have seen KG especially reticent about going hard to the hoop and drawing fouls. As I mentioned in the Seattle trey, he was almost always double and triple teamed versus the Sonics and still only got to the line once. Today, he tried three finger rolls, the sort of pastry moves that don’t earn you the respect of officials even if you do get wacked a little. Yes he was 10-19 FG, but only got the line 4 times, had but 9 rebounds (a rare non-double-double) and four turnovers. Getting just two calls on the rook Aldridge in 29:15 seems a wasted opportunity.

3. Foye versus Roy

I know there is quite a pitched battle going on in some internet hoops circles about the whole Foye-Roy switcheroo the Wolves pulled on draft day, with many claiming that Roy’s wonderful year coupled with Foye’s inability to immediately grab the point position and make it his own indicates that Minnesota made a mistake and should have kept Roy all along. Color me brightly ambivalent. I’ve been very impressed with Foye most of this season, and likewise really have enjoyed Roy’s game the three of four times I caught him on television. But live, Roy is even better, a tough sonavagun (ditto Foye), simultaneously unselfish and with a nose for the hoop. The Wolves obviously spent a lot of their pregame planning figuring out how to stop him, and frequently displayed a zone with KG at the top of the key to disrupt his playmaking. When it was over, Roy had 22 hard-earned points (9-14 FG), 5 boards and 2 assists in a team-high 35:56, with the two crunchtime turnovers the major blot on his line. (One occurred when Davis and Blount mugged him on a pick and roll that got a no-call from the refs.) Foye had 17 points (7-10 FG, 1 rebound and three assists) in 23:13 and, characteristically, put up 13 points (5-6 FG) in the final period. It may sound like a cop-out, but I honestly think there is no “loser” in this competition–or if there is, we won’t know which for at least another three or four years. I’ll close with this bit of info from Wolves stat guru Paul Swanson on Foye’s crunchtime proclivities.

Randy Foye, 2006-07
* Has scored 319 of his 646 total points in the 4th & OT (49 percent)
* Shooting 47.9% [from 2], 38.7% [from 3] 90.3% [from the line] for the season in the 4th & OT
* Has seven double-digit scoring 4th quarters (four in the last nine games)

Game #68, Road Game #36, Seattle 85, Minnesota 82

1. Listless in Seattle

I realize the competition is stiff, but last night’s travesty is probably the worst basketball game collectively played by the Wolves and an opponent thus far this season. Without their KG-equivalent, Ray Allen, the Sonics showed every sign of wishing to roll over and die in the first period, jacking up long, wayward jumpers early in the shot clock–5 and half minutes into the game they had scored 2 points on 1-10 FG–and defending raggedly. After 12 minutes the Wolves were up, 19-12, and even a mediocre effort commensurate to the mediocre talent on the squad would have had them leading by 15 or more. Both sides were willing to let the other score, and both sides refused to oblige, missing wide open shots. It was dreadful to watch.

I am a stone cold NBA fan over college hoops, but checking out the Elite 8 games in the NCAA tournament on commercial breaks, I can’t for the life of me see why anyone would stick with the Wolves unless they had some kind of daft obligation such as these destined to be increasingly cynical three-pointers. Anyway, here’s what you smart people missed…

Seattle continued to brick shots in mind-numbing fashion, converting less than a third (19-58) after three quarters. But their strategy of constantly doubling (with the center’s man sliding over) and occasionally tripling (with a guard coming down if Garnett was in the low block) KG paid off in holding the score down to a mere 61-54 deficit after three periods (although the Wolves did lead by 14 with about 5 minutes to play in the third). The Wolves moved the ball impressively, but had trouble nailing the open shots they were creating. Mike James and Ricky Davis were a combined 1-6 from three point range and the club’s overall 45% field goal accuracy after three was, given the lack of difficulty, pathetic. Because Seattle’s plan was to shut down Garnett, the team’s two leading scorers after 3 were Craig Smith and Mark Blount, with 13 and 12, respectively. Trenton Hassell was next with 10, with Davis (9), Garnett (7), and James (6) all out of double figures. Blame Garnett for not compelling a single shooting foul against this blanket coverage during the first three periods, and getting one free throw the entire game. The Wolves had only 10 free throws through 3, five by Smith, who made one. That’s how you keep an abysmal shooting team with no superstar and their minds on a better draft pick in the game long enough to steal it in the final period.

In the 4th quarter, the Wolves essentially choked during the last four minutes of the game, blowing a nine-point lead. They were up by 11 with exactly ten minutes left: KG had just completed a three-point play (his lone FT) off a nice feed from Randy Foye. Then Seattle went small, with Chris Wilcox the de facto center and either Rashard Lewis or Damian Wilkins as the power forward. Together, they chipped the lead down to six with 5:30 remaining. That’s when Randy Wittman showed his unerring instinct for making exactly the wrong move, inserting Mike James and Trenton Hassell in for Randy Foye and Marko Jaric.

Yes, James and Hassell had clearly outplayed Foye and Jaric up to that point. But when will Wittman learn not to base his decisions on the last game, the last quarter, the last rotation, the last play? In the last trey earlier this week, I passed on info from the team’s stat guru convincingly demonstrating that the best clutch player on this team over the previous 67 games was Randy Foye, to the point where Wolves announcers Hanny and J-Pete reveled in calling him “4th quarter Foye.” And Jaric has over time demonstrated that he is the best person to be riding shotgun while Foye is trying to guide the offense.

Things got off to a promising start, as Davis (whose passing was superb all night) zipped a dime to Smith for a slam, followed by a James trey to bump the lead to 75-66 with 4:09 to go. At this point, with the Wolves in the 11th playoff position and down by 2 and a half games for the final 8th spot with (at the time) 15 games to go, you might think a nine-point lead with 369 ticks on the clock against a .400 team playing without their superstar would be in the bank. And if it wasn’t, you might finally, finally, begin to think there was something diseased about this ballclub, something that you don’t ever ever want to put on display against the Mavs or Suns in nationally televised games that matter.

