December 2006

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Glen Mason fired a year too late

Filed under: Gophers

On January 1, 2006, University of Minnesota football coach Glen Mason signed a five-year contract worth approximately $1.65 per year. On December 31, 2006, Mason was fired.

Never a charismatic nor particularly amiable coach during his decade-long tenure in Minnesota, Mason did take the Gophers to five straight bowl games. On the other hand, his teams never finished higher than fourth in the rugged Big 10 Conference and the bowls he went to were decidedly minor affairs, including the Insight Bowl this year, where the Gophers blew a 31-point lead to finish with a record of 6-7 and seal Mason's demise. The coach's overall mark of 64-57 was padded with nearly two-dozen games against non-conference patsies. This season, the Gophs were pressed to eke out a one-point win over North Dakota State, a Division I-AA school.

The Mason era saw some of the finest players ever to perform in maroon and gold. In the last three years alone, he coached the running back tandem of Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber III, both now gainfully employed in the NFL. Center Greg Eslinger won the 2005 Outland Trophy, awarded to college football's top interior lineman. And Matt Spaeth captured the John Mackey Award this year as the best tight end in the NCAA. And going back to 1999, Tyrone Carter captured the Jim Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in college football. The Gophers' lack of success despite this surfeit of top-flight talent leaves Mason with a checkered legacy.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 31, 2006 5:12 PM | Comments (2)

 

The Three-Pointer: Weekend Split with 12-18 teams

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) There is no D in backcourt
There have been two occasions this season when Kevin Garnett has looked awful on defense; the first game against Milwaukee two weeks ago on the road, and last night versus New Jersey. What those opponents have in common are potent scorers in the backcourt (Redd and Mo Williams for the Bucks, Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson for the Nets) and a nondescript front line (Brian Skinner and Andruw Bogut for the Bucks, Mikki Moore and Jason Collins for the Nets), which indicates that, visually as well as physically, KG may have been focusing too much toward help D on the perimeter.

I don't want to excuse the superstar here. The Nets entered the game last in the NBA in offensive rebounds and KG allowed Moore to corral five of them, most resulting in putbacks as part of Moore's tell-the-grandkids night of 20 points on 9-9 FG. But if all Garnett had to do was shut down Moore, don't you imagine it would get done? This team has a backcourt containing a maddeningly inconsistent defender in Ricky Davis, and a guy who hopefully just hasn't figured it out yet in Mike James. But James in particular was torched a variety of ways against the Nets--baseline cuts that also burned Garnett, Davis, Hassell and others, and perimeter jumpers from the likes of Eddie House, who is nothing but an inflammable gunner, with a quick release and a deadly eye but not quick feet or much height. In other words, if Eddie House gets 9 points in less than 6 and a half minutes, as he did against James in the second quarter last night, then House's man isn't guarding him very closely.

Again, without knowing the specifics of the defensive assignments, I can't rip James, who maybe was cheating toward Kidd and Vinsanity the same way KG was cheating off Moore. But I think it's telling that coach Dwane Casey sat James for the final 15:49 last night, even subbing in Bracey Wright for the entire fourth period after Marko Jaric had hurt his hand and was unavailable. Personally, I think that's a bad idea for a number of reasons--you further damage James's fragile confidence, and James is the most complimentary ball-handler for Randy Foye. James had 6 dimes and no turnovers last night while Foye, who had one of his better ball-movement games of the year, was at 4 assists and 2 turnovers. Yes, James continues to have trouble with his shot, going 3-10 from the field, with two of those being first-half layups. Bottom line, I continue to think that the team's best prospects for a playoff push this season involve Foye and James in regular rotation in the same backcourt.

All that said, Casey has a sound argument for benching James in crunchtime. The coach has maintained that he wants this club to establish a defensive identity, and that is almost impossible to do when James is on the floor. (Well, it's possible if you play a battered and dead-tired team, as Minnesota did Friday night at home against the Sonics. I understand Seattle had a rough flight in out of Denver the night before and were pretty much sleepwalking. But that was a horrible, feeble basketball team, easily the Wolves' most lackluster foe of the season thus far.)

Davis has ceased being the club's biggest albatross on defense. I'll concede that his incredible athleticism and occasional displays of commitment to that end of the court whet my appetite to see him explore his potential; and that when he inevitably takes plays off--sometimes bunches at a time--it intensifies my ire. Imagine how KG must feel, knowing the assignments, knowing what he's got in front of him, knowing that Kidd, Vinsanity and RJ are setting up while Collins and Moore are hanging out. A little more consistency from Davis, a clue or two for James (and Foye, for that matter) and perhaps the perimeter D will be such that we won't have to rub our eyes and wonder if that really was Mikki Moore going off for 20 on Kevin Garnett.

2) Figuring how Blount fits
Maybe it's time to try and get Mark Blount 25-30 points a night; run lots of parallel high-posts in the half-court sets and utilize the pick-and-roll on the juiciest matchups, with the other big man crashing hard toward the boards for a rebound or weakside pass from the penetrating guard or high-post pivot man. Because Blount is shooting lights out with a smooth, fabulous stroke, yet the Wolves usually are a net minus in close contests in which he performs.

For example, on a night when 7-10 from the floor, he also was a team-worst -12 (according to popcornmachine.net), grabbed just two rebounds in more than 30 minutes of action, and registered four turnovers. It follows a pattern; both Bucks games also saw him shoot well and still hurt his squad. I've chided Wolves' color announcer Jim Petersen for his Blount ardor, but when you watch him perform, it is hard not to root for the guy. More significantly, he has the backing of Garnett, who rarely misses a chance to praise him in post-game interviews, lauding his versatility and work ethic Friday night after the Seattle game.

Okay, so how do you overcome Blount's weaknesses? Court vision is usually deployed with respect to point guards and other passers, but Blount seems to have lousy court vision on defense. Unlike Davis, the effort seems fairly constant, but the recognitions and reactiosn are painfully slow. That may also be why Blount is at best a mediocre rebounder.

A while back one of the shrewd commenters on this blog proposed a large front line of Blount, KG, and Craig Smith. It's an intriguing thought, if only for a 3-4 change of pace on occasion. The danger is that Blount will rack up the fouls playing anywhere but the low block, or that teams with good ball movement and outside marksmen will carve up a large front line (remember what the Lakers Vlad Radmanovich did to Smith). And there is always a danger of tiring all your quality big men at the same time. But putting KG on the high block with the option of dishing to Blount for a 15 footer, going down low to Smith (who moves well without the ball) or enjoying the lack of double teams and taking it to the hole himself seems like a worthy experiment in the weeks ahead.

3) Quick hits
Speaking of moving without the ball, why is it that only KG seems able to find Trenton Hassell on cuts to the hoop or weakside corner jumpers? Are James and Davis not looking for Hassell, or is Hassell not moving as much when the backcourt guys have the rock? In any case, given his paucity of shots this season, opponents frequently lose Hassell in the flow, and the guy can shoot, with a higher FG percentage than anyone on the squad who is not a center or power forward. What's more, if Hassell is covered, he looks for KG first and foremost. (Come to think of it, maybe I just answered my first question in this paragraph.)

It has been too early to speculate about until now, but I'm not sure the chemistry between Randy Foye and Rashad McCants is going to be immediately copasetic once Shaddy returns from his microfracture injury sometime in January. Foye necessarily is a ball hog, meaning he plays best when he controls the orb--there isn't anybody on the team I'd rather have working the final play of a quarter or a game. Given that that is one of the precious few plums remaining to be had on a team with KG, don't expect McCants to concede the crunchtime alpha status to Foye. On the plus side, maybe Casey will declare that the one playing the best team defense will get preference off the bench.

Numerous times against New Jersey, Garnett set perimeter picks for James and Davis. Given how well Davis shoots coming off the curl, and given how well both men pass the ball, shouldn't there be more pick and rolls between the Wolves two best offensive weapons?

Posted by Britt Robson at December 31, 2006 1:51 PM | Comments (3)

 

The Three-Pointer: A 4th Quarter Problem

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Goats with no backbones
So with 10:51 left to play in the game and the Wolves up five, 78-73, on the road in Toronto, coach Dwane Casey crosses all of his fingers and toes in fruitless hope and decides to rest Kevin Garnett for the first time in the second half. You know the rest: 3:13 later, KG is rushed back in because the Wolves have failed to score, ceding the lead via a 7-0 Raptors run. Ricky Davis misses a pair of jumpers and turns the ball over. Randy Foye blows a layup. Marko Jaric jacks a brick. It's the second half, so Mark Blount disappears. And Mike James is next to KG on the bench, waiting for his chance to prove that he's not ready for prime time.

Folks who believe Garnett just needs to put the whole team on the back of his shoulders toast their wisdom as he goes hard to the hoop on numerous occasions, hitting a baby hook and a short turnaround in the paint, banging home free throws, dishing crosscourt to Foye--the only other player with a pulse when the game is on the line--who nails a trey.

But of course it isn't enough because one-man ballclubs almost never can surmount the efforts of five opponents and the hindrance of three or four wilting teammates. Let's name the goats in order of obvious culpability.

Mike James: Yup, he had 20 points. Yup, he led the Wolves on the popcornmachine.net site with a +1. Yup he didn't turn the ball over one time. Yup he ranked third in the entire NBA in free throw percentage heading into tonight's tilt. Did he rise to the occasion and earn the trust of his teammates (not to mention a prorated portion of his $23 million over the next four years)? Nope.

