Timberwolves chase the glory

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     Photo by quinn.anya

Friends, its been a little bit easier than normal to be a Wolves fan this week. The team is currently enthralled in their longest winning streak of the year. On Friday in Dallas, they scored 117 points on the Mavericks, one of the best defensive teams in the league. And on Saturday they beat Memphis by shooting 55.6% from the field, committing only seven turnovers and allowing the Grizzlies to shoot only eight free-throws. Even better: the Wolves dished out 26 assists in each of these two games and have hit 19 of their last 36 threes. What the hell is going on here?    Turning Inside-Out

The Dallas and Memphis games have been two of the Wolves best offensive showings of the year, but they came by those nice results in pretty different ways. On Friday--especially until the fourth quarter when the Mavericks started trapping the ball and attacking passing lanes--the Wolves showed some of their most natural and effective execution of the triangle offense's inside-out flow. Their were moments in that wild game when the ball seemed to be moving on its own accord, finding for itself the paths of least resistance. (Of course their were other moments in which both teams resembled a wasted, incoherent Harlem Globetrotters, but this is never going to be perfect.) 

But on Saturday, Memphis made a concerted effort to deny the Wolves those entry passes, both by sagging guards into the post and with aggressive ball-denial by their post defenders. The Wolves were able to keep the game competitive in the first half thanks mostly to Ryan Gomes's trance-like three-point shooting, but it was clear that the offense--the spacing, the ball movement, the shooting by everyone but Gomes--just wasn't quite working.

(A quick note on Gomes is in order here. So he scored 20 points, on 8-10 shooting, in the first half and then didn't even attempt another shot until the 10:44 mark of the fourth quarter. Not only did he not complain about this fact, he put his nose to the grindstone of creating looks for his teammates and defending the long, smooth Rudy Gay, a thankless task if their ever was one. When asked about being shut out of the scoring after such a pristine half, Gomes--remember that this is a millionaire professional basketball player talking here--simply replied that, no biggie, "the shots weren't presenting themselves like they were in the first half." Um, dude, are you the Buddha?)

Hang On to Your Ego

The turning point in the game came with 7:43 remaining in the third quarter. The Wolves were down by nine, still scuffling to execute their offense, hanging on merely by the thread of some typically wild and wonderful Corey Brewer runners and dunks. Worse, their defense was in disarray. The Wolves were attempting to double-team Zach Randolph in the post, but were rotating poorly to Memphis's shooters, resulting in some wide open jumpers and a much too easy dunk. So Rambis replaced Jonny Flynn (who, to my eyes, was the source of much of that defensive confusion) with Ramon Sessions; from that point on, the Wolves outscored Memphis 51-35 and played some of their best ball of the year.

Here's the big distinction from the Dallas game: rather than operating mainly within the triangle, the Wolves began steadily running pick and rolls with Sessions. Not only did this give Ramon the chance to knife his way to the basket--he scored 15 on 6-8 shooting after coming in for Flynn--but it gave Al Jefferson the space he needed to operate on the block. (Sessions played so well, in fact, that, in the fourth quarter, Flynn actually declined to replace him: that's amazing.) 

At this point, the game became a Wolves highlight film: Sessions twisting his way through heavy traffic, and banking the ball high off the glass; Big Al pumping, spinning and fading his way to a perfect 8-8 fourth quarter; Sessions again, lacing a long entry pass to a cutting Kevin Love, who gently one-touched the ball to Al for a dunk; Love exuberantly leaping into the cheerleading Flynn's arms after nailing the three that sealed the game.

So we're seeing some things that are pretty remarkable for a team that, until this past week, still hadn't cracked double-digits in wins. The Wolves arguably have less overall talent than either the Warriors or even the dreadful, depressing Nets, their two companions at the first floor of the NBA standings. Unlike those teams, though, it's plain that this team hasn't given up on each other. They still seem to be willing to learn from their coaches; they still convincingly speak the language of ball-sharing and trust; they do things like willingly sacrifice their own shots when the flow of the game dictates it and cheerfully volunteer to sit out the entire fourth quarter when their backup is playing well. As with any team, there are germs of discontent scattered beneath the surface; Kevin Love says he doesn't mind being replaced in the starting lineup, but you can see it in his face--dude really does not enjoy sitting on the bench (oh, and how long will Sessions tolerate backing up a less competent rookie? and how much losing can Al Jefferson really take?) But there's a palpable sense of positivity emanating from this team right now. It feels pretty good.