The Wolves choked. That sub-mediocre and then crucially depleted Seattle squad proceeded to go on a 16-2 run and put the game away. Mike James? He couldn’t find Seattle point guard Earl Watson with a compass on defense. And on offense, once the Wolves’ lead had completely melted, he became too animated, running around like a headless chicken and jacking up shots with plenty of time on the clock. Yes, on one drive he was fouled and made both free throws. But anyone who wasn’t yearning for Foye–the top draft pick, the clutch closer, the guy who finally snatched his confident personality back just one game ago–is into ensuring that the entire Wolves braintrust looks as absolutely foolish as possible, Randy Wittman foremost among them.

Ricky Davis? He had one turnover in the first 46 minutes, and two ugly ones in the last 2. Kevin Garnett? He caught the ball halfway between the endline and center court with the Sonics trapping and tried to dribble through the opposing team, with predictible results: a three pointer by Lewis that gave Seattle its first lead of the game with 1:41 to play, a lead they never relinquished.

Any talk of tanking is a moot point. Just let this ballclub continue to do what it does, and has done for the past two months. That draft pick will be there, with a pretty bow on the box.

2. Leadership

Much is being made of Randy Wittman’s comments in the PiPress to the effect that the Wolves’ lack leadership in the locker room. Specifically, the coach said, “We don’t have a quote-unquote, leader that’s going to control the locker room. That when stuff’s going on that shouldn’t be going on, that somebody stands up and says, ‘Hey, all right, enough of this.’ I don’t think we have that.” Hanny and Pete mentioned it in passing last night, and Asch had it in a side story in this morning’s Strib. (Credit PiPress beat guy Rick Alonzo with the original story.)

Here’s my take: I don’t know which would be worse, if Witt was clueless or cognizant about the inevitable stain he is putting on Kevin Garnett with this remark. The superstar of a team is the leader of it on the court, in the locker room, and with the general public. In all three milieu, Garnett has, for better and mostly worse, been conflict-averse. But people lead in different ways. For KG, it has always been going hard in every practice, studying every inch of available film, communicating with his teammates, playing through injuries, playing with passion, and remaining loyal to a franchise that has handled his career with seemingly no understanding of what would best complement his game. People who are gritty underachievers new to the Wolves, guys like, to choose a recent example, blogger-bit player Paul Shirley during the preseason, almost invariably come away from being inside the Wolves organization raving about KG’s work ethic and dedication to improving himself and the ballclub.

Last week, Kevin Garnett said that if Randy Wittman wasn’t the coach of the Wolves next season, he didn’t want to be here. At the time, Witt had lost approximately twice as many games as he had won, after inheriting the same personnel that the previous coach had been fired from for coaching them to a .500 record. It was a gutsy show of loyalty, that, given Wittman’s inexplicable decision making and lackluster (to put it kindly) results, was a huge, probably unsolicited favor to Wittman. Yet within days, Wittman is saying that nobody polices the locker room, having to know that the first person fingered for such inaction will be KG–and if he doesn’t know that, it explains a lot about the past 28 games.

How about this: Kevin McHale is the guy who brought in the likes of Ricky Davis and Mark Blount–both seasoned veterans with checkered histories playing for chronically underachieving teams–and Randy Wittman is the guy who plays Davis and Blount at the expense of rookies and second-year men with higher potential upsides. If you don’t have an intimate, nuanced knowledge of Kevin Garnett’s personality–his strengths and weaknesses on the court, in public, and in the locker room after his 12 years with the ballclub, what good are you to the organization? And if you do know him that well, why are you hanging him out to dry for a lack of locker room enforcement? The VP of Basketball Operations is the one who assembled this motley crew, with 47 guards and no quality banger; and the coach is the one enabling the most questionable characters on this team with a substitution rotation that simultaneously tanks the present while retarding the development of a successful future for this team.

Where are Randy Wittman’s stones? Who specifically has been doing “stuff that shouldn’t be going on” and why hasn’t he taken steps to correct it? And if that’s a private matter, why did he make it public? There’s a lack of leadership on the Timberwolves alright. But Kevin Garnett isn’t exactly the first person I’d point to as the culprit.

3. Tick Tock

The Clips and the Warriors both won last night, putting the Wolves 3 and a half and 3 games, respectively, behind those two clubs with 14 left to play. Against Seattle, Rashad McCants played exactly 5 minutes, Foye 19:30.

Game #67, Road Game #35, Minnesota 95, Sacramento 89

1. Fine Points

There probably was a game way back in the Casey-coaching days of ’06 when both Randy Foye and Mike James played with confidence, aggression, and efficiency, but it sure felt like a revelation in a water-for-the-parched win over Sacramento last night. It matters only a little that the Kings’ Mike Bibby may be the most overrated point guard in the league and has never played decent defense–there have been literally dozens of games when James and/or Foye haven’t bothered to look for penetration off the dribble, or even a quick crossover or two that would free them up from outside. Instead, “better safe than sorry” seemed to be the mantra in their heads, instilled either by overcoaching or their own memory demons. Not so last night, as the pair (who never played together) combined for 36 points, 6 assists and just 2 turnovers in 48 minutes.

Two-thirds of those point and assist totals were Foye’s, registered in barely more than half the minutes-played. Foye was also a +9 to James’s -3. But this is not the time to denigrate James just because, for a boatload of reasons, he has no business starting at this juncture of the season. For the third straight game he stopped playing like a deer in the headlights, even anticipating a lazy inbounds pass for a steal and layup midway through the third quarter, one of three layups he converted in the period en route to a team-high 10 points that helped the Wolves hang around until Foye could take over the game with 14 points in the 4th quarter.

Where has that Randy Foye been lately? “Learning” the point guard position, apparently. Whether it was Foye or Wittman or whoever who decided it was time to take the shackles off and “let Foye be Foye,” it certainly helps put some juice back in the rook’s self-regard, right in sync with three upcoming games against Seattle’s Luke Ridenour (twice) and Portland’s Jarrett Jack, a pair of foes over which a flourishing Foye enjoys a distinct advantage.