His "defense" on Toronto point guard TJ Ford brought back memories of Sam Cassell back when Sammy was playing with an enormously painful back and hip injury (or, if you prefer, a year later when Sammy seemed to be trying to sabotage the Timberwolves season). Dribble penetration against Mike James is roughly akin to the dribble drills through those orange highway cones. Ford had 28 points and seven dimes, and was the clearcut player of the game thanks to James's matador D. Then, with the Wolves up by 4 with less than four minutes to play, James has the ball behind the three-point arc, ready to sink the dagger in. His jumper doesn't even clang, it caroms off the backboard without hitting the hoop. Then, to cap off his night, James is fouled with 8 seconds left to play, awarded three free throws that will tie the game if he makes them all. But the 93 percent free throw shooter is way off line on his second attempt and that's essentially the ballgame.

Mark Blount
Was it only last night that Kevin Garnett was lobbying hard for more second half minutes for Blount? Be careful what you wish for. With 8:24 left in the second quarter, Blount executed a nifty layup for his 9th and 10th points. He also had 5 rebounds at the time. Since he sat for three minutes, that's 10 and 5 in his first 12 and a half minutes. When the game was over, Blount had logged a team-high 41:12. He finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds. That's zero points and three boards over the last 29 minutes for a seven-footer who didn't even have to contend with Raptors' pivot man Rasho Nesterovic (who was guarding Garnett).

Ricky Davis
The second best athlete on the team. Tremendous passer, explosive scorer, fitfully indifferent defender who can wreak havoc when he puts his mind to it. Tonight he was 5-16 from the field and didn't score in the 4th quarter.

2) This one's not on Casey
It seems increasingly unlikely that Dwane Casey will last out the season. After the Laker game, I would have called that justice. Now, well, right now the coach is neither the solution nor the problem, and if he does get canned, some yo yo will pull out the line about not being able to fire the players so you fire the coach. But what was Casey supposed to do tonight: Never sit Garnett on the tail end of a back-to-back right after the superstar had already complained about how coughing up 4th quarter leads unduly taxed the starters? No, instead Casey heeded KG's plea to play Blount. He tried to mix and match James and Davis and had some of his more reliable crunchtime performers, including Jaric, Smith, KG, and Foye, getting 4th quarter minutes. Only Trenton Hassell didn't play the final stanza among the eight players in Casey's shortened rotation, and Foye played the entire period. What would you do?

3) Do or Die Week?
Starting Friday at home against Seattle, Minnesota will play five games in eight days, four of which should be regarded as either eminently winnable or seesaw tilts, those too-close-to-predict scenarios that ultimately decide the success or failure of a ballclub versus prevailing opinion and expectations. Only San Antonio at the Target Center next Wednesday looks like an almost-certain defeat. If the Wolves do indeed go 4-1, beating Seattle and Philly at home and New Jersey and Charlotte on the road, they will be over .500 with more than a third of the season under their belts. But during a season where the schedule has been relatively favorable and serious injuries have been practically nonexistent, a poor showing between now and a week from Friday will harden the cynics and tax the patience of the fair-weather fans.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 28, 2006 12:01 AM | Comments (12)

 

The Three-Pointer: KG and Foye MV2

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Foye leaps up the pecking order

It was happening again. Six days ago, the Wolves played their most ignominious game of the season, choking through a 7-to-34 4th quarter waxing that transformed a double-digit lead into a double-digit loss. Tonight, after being up 25 with 17:51 left to play and by 14 with a mere 5:34 to go, the Chicago Bulls reeled off a dozen straight points in three and a half minutes, forcing Minnesota coach Dwane Casey to call timeout up just 94-92 with 2:03 on the clock.

Casey called up a play that sent Kevin Garnett to his favorite spot on the left (if you are facing the basket) block, and a passell of Bulls dutifully followed him. Then Marko Jaric inbounded a beautiful bounce pass along the right baseline to rookie Randy Foye, who caught-and-shot a 15-footer that broke the Bulls run. Thirty seconds later, Foye drove the lane, was fouled, and nailed both free throws to bump the lead to six with 1:30 left. But Chicago tied it with 7 seconds to play. In the huddle, Casey again called Foye's number; a high pick-and-roll that was really more KG catching the inbounds, flipping it to Foye, and watching the rook work his patented right-hand runner, banking it in from seven feet. After the game, fellow rookie Craig Smith said Casey's tabbing of Foye for the game-winner was "automatic. I knew exactly what he was doing. Nobody can stop him...That [move] is his bread and butter and I haven't seen anybody stop it."

Having your embattled coach look smart by calling your number on the two most crucial offensive possessions of the game while the embattled personnel guy who manuvered to secure your services on draft day watches from the stands is one of the surest ways to move up in the pecking order of any ballclub. It also doesn't hurt that the Wolves need Foye to emerge quickly to lessen the sting on both KG and their hardcore fans over not landing Allen Iverson. It won't be an immediate and total fait accompli--there is still Ricky Davis and Mike James, not to mention a rapidly recovering Rashad McCants to contend with--but right now it is hard to imagine Foye not settling into the role as KG's primary sidekick and staying there until the superstar retires or is traded.

This is not all good news, by the way. During the Wolves' last four game winning streak, it seemed pretty obvious, and heartening, that if James found his aggressiveness and Davis humped on defense, Garnett had a nice little nucleus--or maybe orbiting electrons--against which to parlay his skills and weave his synergistic magic. But Davis and James are unreliable. They don't feel like winners. Davis does a lot of things well, and actually was sorely missed after he fouled out with 4:45 to play. But his defensive effort was again lacking--only the Bulls' ennui and succession of missed open jumpers saved his ass in the first half, although he did improve some in the second half--and the strong arguments you can make both for and against his overall game make it fitting that he was essentially acquired for Wally Szczerbiak, another teaser who bounces between solid second fiddle and shakey third wheel.

James is worse than that. At the 25 game mark, it is time for him to demonstrate why he was the Wolves' most significant free agent signing. Right now he is playing without confidence, and is THE weak link, including Davis, in the team's defense, has trouble making sharp passes, is clanging open jumpers at an alarming rate and has the second-worst plus/minus ratio--ahead of only Eddie Griffin--on the roster. Tonight he was 2-8 from the field, finishing with 8 points, 5 assists and 3 turnovers in 33:28 and was the defender the Bulls' most obviously picked on (although Foye, too, took his lumps on dribble-penetration) when Chicago played a small lineup and made their second-half run. Bottom line, Mike James was signed to be a catalyst and at the quarter-pole of the season has more often been the opposite, the dampener on the lit fuse. It's too bad, because Minnesota needs a perimeter player to initiate their offense (Foye, who was fabulous with 25 points in 25:53, nevertheless had just one dime and three turnovers) and James seemed tailor-made for the role abetting this personnel.

2) Testy Superstar

As the exotic new flavor in town who delivered when it mattered, Foye will deservedly get most of the ink and airtime when pundits recap this game. But the hands-down MVP was Garnett, who once again abused multiple Defensive Player of the Year winner Ben Wallace for a near triple-double totals after two and half periods, the main ingredient in the Wolves recipe for opening up a 25-point lead. You know the drill: When the Bulls collapsed on him, Garnett dished for cutters making layups, zipped it to the weak side for open jumpers, or went to the rack and drew the foul. Chicago had better luck using Luol Deng (the Bulls best all-around player) instead of Wallace and sending waves of swingmen for the double and triple teams, but KG still finished with 26-14-8 and just two turnovers in 35:51.

The other day in the Star Tribune, columnist Patrick Reusse opined that Casey might not last another half-dozen games, and there was sort of a ghoulish sense of anticipation surrounding the club in the wake of the Laker-game fiasco that has only been partially ameliorated by the last two wins. The most ominious sign for Casey is not columns by Sid Hartman or Reusse, but subtle but unmistakeable signs of petulance from Garnett. Tonight in the locker room after the game, KG wasn't in one of those equivocal "a win's a win" modes, but rather talked about how these nail-biting games make it "hard on the starters" who have built the leads and then watched them fritter away. "Nine times out of 10 we can't put ourselves in that position. It is just too hard on those who play the bulk of the minutes," he said. He then took a couple of oblique shots at Casey's rotation, specifically mentioning that he "would love to see [Mark Blount] play a lot more, but that is Casey's decision." He also put in a brief for Troy Hudson, saying that Huddy is one of those guys who understands what it takes to win and what is going on in the heat of crunchtime.

But I thought Casey demonstrated that he'd learned some hard lessons from the Laker game. He was quicker to call time outs, to get Garnett back into action, and to aggressively manage the game tonight. Yeah, when Davis fouled out, shortly after he'd gone in for James, Casey could have come back with Hudson (who has a gaudy +46 overall and has played a key role in three of Minnesota's 12 victories) instead of giving James another chance to show his confidence has been gnawed to the quick. But the Bulls have a bullish backcourt with the likes of Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordan and Chris Duhon, and Huddy had seen no action up to that point while James had been playing just 15 seconds (off the game clock) earlier.

The support for Blount is even less defensible. Now suspicious minds will recognize me as a former Blount hater, but his dogged effort this season has won me over--or at least eliminated my animus toward the guy. Tonight, with Wallace checking KG, the Bulls were forced to go with Andres Nocioni and other size-wise pipsqueaks on Blount. The result was a perfect 7-7 from the field in the first half, and seven rebounds to boot in 19:37. Blount finished 9-11 for 18 points and didn't grab a board in the second half, albeit in less than ten minutes of action. A fine night.

