Preseason: Wolves 95, Pacers 106
Al Jefferson, the lynch pin of the 7-for-1 mega deal that sent Garnett
to Boston this summer, had a KG-like performance in his first
appearance in front of the hometown crowd.
He had 27 points and 17 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who were just
happy to be home after spending the first month of the preseason as NBA
vagabonds.
Stephen Litel/Hoopsworld with some notes on the game.
Mike Trudell/Timberwolves site posted a game blog.
In a relatively quiet arena that held more empty seats than fans, the
Wolves -- minus injured point guards Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair
-- lost 106-95 to an Indiana Pacers team playing without many of its
best players.
And so the feeling is that it's hard to draw any conclusions as the preseason draws near an end.
Forward Craig Smith suffered a scary fall in the
second quarter when he jumped and almost landed on Indiana's Mike
Dunleavy. Smith was able to return to the game. Wittman said Smith
might have bruised his tailbone.
The dysfunction continued in the second half with Marko Jaric throwing
a seemingly simple pass away when attempting to feed Jefferson in the
post. Yes, Jaric has a history of bad play, but why didn’t anyone say
anything to Davis after any of his seven turnovers--all of which were
due to sloppy, lazy play? Jaric, who also has the history of
compounding a problem, did so again by bickering with both Al Jefferson
and Coach Wittman when they complained about the pass.