Two more things. We all know that ex-coach Dwane Casey is looking smarter all the time in absentia, and it is interesting to note that Wittman reverted back to Casey’s old substitution pattern with Foye last night, playing him almost exclusively in the second and fourth periods. On that note, the ever helpful Wolves stat guru, Paul Swanson, sent along this interesting bit of info in the wee hours of the night/morn.
Inspired by Randy Foye’s game-clinching jumper with :16.8 remaining at Sacramento:

2006-07 Minnesota Timberwolves
Scoring in Last 24 Seconds of 4th Quarters & Overtime Periods
(through Mar. 21)

Player FGM-A 3FG-A FTM-A Pts
Foye 11-21 2- 4 10-10 34
Garnett 6-20 3-10 13-16 28
Davis 9-23 3- 7 6- 8 27
James 3- 7 2- 3 8- 9 16
Blount 4- 6 2- 2 0- 2 10
McCants 2- 2 1- 1 2- 2 7
Hassell 1- 3 0- 0 4- 4 6
Hudson 1- 4 1- 2 2- 2 5
Smith 1- 2 0- 1 2- 2 4
Reed 1- 4 0- 0 0- 0 2
Wright 1- 3 0- 1 0- 0 2
Jaric 0- 2 0- 1 1- 2 1
Madsen 0- 2 0- 0 0- 0 0
Griffin 0- 1 0- 1 0- 0 0

Now Swanny’s list doesn’t include minutes played or assists, but it is pretty clear that Foye is the go-to guy, the Cassell replacement this team envisioned as James’s role heading into the season (and it should be noted that James’s numbers aren’t that shabby here).

The other thing Wittman did well last night was realize the synergy that occurs when Foye and Marko Jaric play together. All but 43 seconds of Jaric’s 21:52 came alongside Foye last night, and it is no coincidence that he was a team-high +15. In fact it bears noting that the Wolves staged their 4th quarter comeback with 4/5 of the same lineup that earned the comeback over Indiana: KG/Smith/Foye/Jaric, with Ricky Davis subbing in for Rashad McCants this time as the 5th man.

2. The Big Banger Theory
With Brad Miller and Kenny Thomas both waylaid with injuries, the Kings went with a frontcourt of Sharif Abdur-Rahim and Corliss Williamson. Since Garnett lunches on Ab-Ra every time they play, Sac coach Eric Musselman wisely decided to matchup with Sharif on Blount and Williamson on KG.

Unfortunately, Williamson had his way with Garnett in the first period, going off for 10 points and 6 rebounds to propel Sacramento to a 28-22 margin. Williamson would only get 7 points and 4 boards the rest of the game while playing 37:07, and KG hauled in a game-high 18 rebounds, so everything was all right in the end. But it once again drove home the point that the biggest need for this ballclub by a wide wide margin is acquiring a big banger who can patrol and intimidate in the paint, allowing Garnett to avoid the wear-and-tear that his injury-resistant body continually absorbs.

This isn’t solely for Garnett’s sake (although easing life and maximizing production for your superstar is Priority One for most ballclubs that have one); it would dramatically improve Minnesota’s competitiveness. Don’t forget that the most successful season in team history was accomplished with the hydra-headed trio of Erv Johnson, Mark Madsen and Michael Olowokandi rotating in at center. Of those three, an already aging Erv started because he set the tone on the court as well as in the locker room: Stay at home down low. Box out. Communicate on defense. Don’t worry about how many points you score; just anchor the defense and allow no easy points in the paint. This is a lesson that undersized Craig Smith (+10 last night, second only to Jaric) understands. Players like this really aren’t *that* hard to find for a million or two a year. Instead, we have Blount for more than 6 million.

On that note, here is another part of the Paul Swanson package from late last night:

2006-07 Minnesota Timberwolves
Offensive Fouls Drawn
(through Mar. 21)

Smith 21
Davis 17
Blount 13
Garnett 11
Foye 10
Madsen 10
Hassell 7
Reed 7
Jaric 6
James 5
Hudson 3
Griffin 2
McCants 2
Wright 1

2006-07 Minnesota Timberwolves
Plus/Minus by Month
(through Mar. 21)

Player G Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Tot
Blount 67 + 3 -21 -37 -62 -80 -197
Davis 66 -24 +38 +34 -35 -98 – 85
Foye 67 +17 -45 -12 -24 -25 – 89
Garnett 66 +18 +48 +40 -16 -54 + 36
Hassell 62 -16 +14 +22 -73 -18 – 71
Hudson 34 + 8 +21 -43 – 7 -45 – 66
James 67 -33 – 6 -25 -42 -24 -130
Jaric 60 +17 -26 -60 +15 -53 -107
Madsen 45 + 7 -16 +40 -20 – 3 + 8
McCants 23 DNP DNP + 1 – 7 +27 + 21
Reed 33 + 2 – 7 -28 – 5 + 7 – 31
Smith 67 + 6 +15 -44 -20 -21 – 64
Wright 14 + 6 – 4 +27 – 4 + 2 + 27
x-Griffin 13 -46 -26 DNP DNP DNP – 72
Wolves 67 – 7 – 3 -17 -60 -77 -164

You’ll note that despite low minutes and the fact that we gets robbed by the refs at least half the time on these borderline charging-or-blocking calls, Smith has made taking charges something of a specialty (second only to Joe Smith in Wolves’s history; it must be the mundane last name that compels such unsung behavior). To be fair, Blount also takes more than his share (ditto RD). But move on to the plus/minus totals. Blount’s plus/minus is the worst on the squad by a wide margin, and the worst over the past two months as the Wolves have swooned. Davis is second, and the worst in the month of March.

Of all the confounding things about this franchise, their inability to secure and nurture at least one decent banger throughout their history–Felton Spencer comes closest, and they traded him after three years–is the most inexplicable, and Exhibit A in the mishandling of KG’s career.

3. Quick Takes

I think I’ll stop bashing Ricky Davis long enough to note that he had another really good game last night, helping Jaric (and to a lesser extent, Trenton Hassell) put the clamps on Kevin Martin and Ron Artest (although Martin missed a bevy of open j’s and Artest was the “bad” Artest in terms of shot selection and overall team corrosion). Ricky even guarded Bibby a little bit to throw him off at the start of the game. He was a dishing maestro, with his 7 assists not doing his passing justice because of the would-be dimes that prompted fouls or easy misses, and the pass-before-the-assist-pass momentum that he stoked. To cap it off, he nailed a pair of crucial treys in crunchtime. Much as I wanted McCants on the floor for that final comeback (for the good of the future, which should be the point right now), to win this game on this night, Davis was the right choice.