But all that effort, plus five inches of extra height, still doesn't enable Blount to play team defense as effectively as rookie Craig Smith. In many respects, Smith is as precocious rotating on defense as Foye is driving to the basket--and in terms of value, the skills are comparable. Tonight, Smith was once again second only to KG in making the quick adjustment that sealed off a temporary gap in the coverage, and then either scrambled back to his own man or seamlessly stayed with the switch. When the Bulls went small, Smith was a better option than Blount, and still not a great one; Casey ultimately went without a center or power forward besides Garnett. KG clearly appreciates the enormous amount of scutwork Blount has undertaken to improve his rebounding and defense (he also had high praise for both Foye and Smith after the game tonight), but Casey made the right calls most of the time, even in the second half, tonight. With Trenton Hassell still weak from the flu, and Davis fouled out, he went with Justin Reed briefly (Reed's lack of rhythm ensures that it won't happen for too long) and Marko Jaric (see point three), but ultimately needed a smaller quicker guard to match up with Chicago's small lineup. He chose James and Foye, who got burned off dribble penetration far too often. But Foye was huge in the clutch and if James isn't your point guard just 25 games into a four-year deal, then McHale (and, by the way, Garnett, who also lobbied for James) has some explaining to do.

3) Just win baby

Stats can be deceiving. Tonight, Marko Jaric's line looks as spotty as Mike James's: Marko was 2-6 FG, missed all three of his free throws, nearly ate up his four assists with three turnovers in 28:25. But when he's on, Jaric does so many little things well, with the bounce pass to Foye being a prime example. Tonight, he was also a tiger on the boards, battling for position and tipping balls to himself a la KG while grabbing 7 overall (and three on the offensive glass). As usual, he and Hassell were the team's best perimeter defenders. Perhaps best of all, you can plug him into so many different roles--he can bring the ball up against full-court pressure on one possession, joust with the big boys under the glass on another, anticipate a back-door cut and make the steal on another, and deliver a nifty feed to a driving KG off the high pick-and-roll on another.

Last but not least, when I asked Foye if he was surprised that he was the go-to guy in game 25 of his rookie year, he cited his four years at Villanova and said he was used to it. Not the confidence in yourself, I amended, but the speed with which it has happened on this team. "Nah, not really," he said simply. Well then, wouldn't you like your minutes bumped up from 30-35 a game rather than 20-25 a game? "I don't mind 25. I'll take five minutes and two points if it's a win," Foye replied. "I just want to win."

Posted by Britt Robson at December 27, 2006 12:01 AM | Comments (15)

 

The Three-Pointer: The Bucks Aren't Stopped Here

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) The return of Avis

For three weeks, Ricky Davis has provided team and on-ball defense ranging from mediocre to well above-average. But not once in that seven-game span had Davis shown the maddening gaps in concentration and listless energy that characterized most of the games in the first month of the season.

Tonight, Avis returned with a vengeance. It started innocently enough, with Charlie Bell, Davis's assignment and the Bucks' 6th leading scorer at 10.6 ppg on 42.4 FG percentage, getting half his average on a trey and two free throws in a first period that ended with Davis letting Michael Redd waltz downcourt to nail a trey with one second on the clock. After a three-minute rest in the second quarter, Davis returned with 6:33 left in the half and the score tied at 35, and proceeded to put on a shameful display of defensive indifference that might help add some zeros to Charlie Bell's next contract negotiation. At 6:06 Bell drove for a layup. At 5:46 he drove for another one. At 5:18 he nailed a 21 foot jumper off the fast break. At 4:57 he hit a 17 footer. Davis fouled him at 4:08 and Bell hit both free throws. For those counting at home, that's 10 points in 2:25, and a 7 point lead for Milwaukee. At the half, Charlie frickin' Bell had 22 points in 20:20 of action, all but 2 of them coming with Davis in the game as his primary defender. Bell finished with 28 points, negating Davis's 23, though Ricky did add 6 assists to Bell's 2. Still, when Ricky Davis and Charlie Bell are a push, the Wolves' chances of securing a win plummet.

2) Perspective on Casey

I've done my fair share of ripping on Dwane Casey thus far this season. I believe it to be fair criticism, and as specific as I can make it. I was especially rough on him in the wake of the embarrassing Lakers' loss--again, I believe, appropriately so. But a couple of other things also happened after that Laker game: Kevin Garnett's oblique but unmistakeable criticism of the coaching staff; and a Sid Hartman column that spoke of "big changes" and hinted that either a large trade or Casey's head on a platter was imminent because Wolves owner Glen Taylor was so upset up the Lakers' 27 point edge in the 4th quarter.

Tonight, Casey was more animated both in the huddle and with the referees, earning a technical--a silly call, but one prompted by his uncharacteristically running past the ref with his arms up--and in general looking like a man under pressure. And indeed, other media folks revealed that Taylor came in and sat down during their interviews with the coach before the game.

Has Casey done a good job thus far this year? On balance, I'd say no, he has not. Does he deserve to lose his job? That's much more difficult for me to answer. Last month I wrote a column for the paper edition of CP that hinted that Casey would become this season's fall guy if the Wolves did not play up to Taylor's inflated expectations for the team. The lead for that column was edited out for space reasons while I was headed out of town for that five-game stretch I missed celebrating my father's birthday. Too bad, because it captures my feelings for him better than anything I've written before or since:

"Anyone who wishes ill fortune on Timberwolves coach Dwane Casey obviously doesn't know the man. Casey not only carries himself with an enormous amount of personal dignity, but treats everyone else as if they are doing the same. At first blush, this rigorous, diplomatic integrity makes Casey, 49, seem eminently trustworthy and competent. Later, when the foibles and limitations of his coaching style are more apparent, faith deteriorates into hope, and he becomes the stolid, stand-up dude you want to see succeed."

So, here's my fall-back position: If anyone in the Timberwolves organization deserves a pink slip, it is Kevin McHale. The fact that Taylor has essentially answered my question about why he didn't fire McHale by saying he didn't have anyone else at the time, and is now grooming Fred Hoiberg for the job, has reduced the scrutiny on McHale, leaving frustrated Wolves fans (and pundits) inevitably looking for another target. And after McHale, Casey is an obvious choice.

But there is no justice if Casey is canned and McHale stays on. Yes, McHale had a very nice draft this season with Foye and Smith. But drafting Will Avery is worth two putrid Laker games; Ndi Ebi at least three or four; the loss of two first-round picks to the Clips and Celts that could have netted us Iverson? That trips the threshold.

Remember, most national basketball mags and websites and television shows had the Wolves pegged among the bottom ten teams in the 30 team NBA. Right now Casey has that squad at 10-13. That is below Taylor's expectations, and below what "it just needs tweaking" McHale claims as this team's potential. But it is slightly above what more objective observers saw for this squad this season.

But that doesn't absolve Casey from his errors. Again, I believe if you are going to criticize a person, be specific so they know what you are talking about. Casey claims that he wants this ballclub to have a defensive identity, yet Ricky Davis totally mails it in on defense in the second quarter and is never benched for it--he played a game-high 45 minutes tonight! It is not like Casey doesn't have options, a plethora of swingmen to plug in and send a message to Davis: exert yourself on D or grab some pine. I'd also like to see him play Foye with Mike James more often, and with KG too. I'd like to see him call out his players more, but I know that's not his way. Most of all, because I cover this team and respect his decency, I'd like to see him succeed. But hopefully that won't prevent me from pointing out when and why he doesn't.

3) Quick takes

Davis was not the only scofflaw on defense tonight. Mike James erased his 28-point, 8-assist performance with miserable D on both Mo Williams and Steve Blake. Williams is emerging as a point guard to be reckoned with, so his 26 points is not that surprising. The problem was when and how they came: Casey favorably compared the second-half team defense to what transpired in Milwaukee's 30 point second quarter, but the Bucks got 30 im the final stanza too, and Williams went off for 16 of them in just 9 minutes of action, frequently by simply dribbling down the court and jacking up a jumper in semi-transition. Ditto Blake on the final play of the third quarter. Time after time, James just kept back-peddling on defense, the same thing he did when Tony Parker torched him a few games back. In fact, James on balance has played worse defense than Davis this season, albeit not sinking to the lows Davis has plunged to in certain games.

In a not-so-subtle allusion to Davis and James, I followed up KG's negative comments about the team's defensive effort tonight by observing that it didn't look like a communication problem so much as a flaw in the perimeter defense. In a not-so-subtle shot at Taylor and McHale (probably for not getting Iverson and for the personnel shortage in general) Garnett responded that when an opponent scores he scores on the entire team, from the executives in the stands to the ownership to everybody.

For the second time against the Bucks, Mark Blount looked maahvolous out on the court, hustling hard on interior defensive rotations, and fighting gamely for rebounds and loose balls. And yet for the second time against Milwaukee, Blount finished with an awful--team-worst, in fact--minus 13 on the popcornmachine plus/minus, while his replacement, Craig Smith, was a team-best plus 7. (The only other plus was Trenton Hassell's plus 3, helped by his yeoman D on Michael Redd, who required 25 shots to get his 29 points.) Why? Smith ran the floor well, scoring a couple of times on lead passes in transition. And Smith simply plays the pick-and-roll more intuitively and thus more rapidly and wisely.

