T-Wolves -vs- Houston Rockets (1.11.08)

 

BOXSCORE: 

http://www.nba.com/games/20080111/MINHOU/boxscore.html
  

POSTGAME PODCAST:

http://www.TimberwolvesToday.com

 

I’m not gonna lie, after the game started to get out of hand I may have started to lose a little interest.  Can you blame me though?  Can you blame anyone?  It was a blowout approximately halfway through the second quarter.  It was simply “more of the same” that we’ve been accustomed to seeing so far this entire season.  The win versus the Miami Heat was simply an apparition.  I suspected that the win on Tuesday didn’t really mean much, but I didn’t want to rain on the proverbial parade and ruin something positive for any remaining fans.  I’m not sure if it would be worse to be a Heat or Wolves fan at this point in the season.  Shaq is out (again) and Dwayne Wade is perpetually injured.   I mean, being resorted to cheering for super starters Ricky Davis and Mark Blount?  I’d rather scratch out my eyeballs.  They don’t have much for youngsters other than Wade, and have virtually no depth.  Then again, they still do have 3 more wins than us.  It’s a toss up I guess.

 When the Wolves are letting guys like Luis Scola and Carl Landry to run roughshod in the paint, you know it is gonna be a l o n g night.  Houston was hustling for lose balls and displaying far more energy than the Wolves, despite the fact that we were coming off the “big win” against the Miami Heat on Tuesday.  Also, the Wolves had 3 days off and quite frankly, there is no excuse for coming out for a game so flat, dull, inconsistent, and lifeless.  The Wolves put forth a putrid effort and it was quite an embarrassing performance.  It’s no wonder we were down 30+ points for a large part of the game.  I was more bored watching this game than Michael Jackson at an all girl keg party.  Heck, I was more bored than Elton John in the Playboy Mansion.  I was even more bored than John Amaechi at the… ok, you get the point.

(Click "Read More..." for thoughts and analysis.)

THE CASE FOR TURBO

If you attend Wolves games and can hear anything shouted from Section 124, you may hear the frequent encouragement for a certain Wolves player a few of us like to call "Turbo".  Some coworkers of mine who happen to be fans of the 1980s break-dancing movie Breakin' noticed that a certain rookie Timberwolf has an uncanny resemblance to the character "Turbo".  As we all have season tickets, we have started vocally supporting the nickname.  In our section, the nickname is starting to stick.  At the Gameworks ticket-holder event, my coworker informed the player of his resemblence.  The response - "Breakin', eh?  I might have to check that one out."  I now present the evidence to you (and invite you to see this):

Here's Turbo:

 

If you need further evidence, please click read ahead.

Editor’s Note:  This article was written before last night’s 101-91 victory over the Miami Heat.  Slight edits/adjustments have been made to compensate.


      I’ve recently found it harder and harder to collect my thoughts and objectively attempt to cover a team that displays such a putrid effort on a nightly basis.  In fact, the most consistent thing about this 5-29 Wolves squad is our glaring lack of desire and heart out on the court on a daily basis.  Dwane Casey may have been fired last year for being too “inconsistent”; but I’m not sure Glen Taylor & Company were bargaining for a coach that is consistently bad, which is what we’ve got in Randy Wittman.  Then again, they are all buddies so who really knows what's going on. 

    I’m not at the stage where I’m apathetic enough to no longer care, and I’m also not yet extremely angry about what’s going on during the games.  It’s true that watching the Wolves has been pretty depressing of late, but going into the season I expected a heavy dose of losing.  Anyone that thought we wouldn’t lose a majority of our games was merely kidding themselves, or a tad bit delusional.  My contention is that I did not think this team would accept losing to the degree that has been happening lately.  Most nights the Wolves are a sad, sorry lot that looks like they’ve already managed to lose the game before tip-off.  It does not appear that our team is adequately prepared heading into games, nor do they have competent leadership; be it on the court or at the top of the organization.  When it comes down to it, I’m a die hard fan that will support this club to the bitter end, but if the Timberwolves Organization does not start turning things around soon, they will find themselves losing the attention and financial support of a large group of the fair-weather fans.  I’m not using “fair-weather fans” in a derogatory way, but every sports team has its fans that support the team when they are winning, and appear to care a bit less when things are not going so well.  From what Glen Taylor would like us to believe regarding his financial situation of owning the T-Wolves; losing any financial support is not an option he can readily or easily afford.  Thus, the onus is on Glen Taylor and his cherry picked Front Office to turn this club around, before things become completely unpalatable to the vast majority of Minnesotans.