Since the ankle sprain (and actually a bit before then), Hassell has had trouble finding his niche. Right now the ballclub clearly performs better with Jaric in the lineup. It really is a contrast of styles: Jaric runs around like the absent-minded professor, making all sorts of good and terrible things happen. Hassell is steady as Grandpa Molasses, making sure no opponent gets an easy look at the hoop and kind of ensuring the same for his teammates with his current inability to hit an open J or force the opposing D to respond to him in any other meaningful fashion.

IMHO: The less said about the playoffs, the better. One, it isn’t going to happen. Two, if it does, the Wolves will lose a draft pick and suffer enormous embarrassment on a national stage in the first round, goading KG in the direction of bolting. Anyone who remembers my rant over the Madsen’s clownfest in last year’s finale knows my take on tanking. You honor the game and your karma by putting forth your best effort. Fortunately, in this case it means playing a young lineup–something Coach Wittman (who needs to go 12-3 to match Casey’s .500 mark) either doesn’t understand, or, as has been speculated by others, knows full well as he conducts a guerrilla campaign to get that draft pick.

Game #66, Road Game #34, Phoenix 108, Minnesota 90

1. The Last To Know

Do the Minnesota Timberwolves have any idea how silly they are appearing to fans who have watched them play this entire season? Right now this team has a choice: Give the young group of players you have been touting for the last two or three weeks meaningful minutes beside your superstar in preparation for next year, or try to come up with something so special, so lightning-in-a-bottle-like, that you not only surmount the four teams ahead of you in the playoff race for the 8th seed, but will be playing well enough so that such a first round matchup with either Dallas or Phoenix isn’t so pathetic that every columnist from coast to coast is wailing either about how badly the Wolves braintrust has failed Garnett, or how KG isn’t enough of a superstar to elevate his team. That’s the choice: Build for the future or take such a dramatic step forward that you aren’t cutting off your nose to spite your face by prolonging the season.

The Timberwolves are going for it, making the leap, all the while proving the absolute absurdity of that decision. They are shunning their young talent, giving them mop-up minutes, which have been plentiful only because the supposedly mature veterans playing ahead of them waste so little time leaving the game in tatters, in creating mop-up garbage time. The coach and the VP of Basketball Operations and the owner are screwing with the mindset of Randy Foye and Rashad McCants in particular–even as they sell their promise in an effort to secure next year’s season ticket sales! They have lost 22 of their past 30 games. They have no, repeat, no identity because they appear to be a different team, with different starters, strengths, and weaknesses, from game to game. They are sacrificing key development time for Foye, McCants, and Craig Smith on the assumption that they have the talent and the know-how to dramatically improve. And with every loss–their last win on the road was January 27!–the folks in charge seem more and more like they are in some collective fever dream, strategizing on the basis of mirages.

This has been the rather overt subtext of my last three or four treys, and I claim no great wisdom–I am only stating the obvious. And yet, for the third straight game the Wolves started a different point guard, with none of the changes related to injury. These are games 64, 65, and 66 of an 82 game season and the squad is still shuffling the deck on who sets up and runs the offense.

Here’s a little exercise for Glen Taylor and Kevin McHale. Imagine trying to sell season tickets on the premise that Mike James will return as the starting point guard next season. Or Troy Hudson. If sooner or later it isn’t Foye, and preferably sooner, then questions abound: Why have you jerked Mike James’s chain the past six weeks? Who is the odd man out at shooting guard, Davis, McCants or Foye?

Yes, Foye has taken a step backward lately, but that’s because the coaches are simultaneously trying to change his intuitive habits and instinct for the game *and* screw with his minutes and role in the rotation. Two months ago, the kid seemed so mentally tough and inwardly confident that he projected a sense of safety and stability about him–not even Marbury had that his rookie year. Remember, the night he went into the starting lineup, he got arrested by the cops because his cousins were fighting, and he handled it perfectly with both the media and the authorities. Now watch Randy Foye play ball and tell me he’s having fun. He went 2-10 FG tonight, with one assists and zero rebounds and zero free throws in 20:26 of play. All so Troy Hudson and Mike James can keep pounding it into the heads of the honchos who run this squad that they aren’t leading them to the playoffs in this or any other year they have the keys to the offense.

To wrap things up on this point, the lineup that pulled out the Indiana game and provided a glimmer of hope that the braintrust actually had stumbled upon a young, complementary, cohesive unit–KG-McCants-Foye-Smith-Jaric–got nada playing time together tonight. The closest was a stretch of 7:10 in the 4th quarter when Davis was the fifth man instead of Jaric. During that time, the Wolves went -1. In the other 40:50, they went -17.

2. For Whom The Bell Tolls
There has been some discussion in this forum recently about, for lack of a better terse explanation, the difference between narcissim and selfishness when it comes to Ricky Davis. Can a guy who leads the team in assists really be a selfish player? And why do people keep hating on a guy who obviously exhibits a decent amount of hustle on numerous occasions and goes off every now and then for huge numbers, leading his team to victory?

Two plays in the third quarter offered a clear distinction of what bothers me about Davis’s game. With 7:35 left to go in the quarter and the Wolves actually down only two, 58-60, Davis and another player almost succeeded in poke-checking the ball away from Raja Bell. A split second after Bell regained possession, Davis was on the floor with him, his arm bending Bell’s head back a bit as he tried to portray it as a jump ball situation. Instead, it was ruled a Davis foul. Nevertheless, everyone watching saw Davis successfully separtate Bell from the ball briefly, and then dive on the floor in an attempt to either get the steal of salvage a jump ball out of it. Just 41 seconds later with the score the same, the Wolves had actually managed to play good enough defense to put the Suns in danger of a 24-second violation. With two seconds on the clock, Bell caught the ball just outside the free throw line, facing up on Davis. He noticed how little time he had, did a simple crossover dribble, blew by Davis and tossed up an 8-foot running, with the shot clock horn sounded as the ball was in the air. The basket was good and the shot was deflating for the Wolves, kicking off a 22-5 Suns run that essentially decided the outcome.

The point is, if Davis can almost make the steal and then dive on the floor, why can’t he also realize how little time is left on the clock and simply move his feet and deny Bell any penetration for two seconds? Bell went on to score 16 points in the third period, en route to a team-high 22 points, 7 more than his average. All 16 were scored with Davis in the game and usually guarding him.