After the starting lineups were announced, Rashad McCants went to center court in a Santa beard, continuing his impro0bable but genuinely comical roles in a series of skits and situations the team's marketing department has devised for him. Ah, but this time he punctuated it by flinging down his hat at center court and declaring, like it was a gauntlet, that--"The Bucks stop here."

Nope. Bucks 113, Wolves 107.

FYI--I'm pretty sure I'll be skipping the trey on tomorrow's game in Indiana, as I imagine most of you are preoccupied with the holidays. Diehard can comment on the Wolves-Pacers tilt in the comments section of this three-pointer.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 22, 2006 11:32 PM | Comments (8)

 

New Cubs Asst. GM: Randy Bush

Filed under: Twins

The Cubs announced yesterday that former Twins rightfielder Randy Bush will be the team's new assistant general manager. Bush was a member of both the '87 and '91 World Series teams in Minnesota, and he's #40 in Aaron Gleeman's unfinished opus, the Top 40 Twins of All Time. I always liked Bush, but if his scouting and managing skills are anything like his post-season batting average (.227 in 11 games), the Cubs are in trouble. Personally, I think they already had one too many former Minnesota rightfielders in the organization.

Posted by Chuck Terhark at December 21, 2006 12:02 PM | Comments (1)

 

The Three-Pointer: This One's On Casey

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Two examples
To be a good head coach in the NBA essentially is a matter of massaging egos and establishing a consensual pecking order in the locker room and putting your players in the best situations to succeed on the court. The presence of Kevin Garnett makes the first of those duties much easier for second-year coach Dwane Casey. Tonight's hide-your-face loss to the Lakers--in which the Wolves were annihilated 7-34 in the 4th quarter en route to a 94-111 pasting--was primarily attributable to Casey failing in the second of those duties.

Among many options, I'll choose two examples.

In a series of comment postings earlier today, I referred to Vlad Radmanovic as a "matchup nightmare" because he is tall (listed at 6-10) but plays like a two-guard, preferring to shoot threes or score in penetration or transition. Very few people Vlad's height get a lower percentage of their points on the low block. Casey knows this; he coached him for many years in Seattle. And yet Casey allowed Phil Jackson to match Vlad up with Craig Smith, the paint-centric center-power forward who stands 6-7 and weighs 272 (6th tallest and heaviest player on the Wolves). Now Smith has a huge heart, and gamely tried to stay with Radmanovich during his time on the floor. But if Vlad wasn't luring Smith out to the perimeter with his three-point shooting prowess and then blowing by the stronger but much slower player for layups, he was running Smith ragged behind screens and popping that trey in the Lakers' half-court passing offense. Bottom line, according to popcornmachine.net, is that Radmanovic was an incredible game-best +33 during his 20:09 on the court, while Smith was game-worst -20 in his 14:14 of play.

After Radmanovic blew by Smith for a pair of layups early in the 2nd quarter, Casey got Justin Reed up at 7:45 of the period. Okay, I thought, he gave Smith a shot and found out it didn't work. Reed is a much better option on Vlad. Except that Reed went in for Marko Jaric (who was having his own problems and seems to be dangerously close to last year's moody funk). Nor did Casey learn from his mistake. Because like everything for the Wolves in this game, things were much worse for Smith in the 4th quarter. Radmanovic bombed for eight points in 6:10 as the Lakers were turning a 77-87 deficit into a 96-91 lead, before Casey subbed in Reed for Smith, leaving Radmanovic scoreless until a meaningless trey in the final minute.

The second example involves Casey's insistence on foisting the classic point guard role on to Randy Foye. Now, I've said this before--Foye does many things well, and is also a guy you want with the ball in important situations. He breaks down opponents as well as anyone on the team. What he does not do well, and hurts his team doing when thrust in the role, is being the primary guy to bring the ball up and provide some creative initiation when the club is working their half-court sets. I'm talking about court vision; the kind of pass that might seem risky unless you are gifted at dishing. Kevin Garnett certainly has it--seven of his eight assists tonight were passes resulting in relatively easy layups for his teammates, and the other one was a dish-out to Mike James for a trey. More than half were stunning in their peripheral acuity and rapid execution. In other words, there were no "Stockton-to Malone assists" where he lobbed a pass to a guy on the block who made it happen pretty much on his own. Ricky Davis is another player who can probe with a pass, and Mike James, especially if his penetration game is going, can also dish.

Not Foye. Not yet. Maybe not ever, although I wouldn't conclusively rule it out. All I know is that right now, in his rookie season, when he is the point guard, Foye typically brings the ball up, surveys the floor for possible openings for his own drive, looks around for cuts and screens that leave a teammate wide open for a non-risky pass, and, if nothing presents itself, simply dishes to a player beside him out on the perimeter, usually with the shot clock at about 12 or 13. It is very similar to what Troy Hudson used to do when he "ran" the offense a few years ago, except that Foye doesn't dribble as well as Hudson and drives through traffic more often, so his turnover rate is higher.

Put it this way: Through tonight's game, the 22nd of the season, Foye has 38 assists and 36 turnovers in 348 minutes of action. He's the guy you want to swing it to with 12 on the clock and the defense not totally focused on him yet. He's not the guy you want dribbling the length of court, perhaps against pressure, with everybody watching and waiting intently for his next move. And if you do put him in that situation, you better have plenty of smart ball-handlers and scoring options out there with him. As I've written many times now, I think Mike James and Kevin Garnett should be his dual safety nets, but if not both, one or the other.

Tonight, Casey began the 4th quarter with Foye at the point and KG and James on the bench. Foye's options were an obviously rattled Jaric, a scoring but frequently stone-handed Blount, a slightly winded from chasing Radmanovic Craig Smith, and a decent safety net in Ricky Davis. When Casey mercifully subbed Foye out at the 5:02 mark, Minnesota had been outscored in the period 21-4 and had lost all sense of rhythm, rhyme or reason in their half-court offense. It wasn't that Foye was throwing the ball away--he had just one turnover. But he wasn't initiating anything positive either: He had zero assists and the team had exactly one basket in those 7 minutes. Again, this is not the fault of Randy Foye, a marvelously talented rookie who was put in a situation that significantly reduced his odds of success.

2) Bad timing
The 4th quarter collapse came at a particularly bad time for this franchise. First of all, most fans and the team's superstar are trying to cope with the severe disappointment of losing out in the Iverson sweepstakes. When it was mentioned to KG after the game, he simply muttered, "that's pretty much the way things go around here."

Yet before it all turned to shit, the Wolves came out obviously looking to wipe the slate clean and make a statement that they didn't need Iverson. When this was mentioned to Garnett, he politely refocused the source of his own intensity more to atoning for his "mediocre" performance in Milwaukee. He specifically mentioned wanting to be more aggressive and figuring out how to counteract what other teams were throwing up against him. And he was marvelous for three periods, flirting with a triple double and going back to playing the staunch defense we have come to expect.

More significantly, Ricky Davis was energized, especially on defense, working hard around picks and generally continuing an industrious phase that began about three weeks ago. The 22 points he got tonight were sneaky-good, totally in the flow of the offense or poached off defensive pressure in transition. One time in a thrilling third quarter, he dove on the floor to retrieve a loose ball and then wound up getting it back for a three pointer. Trenton Hassell and Mark Blount were likewise effective; only Mike James remained in a funk, scoring his first bucket with 3:26 to play in the 2nd quarter. But even he too had 6 assists and no turnovers.

Too bad it all vanished, leaving the squad bewildered, and beseiged by boos at various points in that putrid final stanza. These are games that corrode chemistry and confidence, and immediately post-Iverson it was horribly timed.

3) Putting the Kobe/KG canard to rest
Did you hear the one about how Kobe Bryant can carry inferior teammates while Kevin Garnett needs a sidekick or two to make things happen? Well, when Kobe checked back into the game--undoubtedly to salve his ego--with 3:25 left to play in the game, the Lakers were -17 in the 26:53 he had been on the court, and +27 during the 17:42 he sat on the bench. Kobe did manage to register a +7 in that 3:25 of garbage time to come up with a composite -10. On the other hand, the Timberwolves were +4 during the 38:04 Garnett played, and -21 during the 9:56 he sat.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 20, 2006 10:42 PM | Comments (39)

 

Iverson goes to Denver; Minnesota never had a chance

Filed under: Timberwolves

The Wolves never really had a great chance to land Iverson. The reason they were talked about at all is because Garnett and Iverson both wanted it and encouraged it so thoroughly. And they're right--they would have been fabulous together.

But from almost all accounts, what Philly wants to do is start from scratch. That's tough to do when dealing $18 million worth of contract, but the Denver deal does the deed rather nicely. Both Joe Smith (at $6.8 m) and Andre Miller ($8.6 m) have deals that expire at the end of this year (according to the salary page at hoopshype.com)[***correction: Miller is signed through 2008-09, according to shamsports.com]. The two first-rounders are not high up, but Philly's will be. In fact there is a fairly decent chance of them landing Greg Oden with the top choice AND having two other first-rounders to go with him and Iguodala; and they'll actually have cap space(!) after Chris Webber's deal expires at the end of next year. Bottom line, Philly blew themselves up pretty well, and with Miller around for a few months won't have to suffer the indignity of starting Kevin Ollie at the point the rest of the season.

For Denver, it changes the conversation away from Melo's punch, and gives Iverson a chance to establish himself without Melo around for awhile--a good thing, I think. But it also puts a phenomenal amount of pressure on George Karl, who is now coaching a team that, without even factoring in Iverson's contract and Melo's eventual extension, owes $28 million in salary to two dinged up players--Nene and K-Mart--in the 2009-10 season!!