(Click "Read More..." for the article in it's entirety)

I haven't been getting enough sleep lately.  I've been really busy over the past week, I've been catching up on some late-night TV viewing (Conan rules!), and -- oh yeah -- I LOVE caffeine.  So, with all that in mind, I haven't exactly been getting my recommended amount of nightly sleep.

Thank God for the Wolves -- they're a helluva sleep aid.  Today's game was a snoozer from start to finish, with the Wolves only briefly displaying any life.  Remember when we were all talking about how fun this team would be to watch?  Well, in reality, they've been exceptionally boring.

At one point this season, the Wolves were actually competitive. They weren't winning, but they'd be in the ballgame right down to the wire.  Lately, though, we've been seeing more and more games that have been decided by halftime.

And today's game was indeed over by the end of the second quarter.  Dallas came out with greater intensity than the Wolves did, made the all-important hustle plays, and most importantly, they actually played defense.

Here's the bright spot of the game: Quick Change performed at halftime.  Otherwise, the suckers who actually paid money to see today's game (myself included) were absolutely robbed.  A waste of money.

A couple things from today's game: This team doesn't hustle, they don't play hard on defense, and they're completely one-dimensional on offense. 

Four fast break points for the Wolves.  Prior to this season, we envisioned a team that would play fast-paced and up-tempo on offense, using their youth and energy to their advantage.  That hasn't happened.  This team doesn't push the tempo, and often gets bogged down in sluggish halfcourt sets.

Now, that wouldn't be the absolute end of the world if we actually had serviceable perimeter shooting.  But we don't.  Antoine Walker is the only person on this team who hits the three with any regularity (and even 'Toine's often inconsistent from behind the arc) -- other than him, quality perimeter shooters are few and far between on this roster (and I even hesitate to classify 'Toine as a "quality" perimeter shooter..."streaky" is perhaps the better word).

The defensive effort from the Wolves was nothing short of laughable.  When you're playing a team like the Mavericks, you need energy and intensity on defense -- give Dallas uncontested shots, and they'll kill you.  The Wolves must not have gotten the memo.

The matchups with Dirk weren't exactly favorable.  Neither Al nor Craig match up well with Dirk, and that was painfully obvious during the game...Nowitzki had numerous uncontested jumpers, and he simply doesn't miss when defenders fail to get a hand in his face.

On the perimeter, the Wolves' defense couldn't have been much worse.  Dallas' guards were constantly able to penetrate against our guards, who played with no energy on the defensive end and simply weren't moving their feet.  Look at the stats: Bassy finished the game with three fouls, while Jaric picked up another three and McCants had four.  Again, that's just evidence of this team playing defense with their hands, while failing to get a body on the Mavs guards.  Don't call it poor defensive technique...call it poor effort.

Our bigs deserve plenty of blame on the defensive end, as well.  As I mentioned, Dallas maintained a huge advantage on the offensive boards, simply because they hustled and we didn't.  That's a simplistic statement, but really, it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that...Dallas hustled, and the Wolves didn't.  And it's been getting increasingly common to see the Wolves get out-hustled.

I fully believe that this team quit on Wittman today.  It's been said that the NBA is a game of momentum, a game of runs...well, the Wolves didn't really make a run, and they never had much momentum (they showed a little life in the second quarter, but beyond that, Dallas dominated this game).

I'm not upset because they lost to Dallas.  That was expected.  It's that the Mavericks displayed more hustle, more intensity on the defensive end, more energy.

It's one thing to play a hard-fought game, and come up empty.  It's another to not even care. 

...When Kevin Garnett runs wild on you???????????

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For those of you without NBA League Pass, I felt that I absolutely had to share this with you.  This is a series of clips that show Kevin Garnett bringing an entire stadium into pandemonium, followed by an outburst of emotion greater than any athlete has ever displayed, followed by a phenomenal team celebration.  Unfortunately there's no audio, but just imagine an entire stadium gone completely bezerk, and you'll catch the drift of what's going down.

Please keep in mind that this all occurred during a regular season NBA game in January.  I repeat, not the NBA playoffs.  January. 