Comments were also made about Rashad McCants being somewhat lackluster thus far this season. Tonight there was certainly evidence that McCants is nowhere near back to full maneuverability, especially when it comes to springing off his legs. His lone basket in six attempts was a lefty slam dunk after his man bit on a baseline feint, but two other shots were blocked, his long-range treys hit front iron, and Leandro Barbosa was simply too quick for him to contain.

But McCants had three steals and a couple other deflections that almost turned into steals tonight. He was merely a -3 in 21:12 of play, and while some of that was garbage time, it still was a significantly better ratio than most anyone else on the team. The point being that when it comes to Pretty Ricky and Ugly Shaddy, appearances aren’t always reality.

3. Praiseworthy Stats

Thirty points and 16 rebounds for Garnett tonight, including 8 trips to the free throw line. Unfortunately, all those charity stripe tosses occurred in the first half, when KG was at 20 points and a dozen boards. Trying to defend the Suns’ ball movement can wear you out, and Garnett once again looked spent in the fourth quarter, finishing with a team high 38:07 of playing time that was actually truncated from his norm because of the blowout.

Marko Jaric erupted for 9 assists versus only 2 turnovers but continues to have trouble with his shot, going 2-7 FG, a trend that has him below 34% over the last 13 games.

Craig Smith finished with 14 points (second only to KG on the team) and 5 rebounds and got to the line 9 times in 19:23, but also committed four turnovers and was a team-worst -14.

Game #65, Road Game #33, Lakers 109, Minnesota 102

1. Point Guard Roulette

Mike James was the best Timberwolves point guard tonight and it wasn’t even close. James had his best game in a Wolves uniform in at least 6 weeks, going off for 18 points (6-14 FG) and 11 assists versus one turnover and ringing up a gaudy, team-best +15 (sez popcornmachine.net). Meanwhile, starter Randy Foye–taking over for Troy Hudson, back to obvilion with a DNP-CD–had one basket in 4 attempts, one assist and 3 turnovers while going -22 in just 15:03 of play.

Foye should have received the majority of the minutes.

Look, the Wolves started the night needing to leapfrog *4* teams in order to bag the final playoff spot, including the club that whupped them by 20 just 48 hours ago. One reason they are in this position is because Mike James spit the bit during the first two months and a half months of the season. Back in early December when people were grumbling for James’s scalp, I said it was way too early to punt a three-year $24 million investment. But by the time James was finally removed from the starting job in favor of Foye, it was almost a mercy move, legitimately spun that maybe James would get back on track being more of a shoot-first player coming in with the second unit and playing against opposing scrubs. That worked for maybe a game or two and then James was back to clanging wide open three pointers and playing abysmal defense.

The past week or two, James has been almost an afterthought on this squad, demoted to third string point guard with the recent Hudson flirtation. Tonight, Foye gets the starting nod and frankly stinks up the joint, bringing James into the game with 3 minutes left in the first and the Wolves already down 17. In other words, James has absolutely nothing to lose, and he plays like it, going to the hole more consistently and as hard as he has all year–and, as a new wrinkle, looking for people to dish to off the dribble. James still doesn’t play defense very well, but let’s give him his due; he arguably was the best Timberwolf on the floor tonight.

But James has had plenty of chances to do this earlier in the season, and rarely came through. Due patience was exercised. As of now, Mike James ranks as the biggest disappointment in a disastrous season full of disappointments. Here’s what we don’t know: Has James somehow turned a corner, figured things out, settled down, made the transition–pick your own cliche–or does he have the kind of mental makeup that allows him to flourish after little or nothing is expected of him, which seems to have been the pattern his entire career? As I say, we don’t know.

We also don’t know how high Randy Foye’s upside as a point guard can be. Will Foye continue to yo-yo between confident, in-the-flow games and ones like tonight’s walk in the twilight zone? If he has the shot, why doesn’t he stroke it? If he prefers to drive, why doesn’t he penetrate? How does a guy who has 14 free throws coming off the bench Friday not get to the line in 15 minutes as a starter on Sunday?

Two players, two sets of questions. Which set does this organization most want answered? Taking it the way Wittman did tonight and going with the hot hand, the one that gave him the best chance to win, ultimately gives him and the team partial, less reliable answers about both players. Because, unless Wittman and Co. are planning on letting the best performing point guard get the lion’s share of time on a game by game basis over the next three years, it sets up a false construct.

Here’s why I think this team should play Randy Foye over Mike James for the rest of this season regardless of their performances from here on out. One, Foye has a much greater upside. Two, James has had a shot–50 starts at the point versus 9 (plus one at shooting guard) for Foye–and has more of a track record to judge already. Three, because salaries have to be within 15 percent of the person you are dealing for, James can bring a better player in a trade than Foye can if and when the Wolves decide to ease their logjam in the backcourt at the end of this season.

Look at it another way: Say James blossoms and Foye flounders in the remaining 17 games of the season. What are your plans for this ballclub in 2007-08? Now say Foye blossoms and James flounders–what are your plans for next year then?

Now let’s make it really simple. The bottom line is that the Timberwolves are not going to make the playoffs this season. The bottom line is that Foye is the one out of the two who looks like the raw material from which you can create a bright future–not guaranteed by any means, but better odds than James suddenly taking his game to a dramatic new level at age 32. So yeah, if James is going like he was tonight, bump his minutes for that game up to 15, maybe even 20. And if he keeps producing, keep him in that 15-20 minute range, with the promise that he’ll get a chance to compete again for a starting spot in next year’s training camp. But take a good, hard, honest look at Randy Foye, who, by the way, was never a point guard in college and is trying to make the jump as a rook in the pros, on the fly. His play this season deserves a solid 28-40 minutes per game from now until the end of the season, not the measley 15 he got tonight while James logged 33. All that did was further scramble and obscure an already unfocused, hodge-podge situation at arguably the most important position on the court. For those invested in silver linings, it looks like the great Huddy experiment is over.