Oviously, Melo and AI won't mesh nearly as well as Iverson and KG would have, and there will be issues about who the alpha dog is. BTW, Karl isn't all that great at managing personnel--he usually pisses people off after a couple of years together. So, it is a net plus for the Nugs--getting Iverson is a net plus for anybody--but not the overwhelming improvement needed for them to overtake the Dallas-Phoenix-San Antonio trio. I'd put them with Utah, the Rockets, the Lakers and, assuming Sam Cassell hasn't totally screwed them up, the Clips, in the second tier of playoff hopefuls. You note that's eight teams. To get into the playoffs, the Wolves have to beat one of them, not to mention New Orleans.

But to repeat myself, Minnesota never had a realistic shot at AI, even if Foye and Craig Smith were on the table. Why? Because they have no large expiring contracts and no first round picks for the next two years.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 19, 2006 4:53 PM | Comments (29)

 

The Three-Pointer: Bucked by the Backcourt

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Dropping a Toss-Up Game
For all the hullabaloo about Wednesday's tilt with San Antonio being a "test" of the newly invigorated Wolves, beating the Spurs on the road was always a pie-in-the-sky dream--c'mon, the Spurs are 113-21 at their place over the last few years! Let's get real: The brass ring for this current squad is a number 7 or 8 playoff seed, and the way to make that happen isn't crossing your finger in San Antonio, it is beating sub-mediocre Eastern Conference teams missing their starting power forward and playing the second game of a back-to-back. In other words, beating the Bucks in Milwaukee on Saturday night was one of those realistic barometer games by which you measure the team's prospects. Right now you can go through the schedule and identify many games where you'd be frankly surprised if the Wolves won, a fewer number of games where you'd be surprised if Minnesota lost, and then the ones that really determine the season: the toss-ups. Playing Milwaukee on the road was a toss-up, and the Wolves squandered that opportunity, blowing an early 11-point lead and falling 104-108.

2) All together now: Randy Foye is not a point guard
He is a combo guard. If you want him to start at the top of the key and try to wend his way through three or four defenders, odds are he'll at least get off the shot, and quite possibly get fouled. Or he might feint the drive and pull up for a trey, or pull back on his way to the hoop and deliver one of those scoop floaters as he crosses the lane. But if you want Randy Foye to be a point guard--meaning a guy who brings the ball up, who unselfishly initiates the offense for others, who has an internal rhythmic clock that calibrates a smooth flow for coordinated offensive sets, and who can fairly effortlessly dribbles his way away from traps and double-teams--Foye is certainly not that guy now, probably won't be that guy even at year's end, and may never be that guy.

Saturday night, Foye had zero assists and four turnovers. For the season, he has 37 assists and 35 turnovers. You can't entrust your offense to someone with that kind of ratio for an extended period of time and expect to win; not unless you're dealing with Michael Jordan or Dwayne Wade. I understand Coach Dwane Casey's desire to go with Foye at the point, given his glut of swingmen and the recurrence of woes from Mike James as both a shooter and defender. James was blistered by Tony Parker in San Antonio; Saturday night it was Mo Williams's turn, although to be fair, Williams also had his way with Foye en route to 28 points and 9 assists.

The inconsistency of James has hurt Minnesota this year and there is no way to sugarcoat it. After James went through that little hot spell and his team was winning four in a row, Kevin Garnett chastised James's critics for expecting too much, too soon. Fine. But it isn't simply that his jumper isn't falling; it's his shot selection, his shoddy defense, his less-than-reliable ball-handling, and, most crucially and least tangibly, his limited command over his team and over the flow of the game. Now that Ricky James has started to play better defense--he was drawing charges and diving on the floor for balls early in the Milwaukee loss, plus doing the little things before tailing off some defensively in the second half--James is beginning to look like the weakest link. As nice as it was to see him shrug off Casey's use of Foye at the point for an extra rotation, and hit some big shots to keep Minnesota in the game in the 4th quarter, he needs to get more physical and move his legs more than his hands while playing D. Because there really isn't anyone else on the roster who is a natural point guard.

3) Big men not immune
I'm glad to see that in his postgame comments Kevin Garnett told the media that he played like shit and that he didn't have a rhythm, because both of those things were in evidence, especially in the second half, of Saturday's loss. Sometimes it is hard to know who is at fault on defensive breakdowns--given that Michael Redd is a top 5 scorer in the NBA, and that Williams was having a great shooting night, it seemed like the Wolves' big men were rotating out to stop them. Was that freelancing or part of the plan? In any event, Andrew Bogut certainly made KG pay for his wandering by continually cutting in for layups and putbacks. KG had 26 points and was a team-high plus-5 according to popcornmachine.net. But he seemed especially ineffective on defense, simultaneously not getting out in time to disrupt Redd or Williams, and enabling Bogut and others free rein toward the hoop.

Not the other big men were great shakes either. Yes, Mark Blount banged home 8 of 12 shots and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds besides. But Blount's team defense was also a little suspect, and he finished the game with a team worst minus-8. And Craig Smith furthered his mini-slump with three points, three rebounds, and three missed free throws (out of four total attempts) in 16 minutes of action.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 18, 2006 2:44 AM | Comments (29)

 

The Three-Pointer: Smothered

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) No contest at the point

The lead-in to tonight's television broadcast depicted the point guard matchup between the Wolves' Mike James and the Spurs' Tony Parker as being second in importance, and, it was inferred, competitiveness, only to the classic KG-Tim Duncan rivalry at power forward. But as Parker soon proved, he has more talent, poise, quickness, and court vision than James at both ends of the court.

Yes, Gregg Popovich is a better coach than Dwane Casey, the Spurs are more familiar with their systems, and Parker's teammates are more talented than James's. None of that adequately explains why Parker is capable of so thoroughly disrupting Minnesota's defensive schemes, or why James was choked off from scoring and dishing. Even in the first half, when the Wolves raced to an improbable 54-38 lead with a 44-19 run, Parker was outplaying James before he was compelled to sit with foul problems, and the Wolves were more effective when Randy Foye subbed in for James.

When it was over, James had one field goal (on seven tries), two assists, four turnovers and six fouls in 28:17. Parker scored 23, added six assists, and committed a single turnover. Parker is among the top half-dozen point guards in the NBA. James is somewhere in the middle among the 30 starting point guards. No criticism, just fact.

To reiterate what I said in my last post, when James, Ricky Davis and Kevin Garnett can establish crisp, unselish ball movement, everybody benefits. When James and Davis can't break down defenses or otherwise compel opponents to stop double-teaming and trapping KG, their stats are ugly and the Wolves lose. So it was Wednesday night.

2) Pops takes it away

Minnnesota headed into the locker room having scored a season high 56 points and shooting 61 percent from the field at halftime. Everyone knew Popovich was going beserk in the locker room, blistering his players with invective. Don't know if there were any X's and O's demonstrated along with the "encouragement" to try harder, but Minnesota simply got waxed, to the tune of just 26 points and 17 turnovers in the final 24 minutes.

Wolves assistant coach Rex Kalamian told viewers that Minnesota scored on 12 out of 13 pick-and-roll situations in the first half. Pops had his players--centers and point guards alike--showing hard on pick-and-rolls all the way out to center court. One especially diligent defender was Francisco Elson, the power forward you may recall disgraced himself by directing a contemptuous anti-gay remark at KG after getting into a skirmish with him when the Wolves faced Denver in the playoffs three years ago. Given new life by Pops, Elson busts his ass, and understands that the best way to earn minutes as a Spur is to be relentless on defense.

Along with throttling the pick-and-roll, the Spurs also sussed out that the Wolves were getting a lot of points out of their drive and kick game; that modified transition "flow" offense that functioned so well for at least three and half games. The Spurs began guarding the passing options off penetration, while leaving Elson and/or Duncan to seal off hoop. Sure enough, James, Davis, Jaric and even Foye, would drive and then try and kick to the corner, or the lane, only to hand the ball over for a turnover. In the second half, only Randy Foye was able to reliably get his own shot and score with any consistency. He also added some nice assists when the Spurs were idling in the first half, but right now taking it to the hoop--and finishing--is his bread and butter.

3) Second guessing
I know Mark Blount had a fine shooting eye and that KG demands mucho minutes, but in a scrum game against a smart, dogged opponent, I like Craig Smith getting more than 12:07 worth of playing time, especially when he produced 7 points and 5 rebounds in that span, which works out to about 28 and 20 per 48 minutes.

Last, and probably least, isn't one of the very few times to throw Thud Hudson into the breach precisely when your offense has been squelched and you've blown an 8-point halftime and trail by 11 with about five minutes left to play?

Posted by Britt Robson at December 14, 2006 12:31 AM | Comments (28)

 

The Three-Pointer: Four in a Row

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Sidekicks
Sometimes the answers and explanations are simpler than we journalists and pundits and armchair point guards make them. Now that I'm doing these treys after most every game, some of this needless complexity is a desire not to repeat myself ad nauseum. But sometimes it's because I forget the big picture. It took the Wolves whupping another quality team--the Bulls had won 7 straight--on the road Saturday night for me to remember that a signature theme of this Wolves season was that in Mike James and a fully integrated Ricky Davis, Kevin Garnett would once again have a credible critical mass of talent, if not an outright MV3, with which to levy and parlay his own extraordinary skills, which would be sufficient to elevate the squad to playoff contention.

