Housekeeping prelude: Skip down to Point 1 if you're not interested. My apologies for this tardy trey pointer after not posting after the San Antonio tilt. From now on, beginning after Wednesday night's game, I will set up this site to receive your feedback after every game, whether I have been able to post my complete thoughts on the game or not.

1. Mr. Negative
I wish I could say I felt good about tonight's ending of the three-game losing streak with the victory over Houston, but the Rockets were horrible, missing a bevy of open jumpers and only mildly contested follow-ups in the paint. The counterpart to "moral victories" are "moral losses," and like the game they eked out over a wounded Indiana team, this felt like one of them.

In a blockbuster trade announced just minutes ago, the Wolves dealt Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi, Dwayne Jones, and a first-round draft pick to the Boston Celtics for Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marcus Banks, Justin Reed and two second-round picks. Moments before, the Wolves also swapped Nikoloz Tkiitishvilli to Phoenix for a second round pick. I'll analyze the deal a little later.

1. Child is father to the man
I remember when Kevin McHale promoted Flip Saunders back in 1995, adding coach to the title of general manager in Flip's duties. At the time it felt like collegiate cronyism; the old Gopher big man tapping his point guard for the duties. And on a then-chronically failed franchise where both the original and the current (then as now) owner tapped their son-in-law for an important executive position (Bob Stein for Marv Wolfenson, and Rob Moor for Glen Taylor), cronyism, a cousin of nepotism, seemed like business as usual.

1. Competence or character?
It is tough to overestimate how nasty Sunday's last-second home loss to Philadelphia was to the psyche of this Timberwolves team, who blew a 19-point lead with 14 minutes left to play. Normally the last one out of the showers while the daily beat writers with deadlines grit their teeth, Kevin Garnett was long gone before the media hit the lockers--a bad sign. In his postgame press conference, Coach Dwane Casey went into rote mediation mode, yet again telling us how hard his team played. Then he was compelled to add, "These guys are hurting... I'm just as proud of these guys as anyone...if you want to blame anyone, blame me."

Note to those who usually only read Balls!--I have a Hang Time column on Kevin McHale, entitled "Lame Duck," printed elsewhere on the homepage to citypages.com. Here's the link. It will also be in the paper edition on Wednesday.

1.Two for the money
Anyone who has watched the Timberwolves over the past six weeks won't be surprised that Kevin Garnett and Wally Szczerbiak carried this team yet again for its third straight victory, 95-90, over the Knicks. KG is a freak of nature, of course, a top-five rebounder and defender for many years now, and the easiest player to coach in the entire NBA. But the latest remarkable thing to realize is that as a short-to-midrange jump-shooter, Garnett is as deadly as the Pejas and Ray Allens and Dirk Nowitzkis of the world, and could get 15-20 points a game even if he never went strong to the hoop.

1. In good hands with KG
In the wake of Minnesota's 99-93 victory over the Bulls tonight, coach Dwane Casey made a point of emphasizing the lack of turnovers as the key to the win. After averaging a horrid 17.7 turnovers the previous 7 games (2-5 record), the Wolves burped it up just ten times against Chicago.

1. Casey's regression
Time for Dwane Casey to take a day off, maybe two. By most accounts, the guy's an obsessive worker, ever prepared, wed to the film projector, and suffused with strategy. All that seems to be sabotaging rather than abetting his intelligence as the Wolves spiral to a series of close, shoulda-won losses--he can't see the forest for the trees. Specifically, he can't see that when his tenuously confident, up-and-down 23-year old center has five blocks in the first quarter and has locked into a rhythm that is primarily responsible for Milwaukee scoring only 14 points in the game's first 12 minutes you don't sit him down for the entire second quarter!

1. Casey passes gut-check
Tonight's 91-78 win over Dallas was significant for many reasons. The Wolves haven't been below .500 since November 15 (3-4) and likewise haven't been out of first place in their horrid division in nearly that long. They were coming off two merciless beatings by at least 20 points heading into this, the first of three games against teams with the two best records in the Western Conference.

1. Too many goats
Kevin Garnett and Wally Szczerbiak are playing smart, inspired basketball. The rest of the Timberwolves are a passel of partial talents who seem to be coming unglued rather than complementing each other. On Friday they got thumped by 20 in Orlando, 107-87. On Sunday, the Miami Heat totally dismantled them in the second half en route to a 27-point loss that wasn't that close, 97-70. There are so many people who share the blame, it is hard to know where to begin.