2. Davis 41:45; McCants 6:15

Apparently Wittman has no doubts about who his shooting guard is. Ricky Davis, whose contract expires at the end of next year, got off for 33 points (11-21 FG) and supplemented it with 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Rashad McCants received a cursory 6:15 (-2), giving Mr. Davis (-5 in 41:45) enough time to catch his breath. Wittman obviously prefers to divvy up the small forward minutes between Trenton Hassell and Marko Jaric, leaving the 2-guard spot between Davis and McCants. Davis continues to leak out whenever possible, catching at least two court-length passes tonight, and making himself eligible for many more. Defense? Sometimes he plays it, sometimes he doesn’t. This is fine with Randy Wittman, as one of his assistant coaches should remind him every third or fourth time he wheels around and furrows his brow and stamps his foot during a game. Those invested in silver linings should note that Mark Madsen (+1 in 14:59) and Craig Smith (+9 in 12:51) combined to get more minutes than Mark Blount (-16 in 25:29).

3. Taking KG Off the Dribble

Kevin Garnett had a marvelous line: 26 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks. As J-Pete frequently pointed out, he was manhandled yet again without getting enough calls, a pattern that is only going to intensify if opponents can get away with it. I admire his selfless grit in that regard: One of the few abiding conceits in KG’s career was his constant need to be announced as 6-11 before the game when he is actually closer to 7-1. This, it was once explained a long time ago, was because Garnett did not want to be regarded as a center, or anything resembling a paint-centric pivot man. The dude is a large small forward at heart.

But small forwards have to stay with their man off the dribble, and that was something KG failed to do with a rather alarming consistency tonight. Granted, Lamar Odom is a tough matchup, a legit 6-10 and pretty quick. He also had a legit 16-9-8 tonight and seemed to operate pretty easily in penetration. On other occasions, Garnett seemed out of position in transition. Now, the standard cavaet to all this is I don’t know how the coaches were instructing the team to play pick-and-rolls and quick transition plays, and how they were instructed to play Kobe, who had 50 points tonight, by the way, when Kobe had the ball. On the play J-Pete correctly called the pivotal play of the game tonight, for example, late in the 4th quarter, Odom drove across the lane and KG was temporarily picked by Ricky Davis’s man. KG was fighting through the pick and had every intention of staying on Odom, but would have quickly adjusted if Davis had made the right play and done an immediate switch to block Odom’s path to the hoop. Instead, Davis stayed home, Odom was too quick turning the corner, and KG fruitlessly fouled as Odom laid the ball in. Other times, KG had Odom straight up and Lamar simply beat him to the hoop. Other times, KG jumped out on a man in transition and the man fed the ball by him to a teammate KG once was guarding for an easy hoop.

Put simply, not one of the superstar’s better games on D. But when you play Ricky Davis over 41 minutes, and Mike James 2 seconds shy of 33 minutes, you better anticipate an opponent shooting 52.5% and getting 36 assists (on 42 baskets) and half as many turnovers.

Game #64, Road Game #32, Golden State 106, Minnesota 86

1. Postponing the Obvious

So, did you catch that playoff fever? Heading into last night’s Golden State game, the Wolves only had to defeat the Warriors and have the Clips lose on the road in Charlotte to sneak into that 8th playoff seed with just a titch over a month to go in the season. What did it matter that Minnesota was embarking on a five-game road trip, that they’d lost 12 of their past 13 away from Target Center, including eight in a row, and that the Warriors were undefeated in the four games in which they’d been both healthy and replenished by the talent they’d obtained in the Indiana steal?

Naturally, it mattered a lot. The squad got waxed by 20, and it wasn’t that close. Hopefully you’ll notice there isn’t a lot of playoff talk in this forum. It seems more than a little tacky for a team that’s gone 8-20 and stubbornly refuses to see that their most effective lineups and player rotations in the present are precisely those that also best prepare them for the future. That message couldn’t have clearer in the Indiana win earlier this week. It is the focus of the franchise’s sudden media blitz to cajole people into buying season tickets for next year. And, for those with a little patience and foresight, it is actually a fairly exciting prospect–Randy Foye, Rashad McCants and Craig Smith are the answer now, as well as later.

So what does Randy Wittman and the rest of the “braintrust” do as they head into the most crucial five-game stretch of their season? Why, they ride the guys whose attitudes and work ethics have been most questionable, the guys who have been chronic losers for most or all of their careers, the players who have already driven this squad into the latrine over the last two months. Oh, and by invoking this strategy, they double up on the toxicity by discouraging the talented kids who are the only things preventing a rush for the exits by the superstar and any basketball fan with half a brain in this town.

Specifically, what else does Mark Blount need to do to demonstrate that he effectively checked out at the All Star break–take a whizz on the logo at center court? Blount had six turnovers in 16:39 last night, and was a -20 according to popcornmachine.net, meaning the Wolves played the Warriors even in the 31:21 Blount was on the bench. He has consistently sabotaged this team with his shoddy performances since the break, plays so soft that he emboldens opposing big men, makes decisions with the basketball and when to stay in the 3-second area that would be boneheaded for a rookie, let alone a supposed mature veteran, and carries himself with the mien of someone who refuses to let passion invigorate his game–unless there is some personal thing at stake, like his dislike of the Celtic franchise. Mark Madsen and Craig Smith are both woefully undersized, but so what? Both play bigger than Blount. Both play harder than Blount. And both earn way less than half of what Blount is making.

Move on to Ricky Davis. Minus 29 in 33:17 of play. That means the Wolves outscored the Warriors by 9 in the 14:43 Davis sat his ass down. He was 3-14 from the field, but that’s forgiveable–does anyone doubt Davis wants the ball to go in when he shoots? No, what’s repugnant is watching Davis feign as if he is running at his man on defense, already too late to do anything about the wide open J because he didn’t exert the effort earlier. But as he is feigning the D, he is giving himself momentum to start running the other way, in hopes of leaking out for easy buckets. Indeed, most of the time Davis is ducking to avoid the foul as the man shoots. There were two places last night where the Wolves tossed this game–right at the onset, when the Wolves didn’t score a field goal for five minutes and fell behind 3-13, and during the third quarter when Golden State roared through a 16-4 run that put them up 72-50 less than halfway through the period. Davis and Blount were the chief culprits in the opening stasis and Davis’s pathetic defense was the primary catalyst in the third period meltdown, sparked by Stephen Jackson.