The last three games--four, if you must count a routine win over a listless 76er squad--have borne this out. As James has increasingly begun to play with the aggressiveness that can only be pulled off by confidence and quality execution, opposing defenses have stopped collapsing upon KG so much. The result, surprise surprise, is the reemergence of glorious team-wide ball movement. Garnett is frequently cited (and criticized) for being the NBA's most unselfish superstar, but if you've got a couple of viable scoring options elsewhere, especially at least one who can both bomb from outside and put it on the floor and drive/dish in the paint, KG will grease a gleeful rhythm with the stylistic panache of his passing game. But as good as Garnett is at finding the open teammate, or burning the lack of double-teams with his trademark baseline-shoulder turnaround jumper on the left block, what makes the passing offense really click is that the ball doesn't absolutely have to flow through him every possession, or even every two or three. That means if James or Davis see an opportunity for themselves or another teammate, they can act on it at any time and the Top Dog won't be pissed. And if you don't think that's rare, you don't know the unwritten rules of NBA pecking orders.

But for the full potpourri of KG's offensive skills--the marvelous jump shooter, the passer with the wide-angled peripheral court vision, and the magnanimous decoy--to be realized, you got to have a couple of players who have the stones to take and make big shots, possess good hands, and have an intuitive clue about rhythm and just rewards. Davis always showed that promise, but James took time to qualify. Now that he has, you see KG in near-vintage form, scorching Utah for 31 on Friday and then roasting the Bulls for 11 points and 5 assists in the first half (he finished with 8) as the Wolves built a 13-point lead Saturday in Chicago. Of the team's 20 first-half baskets, 16 were assisted, versus only 6 turnovers.

One final point on this, is that it is interesting to see who benefits most from this newfound passing rhythm. In particular, smart, unselfish vets like Trenton Hassell suddenly see their points and assists rise, while talented but green rookies like Randy Foye, who excels at the one-on-one game but is behind in terms of the NBA team passing concepts, has hit a rougher patch. And somebody like Mark Blount, who is willing but lacks the hands, and intuitive rhythm (like when and how long to stay in the paint) for quick ball movement, becomes more turnover-prone. On balance, however, it sure is fun to watch, eh?

Just as James has catalyzed the offense with his improved shooting eye and passing instincts, the decision by Davis that he will actually put some sweat equity into guarding his man has done amazing things for the Wolves' team D. Watching this new Ricky Davis the past three games especially, one doesn't know whether to salute his conversion or strangle him for pissing away a half-dozen other contests with his half-assed diligence and quarter-assed focus on the defensive end. It is not gospel, but generally pretty true that in the NBA, your defense is only as good as your weakest link. When Davis broke down by failing to stop penetration or rotate over to cover a teammate's double-team, it threw everyone into freelance chaos, and the best defenders--specifically KG and Trenton Hassell--frequently looked bad by responding most rapidly to Davis's inattention, putting their own man and assignment in flux.

So you want to know what happens when Davis is dedicated on D? Well, Garnett had three blocks and four steals Saturday night. Trenton Hassell hounded leading Bulls scorer Luol Deng into just ten points (or about half his season average), including a mere two in the first half. And overall, the Wolves limited a Chicago team that had topped 100 points in 8 of its last 9 games to just 81, on 39.5% shooting from the field.

2) One gets it, the other doesn't
Last year, the Wolves had two intriguing underachievers you could dub as head cases; both superb defenders against the right match-ups and a gamble otherwise; both unreliable offensively. This year, Marko Jaric has redeemed his reliability to the point where he is a Casey favorite in the 4th quarter, and was invaluable Saturday night when the Bulls went small and he played alongside Hassell-Davis-James-KG instead of Blount or Craig Smith (both saddled with early foul trouble). But Eddie Griffin has fallen into a very deep well. Inserted into the game for two brief stints totalling less than nine minutes, Griffin was minus-14 in a ten-point Wolves win (the next-worst plus/minus stat was Foye's minus-3) and looked lost at both ends of the court. This is not a rare thing. Griffin has the worst plus/minus ratio on the team by leaps and bounds. Were it not for his fragile psyche and the recent injury to Mark Madsen, a case could be made for not dressing him most games. As someone who has long defended him and been thrilled by games where he owned the paint with his blocks and boards, I'm baffled and sad.

3) Still dreaming Iverson
While I haven't surfed all the websites and engorged myself with rumors, I get the sense that Minnesota is very much in the Iverson hunt. I still find it hard to believe Philly would take the Foye-Jaric-James package ESPN broached the other night, but Sid Hartman's column today was even more unbelievable--Foye-Griffin-Davis-Hudson! That would enable a starting five of Garnett-Iverson-Blount-Hassell-Jaric, with James and Craig Smith the first guys off the bench. If that isn't a playoff team--one that would scare the big boys in a short series too--I don't know what is.

As for the extra money owner Glen Taylor would have to pony up, don't think for a moment he wouldn't leap at the chance. To be clear, I have no inside information to confirm this. But consider Taylor's history: This is a guy who paid KG top dollar to the point the league executed a new collective bargaining agreement; who paid Sprewell $14 million knowing that almost every dollar was doubled by being over the luxury tax; and who has said numerous times that the best training for being an NBA owner was not his other business ventures (and he's damn near cornered the market on wedding invitations), but his stint in the State Legislature, because of the importance of public opinion and what amounts to "show biz" on his decisions. If he's publicly chafing about money, it is simply to get Philly to take more of those bloated contracts and use less of that $4.2 million trade exemption.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 10, 2006 11:11 PM | Comments (39)

 

The Three-Pointer: Season's Best (Thus Far)

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Too thorough to be a fluke
So the Utah Jazz tote the NBA's best record (15-4) into Target Center and play quality hoops in the first half, yet manage only a three point lead at 46-43. That's because point guard Mike James comes out with the jets on, burning second-year counterpart Deron Williams for 6 quick points in the first 2:20. Still, Utah plays that Jerry Sloan game, grind-it-out, physical ball with a lot of aggressive traps on defense and weakside player movement on offense. The Mutt and Jeff center tandem of Mark Blount and Craig Smith finish the half with 3 fouls apiece. The smart money would still be sliding toward the Jazz.

Then the Wolves play their best quarter of basketball in this season at least, and probably last year as well. Wary of Andre Kirilenko's incredible help defense via his penchant for both blocks and steals, they heed coach Dwane Casey's admonition to keep the ball moving, and zip the rock around like the vintage days of Flip Saunders.

Speaking of vintage, Kevin Garnett dips into his MVP-style vault for a dandy stretch where he swatted away two of Carlos Boozer's shots and intimidated a bevy of other Jazz attempts, and owned whoever was pretending to guard him. Boozer entered the game with primary stats (22.7 pts, 12.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists) very similar to KG's customary numbers (21.3, 11.9 and 3.6 respectively), but wobbled out in single digits on 4-17 FG, 13 boards and three assists). KG busted out for 31 points (12-22 FG), 14 rebounds and two assists, plus a trio of blocks and two steals (Boozer was shut out in the latter two categories). And Boozer probably did the best job of anyone defending KG. When he went to the bench with 3:15 left in the third, Sloan made the mistake of putting Mehmet Okur (who looks straight out of central casting as the slightly dissolute villain in a James Bond movie) on Garnett. KG proceeded to pile up half of his 3rd quarter's 16 points during that 195-second span without short-circuiting the delightful passing rhythm Minnesota had established. Not to mention his own shooting rhythm.

Bottom line, Minnesota hung 67 second-half points on Sloan's vaunted team, enjoying a 34-24 bulge in that game-deciding third period. Garnett-Ricky Davis-Mike James did their best MV3 imitation, combining for 80 of the squad's 110 points. Kirilenko, old AK47 himself, never got untracked as the dominant force he can be at both ends of the court, finishing with 12 points to go with Boozer's 8. A tired Wolves team might drop the tail end of a back-to-back Saturday night in Chicago, but the sheer confident joy and common commitment they exhibited tonight was too thorough to be a fluke--it would take a couple of very bad performances to stem and then reverse this positive momentum.

2) This Blount object not a bad thing
In the media dining room before the game, Wolves announcer Jim Peterson reiterated his support for center Mark Blount, and his contention that Blount is the best center in franchise history. Then Blount went out and made Pete look smart with the kind of unsung game he simply wasn't capable of playing last season. Known for stroking the jumper, Blount was the only starter not in double figures for the game, and managed a paltry 3 rebounds in 38:25. But his defensive hustle--Casey would call it playing with his pants on fire--was in evidence, as was the trust and swagger among all members of the starting five, who genuinely seem to like each other even when their play on the court is dysfunctional. Of course it helps that Casey went back to his shorter bench rotations; aside from Eddie Griffin's foul-trouble related 1:21 of "action" only the two rooks and Marko Jaric were subbed in, and even they failed to top 20 minutes.

3) Dreaming Iverson
Now that the Wolves are truly functioning with synergy and spirit, wouldn't you know it that the Wolves are rumored as one of the teams in the Allen Iverson sweepstakes. AI, who pretty much said sayonara to Philly in demanding a trade earlier this week, might be had for as little as Randy Foye, Mike James, and Marko Jaric, according to ESPN.

On the plus side, KG and AI have long had a deep mutual admiration society, in part borne out of the travails each faced in their encounters with the law back in high school, and in part the result of both players performing with huge hearts, enough to grab MVP award but barely a sniff of championship contention. What's more, if Iverson and the aforementioned trio really are the principals in any transaction, the Wolves will have actually cut their payroll three or four years down the road.