What Kevin Garnett is doing in Boston is something that perhaps no athlete has ever done before.  He has his entire team and fanbase so geared up for every game, that they just come out and decimate every comer.  If you've been to an NBA regular season game, you know that intensity level is less than optimum on most nights.  So imagine being the Houston Rockets expecting to walk into your typical away arena filled with casual fans who will occasionally hoot and holler, and then getting smashed upside the head by 25,000 people crammed into a Hummer crusing at 90 miles per hour.  Do you think they even stand a chance?

Look at their faces of the Rockets while Kevin Garnett is doing his thing!  They're completely shell shocked!  The look on Mike James' face is priceless.  It's awe, stupor, and disgust all combined into one. He's probably wondering where this KG was last season!  I start to wonder that too a bit, but then I remember all the burdens the man had to bear in Minnesota.  This is him, finally set free.  It's pure beauty, and it's utterly infectious.  This is Vince McMahon's dream realized - an all-powerful, ultra-charastmatic superstar, who has the entire crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.  The only thing I can compare it to is Hulkamania at it's apex.    The only difference is that this is 100% real.  It's unbelievable!

I wish that this was happening in a Wolves jersey so badly, but the fact that it's happening at all is just so awesome in itself.  KG is blossoming into something that the world has never seen before, and this is so much bigger than the Wolves, Celtics, and perhaps even the NBA.  This is history - this is Elvis, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Moses - you name it - leading the way and taking us all to the promised land.  This is what sports is all about, people! 

We always knew Garnett had it in him.  Now the world is finally starting to see it as well. There's no going back from here.  The revolution of "fun" has officially begun!

*What's up, everybody?  Hope you're doing good tonight...it'll be interesting to see what happens tonight, as the Wolves face the hottest team in the NBA, the Trail Blazers.  I'm just hopng the Wolves can avoid a blowout, but we'll just have to wait and see.

*Brandon Roy (remember him?) leads the Blazers in scoring this season, as he averages 19.2 PPG...he also leads the team in assists, averaging 5.6 per game. 

*Meanwhile, LaMarcus Aldridge is averaging 18.2 PPG and 7.2 RPG. 

*Portland went 13-2 in December, and saw their 13-game winning streak come to an end against Utah on New Year's Eve. The Wolves and Blazers last met on December 28, when Portland beat the Wolves at Target Center, 109-98.  

*Uhh...how did a huge crack form at center court?

*All right, Hanny..I think you've made enough witty comments about the Wolves using the word, "gap."  "The Wolves will need to repair the gaps in their scoring"..ugh!

*No way...PA's on the pregame show?  Sweet...he's always been one of my favorite local sports minds. 

*Well, even though PA's completely right about Wittman's previous rotations hurting Brew's development, he'll probably get thrown off the pregame show for having the nerve to criticize the coaching staff. 

*All right, looks like we're finally ready to go...Click "Read More" to continue...

Join me Wednesday evening for a live blog of the Wolves-Blazers game (the game's at 7:00 CST, and is being broadcast on FSN).  Portland's 13 game winning streak recently came to an end with a loss to Utah, but at 18-13, they're on the verge of overtaking Denver for the lead in the Northwest Division.  Should be interesting to get a look at the surging Blazers, so hopefully you can stop by during the game.

Last week, I talked about being thankful for the Vikings' turnaround, since it gave us something to cheer about in Minnesota.  Well, that sure went downhill fast...after the Vikings collapsed against the Redskins, it looks like yet another Minnesota team will be left out of the playoffs.  And if the Vikes do indeed miss the playoffs, my attention's turning to Tubby's team.

I'd like to personally accompany Randy Wittman to a Gophers basketball game--if he took a gander at how Tubby's squad is playing, maybe he'd be a little less incompetent in his current position.  

Both the Wolves and Gophers share similarities...the biggest being that neither team is terribly talented.  The Wolves have potential talent on their roster, but as of now, their talent level is (obviously) inadequate when compared to the rest of the NBA.  Meanwhile, Tubby's working with Monson's players--and with a few exceptions, we know that Monson was a lousy recruiter.

OK--so both teams lack talent.  Why, then, are the Gophers 10-1 (with yesterday's win against Kennesaw State, they surpassed their 2006-07 win total), while the Wolves are an embarrassing 4-25 (easily the worst record in the NBA)?

(Click "Read More" to continue)