It seems pointless (pardon the pun) to pick on Troy Hudson anymore. Suffice to say that he was -14 in 14:49, missed two-thirds of his shots, was not strong enough to guard Baron Davis and not quick enough to guard Monta Ellis. A couple of weeks ago he was suddenly inserted into the starting lineup to jolt the offense into productivity. Last night the Wolves committed a season-high 25 turnovers and scored just 86 against one of the worst, most permissive defensive teams in the league.

If you think Blount, Davis, and Hudson can ever be vital parts of a team contending for a championship, Forbes Magazine has a subscription form they’d like you to fill out.

2. Once More, With Feeling: The Kids Are Alright

According to popcornmachine.net, Rashad McCants was a team-best +3 in 19:57 of play. He had trouble locating Mikel Pietrus, the super-athletic French import, during the second quarter, but otherwise McCants continues to demonstrate a refined grasp of how to play the game. Perhaps most impressive is his restraint–the McCants of last year would have turned 20-point deficits into 35 or 40 with terrible, selfish shot selection, indifferent defense, and a blame-oriented, dolorous attitude. This year, without his full complement of physical skills, he is defending better both on the ball and in zone and rotation situations, accepting the mundane aspects of running the offense with a dedication that improves its efficiency, boxing out and contesting for rebounds with an added vigor, and maintaining a mostly positive mindset amidst the blizzard of bullshit that has become the team’s normal operating procedure.

Randy Foye shot just 3-9 FG but led the team with 20 points because he got to the line 14 times and sank every attempt. (Quick aside: When a free throw is called for after an opposing technical foul or defensive three-seconds call, it is time for Kevin Garnett to cede the role of free throw shooter to Foye and anyone else whose accuracy from the line is greater.) Foye also led the team in assists with 7 (more than a third of the squad’s 19) and committed just 3 turnovers (less than an eighth of the squad’s 25) in 33:11 of play. Right now if the situation was reversed and Foye was the vet and Troy Hudson and Mike James were the green rooks, and you knew the Wolves had to build for the future, you’d still probably counsel starting Foye and playing him the overwhelming majority of minutes, on the premise that the other two simply weren’t ready and might have their confidence shaken by chronic exposure to a game that overwhelms them.

The notion that starting Foye would put too much pressure on him is obviously rendered moot by the fact that you already have started
him. The notion that he can be more aggressive coming in with the second unit instead of the first ignores the obvious fact that a coach can actually advise a rookie point guard to be more aggressive anyway, and let the other starters adjust accordingly. The notion that Randy Foye or the Minnesota Timberwolves are benefitting in any way, shape, or form from waiting until the team is well behind before bringing him in, is, of course, ludicrous.

In a perfect world, the 19:55 Craig Smith played last night is probably about right for his skill set and role. Smith is a change-of-pace, a mucker with a nice touch around the hoop, an unusual presence because of his ‘tweener size, enhancing the odds of mismatches for both sides. Unfortunately, with Mark Blount ratifying most every nasty thing his critics have ever tossed at him, Smith needs at least 30 minutes, or Mark Madsen needs 10-15 more than he’s currently getting. Because of the relative obscurity he will probably always have to endure because of his limited skills and smallish size, Smith will continue to be jobbed by officials (especially on charge versus blocking foul calls) his entire career. But right now he is the best offensive rebounder and second-best big man overall on this squad. Not bad for a second round draft pick.

3. Pictures Telling A Thousand Words

Kevin Garnett’s whole-hearted endorsement of Randy Wittman and his obvious enervation and distaste when Blount and Davis are doing their mail-it-in thang seem contradictory, given that Wittman is enabling the Boston duo. It is just more evidence that KG would make a lousy GM.

But let’s not forget that the best Timberwolves player on the court last night by a country mile was Kevin Garnett, who was absolutely swarmed every time he touched the ball, was manhandled by players big and small, in large part because there is no quality Big who has his back, and who was absolutely spent late midway through the 4th quarter when he missed two free throws after making his first seven. After Wittman mercifully sat Garnett down in the last three minutes, his stone cold stare at the proceedings on the floor was equal parts fatigue, dillusionment, and ire. Then, just as Jim Petersen and Tom Hanneman were talking the woeful state of the team and how important this stretch of games were, there was a closeup of Hudson and Davis sitting next to each, both flashing big smiles.

Game 6, Home Game 32: Minnesota 86, Indiana 81

1. Nothing To Lose But A Reputation For Stupidity

The Timberwolves story in Tuesday’s Star Tribune, entitled “Wittman still seeks right answer,” went into some detail about how the coach of this franchise had tried everything– “tweaked and re-tweaked the lineup, shuffled the rotation…called the team out and kept it behind the scenes… been upset and understanding” — and yet nothing had worked.

But anyone who has been watching this ballclub with at least one eye open knew that there was one thing Wittman and his associates higher up the corporate ladder hadn’t tried. Not only that, but it was the most logical and unimpeachable thing they could have done in the wake of this team’s methodical meltdown and nonchalant ineptitude since the All Star break: Play the kids. More specifically, play current rookies Randy Foye and Craig Smith and last year’s top draft pick Rashad McCants together with superstar Kevin Garnett. Play them as long as possible, regardless of whether the squad was tied with 1:30 to play or down 40 midway through the third period. Let them discover a common rhythm, sift into roles, and, for all concerned, discover exactly what kind of clay there was to work with before it was too late for anything but recriminations.

The three kids were certainly gushed over by the braintrust. In a suddenly pervasive “Blueprint for the Future” publicity blitz that seemed to coincide with a “never too early to renew your season tix for next year” ad blitz, there was invariably a prominent member of the front office expressing oh so much excitment about the talent and upside glory of Foye-Shaddy-Smith. But then the starting lineups would be announced, or we’d return to the game in progress, and who would we see hogging minutes but Troy Hudson, Mark Blount, Ricky Davis–rarely if ever mentioned in the Blueprint for the Future.

Was the organization hypocritical, stupid, or involved in some sort of massive bait-and-switch? If there was a Blueprint for the Future and the Present Sucked Out Loud, what say we launch into the Blueprint post haste? And perhaps shouldn’t that be one of the possibilities for a “right answer” that poor Randy Wittman, at his wit’s end, might contemplate as a “tweak,” if not a “re-tweak”?