The debit side is that a major mid-season deal derailed this squad's rhythm last season. Now that there are at last signs of legitimate teamwork, along comes the huge gamble of investing for $40 million year in just two players who both are past their prime.

Still, Iverson and Garnett together would immediately stamp the club as viable playoff contenders. Foye is particular would be difficult to sacrfice, but if you want a shot at postseason glory, and the drama of watching a pair of aging ex-MVPs rallying the squad from .500 status, it is time to pull the trigger on this deal.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 8, 2006 10:24 PM | Comments (18)

 

The Three-Pointer: A Quality Win

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Casey defies critics, still triumphs
Like most of those who have recently been ripping Coach Dwane Casey for all manner of perceived miscues, I was feeling pretty smug about the Wolves win in Philadelphia Sunday. Casey had shortened his bench and unwittingly began getting in line with my preferred substitution rotation, consigning Troy Hudson, Eddie Griffin, and Justin Reed to the dustbin so that the promising rooks could glean more minutes. He'd also put Randy Foye and Mike James together more often, exercised a shorter leash with Ricky Davis to goad him into playing better defense, and produced just the fourth Wolves win in the team's last 25 road games.

So what happens tonight? Hudson subs in for Foye early in the second quarter after Foye guides his team's offense to just four points in more than six minutes of play against Houston's league-best defense.
Then with three minutes to go and a point down--almost exactly the same situation where his subbing of the two rooks spelled the difference in Philly--Casey throws Hudson alongside Smith in the sub rotation, and for good measure yanks KG and inserts Reed with 1:18 left. When the quarter ends, the Wolves are up 4.

To begin the 4th, Griffin subs in for Reed. That's Griffin and Hudson in a toss-up game against one of the NBA's better teams. It lasts nearly four minutes into the period. When KG returns, the Wolves are down 2. If Minnesota loses, I see it as a crucial turning point and prepare to excoriate Casey.

But now KG is rested, and proves more than capable of a spirited stretch run. Marko Jaric and Mike James--two other Casey subs in the first two minutes of the 4th period, combine with Mark Blount, and, ahem, Troy Hudson, who plays the entire final stanza, to propel the Wolves to victory, 90-84.

After the game, Casey shrewdly mentioned that the Wolves wanted to push the pace (led by Yao, Houston is a physically large squad, and played last night at home before traveling north); that the "young fella," meaning Foye, was "struggling a little bit" and so he shifted over the Hudson. "Huddy was ready to play--I'm really proud of him," the coach said, then deliciously added, "People get caught up in rotations." But not Casey, who went with his gut, played every guy in uniform, and walked away with a quality win.

PS, those of us with a distaste for Huddy's game need to acknowledge that he has played a significant fourth quarter role in two of the Wolves's eight wins.

2) That's Davis with a D, on the bench at crunctime
The object of the most consistent and nasty criticism in this space (at least from yours truly) has been Ricky Davis. Well, for the third or fourth game in a row, Davis mostly busted his hump on defense, and whenever that happens, the Wolves are much improved. Shane Battier, who'd nailed all five of his treys in Houston's last meeting with Minnesota, had just five points in 29 minutes after three quarters of action.

But that wasn't all Davis contributed in his best all-around game of the season. The long rumored, rarely seen "flow" offense was triggered in transition by Davis's superb passing savvy and court vision. He dished dimes as the middle man on outlet-to-layup drills, zipped balls into the paint in the half court sets, drew innumerable double teams and swung the rock to the wide open weakside teammate, and threw in some basic pick and roll material. After three periods, he'd racked up 9 assists and two-thirds of them were suitable for framing. He had also matched KG's team-leading 7 rebounds. Throw in the defense and his fitful shooting--1-6 FG--was easy to overlook.

Yet, in a grim bit of irony, Davis was one of the casualties of Casey's 4th quarter machinations, sitting the final 10:45 of the game despite his stellar, versatile peformance. After the game, Casey and KG both confirmed a point I'd wondered about in my last post; that lately when Davis's shot isn't falling, he's stepped up his effort in aspects. For a guy who openly campaigns to play more than 40 minutes per night--and essentially averaged that much last season--what kind of a message does it send when he receives extended pine time on precisely the occasion he does all the little (and not so little) things augured by his sublime athleticism?

I guess we'll see on Friday against Utah whether Davis comes out jacking up jumpers and laying off his man in the half court defense. Hope not. There are a lot of beguiling elements on this roster--the superstardom of KG, the scoring prowess of Mike James, the already mature promise of Foye and Smith--but the real longshot catalyst that could transform the Wolves into a genuine playoff contender would be Ricky Davis getting his head, heart and body functioning on all cylinders at the same time.

3) KG's unsung defense

Tonight was the embodiment of the cliche, "team win." Jaric used his gifted hands to procure a trio of steals and a beauty of a block-and-grab on a jumper by Tracy McGrady, plus five rebounds and four points (versus a single digit for T-Mac) in the 4th quarter alone. James and Blount each put their oar in deeply for a half; James nailing 6-7 FGs (including two threes) for 15 points in the first half, while Blount went turnover-free (after 4 in the first half) and banged home 4-5 FG plus a pair of blocks and game defense on Yao the Giant in the 3rd period, then stood strong again down the stretch late in the 4th quarter. Trenton Hassell did his thing on McGrady, and even if Marko did it better later on, the bottom line is that Hassell logged 26:40 and T-Mac finished 5-21 FG for the game.

But the leader of the evening was Garnett, and just because we expect it doesn't mean we shouldn't soak in every moment. Tonight, KG was the linchpin in Casey's defensive gameplan. The Rockets like to run the pick and roll with Tracy McGrady and Chuck Hayes so that Yao can be stationed down low or on the opposite block as a devastating third option. But whenever they tried it, Hassell and KG switched and Garnett was with T-Mac out on the perimeter. Similarly, when Yao touched the ball, KG's job was to double down hard or rotate over aggressively. Bottom line, Garnett frequently found himself guarding either McGrady or Yao--obviously two very different players with almost opposite approaches to scoring. Now, without question, both of Houston's stars evinced signs of fatigue. But Garnett's amazing versatility on defense contributed to their combined 10-40 FGs (Yao was 5-19). KG also had 24 points (7-12 FG, 10-12 FT), 12 boards, 4 assists, 3 blocks, a steal, and no turnovers. After the game, he talked about how the team is still coming together, like a gourmet meal that takes time to prepare. I still doubt it, but, given the immediate context, it didn't sound ridiculous.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 7, 2006 12:01 AM | Comments (12)

 

The Three-Pointer: A Respite In Philly

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Quality in the backcourt for a change

Sunday night's win on the road in Philadelphia was the best I've seen point guard Mike James play all season. Some of it was that Trenton Hassell had primary responsibility for stopping Allen Iverson most of the evening, meaning James's shoddy defense wasn't sorely tested. Some of it was that, after picking up two fouls in the game's first three minutes, forcing him to sit for the rest of the quarter, James logged 28 out of the 36 minutes in the next three periods, enabling him to get into a rhythm. Some of it was that Philly plays horrible defense, especially on the high-post pick-and-roll. In any event, James not only went off for 20 points (8-14 FG), but also chipped in for 6 assists, tying him for team high with Kevin Garnett. It revealed how much the Wolves have been missing even capable, never mind stellar, play from their top free agent signing, and how important James is to this club's slim playoff hopes this year.

James's backcourt mate Ricky Davis likewise had one of his better games, and again, Philly's awful defense and reliance on Iverson were significant factors. That said, Davis has exerted more effort on the defensive end recently--nowhere near what he could be doing, but he's got to start somewhere. It's been said that Davis flags on D when his jumper isn't falling, but I think the opposite may be true; when he isn't making lazy, disruptive mistakes on defense, Davis seems to perform with more confidence, wisdom, and aplomb at his preferred end of the court. Sunday night he drilled in 14 points in the fourth quarter alone, and ceded more of the ballhandling duties to KG and James. As well as Davis passes the rock, the team seems to function better when the assists are being doled out by others, and while 19 shots and 3 dimes isn't a ratio I'd constantly endorse, Sunday night it felt like the old Sprewell role in the MV3 setup three years ago.

2) Bravo Casey: A shorter bench with the rooks still involved

The turning point in last night's contest came with 3:17 to go in the third period, when coach Dwane Casey subbed in rookies Craig Smith and Randy Foye for Mark Blount and Mike James. After leading by three at the half, the Wolves had played a typically ragged third period, and found themselves down by a point, 60-61. But Smith immediately injected some backbone and brains into the paint, sandwiching a putback and a slam dunk off a feed from KG around two occasions when he hustled himself into position (once on a baseline slide-over rotation to cover for KG's double team) to draw the charge. When the period was over, Minnesota had quelled Philly's momentum and regained their three-point lead.

When Casey subbed in three players with 8:29 to go in the game, the rooks were the players he retained, thus enabling James and Foye to get some tandem time in both halves. When Foye sat with 5:37 left, the Wolves were up 7, and it was the same margin when Smith finally went to the bench at 4:10 to play. In all, Casey shortened his bench considerably, playing the starters and the rookies for 215 of the collective 240 minutes allotted, with Jaric getting 14 and Madsen 11 in the remainder. According to popcornmachine.net, Foye had a team-best plus-12 in 22 minutes and Smith was close behind at plus-10 over 21 minutes. Hudson, Griffin, and Reed stayed put.

3) Quick hits

Hassell hassled Iverson into 6-19 FG and only 7 second-half points. Believe it or not, holding AI to 26 points and 7 assists amounts to a clampdown--he'd averaged 40 over his last few games--and while Hassell had much more assistance on Sunday than against Tracy McGrady and Carmelo Anthony the previous two games, anyone reading about his two points, one assist and 6 rebounds in the box score won't have a clue how valuable he was.

The Wolves committed a season-high 22 turnovers, and yes it looked every bit that sloppy. But in a patter left over from last season, turnovers don't seem to be a key barometer of the team's chances. Thus far this year, they are 4-5 when committing fewer than 18 turnovers, and 3-4 when committing 18 or more.

Excellent job by the team's broadcasting crew Sunday, particularly Jim Peterson, who identified all the significant hallmarks of the game as they were happening. This includes James getting comfortable, Casey's shorter, smarter substitution pattern, and the stablizing impact of the rookies.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 4, 2006 5:02 AM | Comments (9)

 

The Three-Pointer: A Team in Pieces

Filed under: Timberwolves

1) Many players, not enough roles
In tonight's 106-92 loss to the Nuggets (and the game wasn't that close), the Wolves again proved to be better on paper than they are on the court. Fifteen games into the season, this is a squad where the roles and the substitution patterns are simply too whimsical. Do the substitution patterns cause the pieces to be ill-fitting, or are the ill-fitting pieces fostering too many substitution patterns? Whether it is the chicken or the egg, the team is underachieving.

The superstar, Kevin Garnett, has always loved being involved in the passing offense and has always tolerated banging with the big boys for blocks and rebounds. This year he is once again among the top ten in rebounding and now out of the top 50 in assists, ranking third on his own team in the latter category, at just 3.4 assists per game. Tonight, KG was up against a couple of undersized wide-bodies who just love to bang and board, Eduardo Najera and Reggie Evans. In the first half, the duo combined for a whopping 18 rebounds, half of them on the offensive glass. Garnett had two rebounds. That's why the Wolves were minus 8 (5-13) in second chance points and minus 11 (45-56) on the scoreboard. Coming out of intermission KG asserted himself on the boards with three rebounds in less than three minutes, and, not coincidentally, became more of a playmaker in the half-court offense, doubling his halftime assist total with a pair of dimes out to Mike James for treys from the top of the arc. These were alternated by layups from KG and Trenton Hassell, whittling Denver's margin down to 5 with 9:11 to play in the third period. Denver called timeout, adjusted, and forced two of KG's 7 turnovers, plus one from Mark Blount, in boosting their lead back to 11 over the next three minutes.

The guy who leads the team in assists, Ricky Davis, is indeed a gifted passer, but he doesn't always make good decisions. The dreadful end of tonight's third period began when Davis was dribbling out on the perimeter, ostensibly milking the clock for the last shot. Except that his shot was both hurried, without his feet set, and delivered too soon, enabling Denver to grab the rebound and race down in time to nail a three-pointer before the buzzer, pushing Denver's lead to its largest of the night, 89-67, with just 12 minutes to play.

It was yet another in a string of putrid third quarters delivered when the Wolves' starters play the majority of minutes. The Wolves starters, simply don't seem to play well together. One reason is because Davis among them: Tonight he was a team-worst minus 14 during his 37:20 of playing time, making him a team worst minus 36 during the Wolves' current three-game losing streak. Davis actually played better defense than usual, yet still allowed streak shooter J.R. Smith to get plenty of open looks and a few transition slam dunks. Davis did get to the free throw line 8 times--the rest of the team combined for 4 more--but continues to look like a player better suited to be a 6th Man, able to provide a spark in many ways, but slotted in with various rotations and capable of being lifted if the magic isn't there. At the very least, can we all agree that Ricky Davis and Kevin Garnett haven't even equalled the sum of their exceptional talents when together on the court?

And what about the other roles? For two games on the road, rookie Randy Foye was a 4th Quarter magic man. Tonight, with the Wolves down by 19 with 5:46 left to play, Coach Casey replaced him with Davis. Can we all agree that the more Foye plays, the better he will become? If this squad continues to lose three for every two it wins, the progress of Foye and Craig Smith will be second only to KG's (swan song?) majesty as a gate attraction come February and March. Is Ricky Davis going to make up 19 points in less than six minutes? No, if anyone had recently given any indication of pulling off such a feat, it was Foye. And for that matter, what was Garnett doing still in the game? I hope he wasn't going for his tenth rebound so as to secure another double-double for the stat sheet. Maybe it was because Carmelo Anthony was also inexplicably in the action--and got poked in the eye in the last 30 seconds.

But I digress... Roles. Justin Reed and Eddie Griffin were accorded nearly seven minutes apiece tonight, and all dozen players on the roster logged some time. But what's the rhyme or reason? Yeah, I've got the 20-20 hindsight specs on, but by now isn't this team supposed to be close to figuring out which player combos seem to gel best, and fostering those synergies? About the only thing we know is that the starting lineup has been a constant, plays as a unit for the majority of the first and third quarters, and almost always puts the Wolves in a hole.

2) Scolding the Hassell haters, and Marko's marvelous adventure
It's been great sport to denigrate the play of Trenton Hassell over the past week or two. I imagine in large part that is because Hassell's contribution rarely registers on the stat sheet, and because Trenton called himself out last week, claiming that Marko Jaric should start in his place.

Hassell's offensive rhythm has clearly been off thus far this season, but I've also heard more than one person claim that his defense has likewise taken a step backward. Maybe so, but in terms of on-ball tenacity, it is still a damn sight more effective than anybody else on the team can muster. I didn't see a five-game stretch in mid-November, but the other night in Houston, Hassell limited Tracy McGrady to 2-10 shooting from the field when they were in the game together. Tonight, defending Carmelo Anthony, the NBA's second leading scorer at 31 ppg, Hassell's defensive prowess was even more striking. In the 23:08 Hassell and Melo were on the court together, Melo scored 8 points--a pair of free throws and a fast break dunk in the second period, and a pair of jumpers during the fourth period when the game was out of reach. In the remaining 19:15 that Anthony was on the court being guarded by somebody else, he racked up 27 points. Despite playing only 28:45, Hassell also led the Wolves with 5 assists. His plus/minus was zero, in a game in which the Wolves were a minus 14.

When Hassell picked up his second foul just 4:08 into the first period, it brought Marko Jaric off the bench. Over the next 11 and a half minutes, Marko took fans on a highly entertaining ride that epitomized the distinctive strengths and weaknesses that make him such a unique performer.

He strolled on to the court with his jersey on backwards, his name emblazoned on his chest instead of his back. As he hurriedly pulled it off, reversed it and put it on, he was whistled for a delay of game penalty. Then Mark Blount blocked a Najera shot and Jaric retrieved it and send a beautiful pass to James in transition for the layup. Then two straight times when Denver was in its half-court offense, Marko tried to front Anthony in the low post, only to have the point guard deliver a pair of alley-oop slams for Melo. Soon afterwards, Marko had a clear path to the hoop, drove and missed everything on his banked layup, then committed a foul in the backcourt trying to steal the rebound from his opponent. Then, in the space of 20 seconds, he nailed a 21-foot jumper, stole a pass from Marcus Camby, and fed Davis for a fast break dunk. Then he blew another layup. He ended his crazy-quilt first period by tossing up a Hail Mary half-court shot that banked into the hoop just before the buzzer sounded. Before he sat down three minutes into the second period, Marko clanged a slam dunk after receiving a beautiful feed from Craig Smith, then filched two more Nuggets passes, turning the second steal (and his third of the 11-minute stint) into a fast break culminating in his layup on an assist from Davis.

3) A pair of coaching moves that furrow the brow
With 51 seconds to go in the first half and the Wolves down 8, Casey subbed in rookie Craig Smith for KG. It wasn't his first rest--Garnett had already gotten a brief respite at the end of the first quarter; and anyway, he had the entire intermission to catch his breath. It wasn't a desire to keep KG out of foul trouble--he only had 2. With KG out, the Wolves didn't make a field goal, although Davis did sink a pair of free throws. The Nuggets countered with five points off a pair of Anthony jumpers (Hassell was on the bench beside KG) and went into the locker room up 11. Now, was KG's benching a message by the coach for the lackluster rebounder mentioned earlier? Don't know. But Garnett did glare at Casey as he went to the sideline.

The second questionable substitution occurred with 3:17 left to play in the third period and the Nuggets up by 14, 75-61. Along with the two rooks, Foye and Smith, replacing the two vets, James and Blount (by the way, James and Foye again almost never played together in the backcourt), Casey subbed in Justin Reed for Hassell. Reed, who hadn't played since last weekend's win over the Clippers, and who has logged only 32 minutes this entire season, had the job of guarding Anthony. Now Reed is a diligent, aggressive defender, which also makes him foul-prone. And the Wolves were already in the penalty by the time he came into the game. Do you really want a rusty, foul-prone defender on a deadly scorer with your team in the penalty in the waning minutes of the third quarter of a game already slowly slipping out of reach? Reed committed only one foul, which Melo converted into two made FTs, but Anthony added five more points and the Nuggets outscored the Wolves 14-6 in that 3:17 span to boost their lead to 22. Ballgame.

Posted by Britt Robson at December 1, 2006 11:45 PM | Comments (7)