Tonight, with the Wolves down a dozen midway through the third period at home to an opponent that had lost nine straight games, Wittman was still seeking. “We searched. I ain’t gonna lie to you, I was going to search even deeper,” he said after the game. But then he did something really sensible. He put Foye and McCants in the game at the same time, replacing Hudson and a stone cold (1-11 FG, 4 turnovers) Ricky Davis. Three minutes later, he subbed in Smith for Blount. He played the kids with KG, with Marko Jaric thrown in for good measure. This is an undersized but scrappy quintet that, to a man, take pride in their defense, something that most definitively cannot be said of Hudson-Davis-Blount. The Wolves spent most of their time in a zone, a defensive scheme that requires a fair amount of trust and communication and doesn’t make Garnett feel like he has to guard everybody. And for the final 15:32 of the game, those five stayed on the floor–“double or triple overtime, they weren’t coming out,” Wittman later claimed–and outscored the Indiana Pacers 35-21 en route to a 86-81 victory.

Staunch defense has been a real rarity for the Wolves recently. After building a 20-16 record with a D that allowed 95.0 points per game, they have tumbled to 7-19 over the next 26 tilts while yielding 103.6 ppg, or nearly eight points more, while scoring an average of just two points more during those last 26. Tonight, through three quarters, even the decimated Pacers (missing Marquis Daniels as well as O’Neal) were shooting a respectable 45.8%. But with the kids plus KG plus Jaric, that plummeted to 20% in the crucial 4th quarter, in which the Pacers got only 14 points, all but one from point guard Jamaal Tinsley.

Every single one of the five Wolves specifically mentioned defense in the locker room after the game. They talked about trust and communication and hustle and how good it felt. Even if this is really the start of a belated awakening, and the braintrust understands that planning for the future is simultaneously the best chance of producing a unified, dedicated effort that could extend the time in which the Wolves stay within sniffing distance of a playoff spot, there will be many ugly moments. Foye is out of position at the point, McCants is playing on a leg and a half, and Smith is woefully undersized. But defensive intensity and genuine goodwill among teammates can be enough to beat sub-mediocre teams and that’s what happened in the second half tonight. The new quintet was tickled by the novelty, and genuinely relieved that shroud draped over the entire squad as a result of its disappointments and putrid play, was being lifted, even as Indiana felt a tenth straight loss stalking their psyche.

A lot of good things happened in those final 15 minutes, but what I won’t forget is consecutive offensive possessions early in the process, just after Indiana had taken its biggest lead at 46-60 and before Smith entered the game. There was a bit of confusion in the offense, bad spacing and unsure ball control near the very top of the key. McCants suddenly held the dribble, and had room for a long turnaround before the shot clock expired. Instead, he spotted Foye just a few steps away, but facing the hoop, and quickly dished to him as, almost in the same motion, Foye rose up and nailed the 25-foot trey. Less than 30 seconds later the Wolves were in transition, Foye dribbling with the ball at the top of the left lane when he suddenly zipped it up near the hoop, too line-drive oriented for a classic alley-oop, to McCants going hard to the hole from the opposite baseline. As McCants slamed it home, Indiana called timeout, their lead suddenly below double-digits, and a smiling McCants came over and briefly locked arms with Foye.

2. The Steady HandsWhether they start together or arise as a duo off the bench, Foye and Marko Jaric are simply too complementary of each other’s strengths and weaknesses right now not to play together. Jaric has the fundamentals–he understands the floor game–but not the sublime confidence. When he’s feeling okay about his place in the cosmos, he has a nice intuitive feel about when to push the pace in transition and when to hold up; when to drive and dish and when to pick and roll. Yes, he spaces out on defense occasionally but more often he’s doing something smart, and his gambles generally carry decent odds of success. Foye needs to play with a backcourt mate that can dribble, defend, and provide positive role modeling, but not dominate, especially in terms of shooting, and especially not in crunchtime. Foye has the inner arrogance Jaric lacks.

KG is obviously a boon to whatever teammates accompany him to the floor, but as I’ve said before, there is a genuine affection between him and McCants that helps McCants remain patient and within himself, a crucial ingredient in these trying times when McCants doesn’t have the pure athleticism that saw him through last year. Who would have thought even a year ago that McCants would be the crunchtime glue guy, the Hassell/Madsen type doing the little things, but there he was in the 4th quarter, taking only one of his team’s 20 shots but grabbing 5 of their 12 boards and committing three fouls to ensure the Pacers didn’t get anything easy–and Indiana shot 3-15 FG for the period. Foye had 9 points, Jaric 4 assists, Craig Smith jousted with Ike Diogu, and KG commanded all the attention. McCants, he was just there, a +18 in 28:52 of play of a five-point victory.

3. On the FlyGarnett was 3-8 FG without a layup as the Wolves shot 39% and trailed 35-42 at halftime. In the first 5:23 of the 3rd period, before the kids came with the bailout, he hit four layups and scored all his team’s points to keep them in the game. At that point his three teammates other than Jaric–Blount, Davis and Huddy–were a combined 3-20 FG and showed no desire to compete.

In what may become a regular feature as long as he is getting 10+ minutes a game, here is the Troy Hudson defensive dead weight measure for tonight: Indiana scored 28 points in the 12:23 Huddy played and 53 points in the 35:37 that he didn’t.

The Wolves finally cut Eddie Griffin loose before the game. Asked to comment by a media member who spun the question as one less distraction bothering the Wolves, Wittman instead was sincerely sorry to see Griffin go, said he was a good kid at heart, and wished him the best down the road. It was a classy gesture.

In keeping with yet another disturbing recent trend, Minnesota was -9 in rebounding, including an 11-25 disadvantage in the second and third periods. Yet Indiana had only 7 second-chance points (to 16 for the Wolves) and a measley 20 points in the paint (to Minnesota’s 30). Think they missed Jermaine O’Neal?

Finally, Wittman allowed himself to think about being just a game out of the playoffs and going on a five-game road trip after losing 12 of their last 13 away from Target Center. Three of those games–at Golden State, the Lakers and Sacramento–are with teams involved in that scrum for the final three playoff spots. “This is a huge trip for us,” the coach said.