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As with most Wolves victories, Al's supporting cast showed up. Gomes, Brewer, Snyder, McCants all had good appearances. And, incredible as it seems, McCants hit a big shot, with about 21 seconds left to play to keep the Wolves lead at six, stifling the last run the Jazz had in them. Rashad was particularly effective; he was able to weave though the defense and score after having foul troubles in the first half. He had no assists, but was enough of an offensive catalyst that there seemed to be enough rhythm to go around. Two players with streaky outside shooting decided to go to the basket yesterday: Brewer and Snyder. Given he's still a rookie with a long way to go, seeing him do what he does best--run the court, play defense and slash to the basket--was rewarding. If he would stick to his intangibles, and work on his outside shooting over the offseason, I don't think there would be nearly the concern over his play that there has been. Snyder--when he's focused--is approaching glue guy status. Swapping starter/bench roles with Brewer, I thought his decision making in the fourth quarter, going to the hole instead of settling for jump shots, was also eye catching. Kirk played decent defense on Harpring, and he, McCants and Jaric stayed on the court in the fourth quarter. No "fourth quarter Foye" was on display, as he sat during crunch time this game. As for the Jazz, they did what they do best--at least on offense--share the ball, and shoot well. Both Utah and Minnesota shot over 50 percent in the game, so it was more of a lax defensive effort on Utah's part that really cost them. Paul Milsap and Ronnie Brewer had strong games for the Jazz to compliment Boozer, but even with 13 assists, Deron Williams looked disinterested much of the game. He went 5-15 and only 1-6 behind the 3 point line. Given the jockying in the Western Conference, losing to bad teams like Minnesota has to be an acute pain for Mr. Sloan. For the Wolves, given their inability to do well against plus .500 teams, this can be spun positively in many different ways. They will at least split the season series with Utah, and can use this for season highlight reels, broadcasting propaganda, and "turned the corner" discussions. But for a sub-20 win team, you take your victories when you can.

It's funny how Jaric gets such a bad rap on all the boards. Is this because they traded Cassell for him? Or his supposedly high salary? The reason he plays 40 minutes in Telfair's absence is because he creates opportunities for the offense better than any other backcourt player on the team. As a starter he's been getting between 5 and 8 assists per game. In addition, he attacks the lane opening up spots for Smith, Gomes and Al to get an easy shot or go to the line. While his stats won't be setting the world on fire, he runs the offense better than anyone on the team. Correct me if I'm wrong but his playing time recently has coincided with the Wolves most competitive month. So why would Wittman play Foye at the point in his place?

I was at the game and was pleasantly surprised. A very workmanlike performance that took a team effort, not some individual (usually Jefferson or McCants) going off. A couple of notes: 1. No Okur or Kirilenko and R. Brewer was hobbled by something in the 2nd half. So this was not the full-strength Jazz. That being said, this is still a pretty good (though I don't think great) team. 2. Brewer was generally very aggressive and smart, which showed in his full stat line. He did a great job crashing the boards and a number of his shots came on either tip-ins or drives/slashes to the hoop. A very good, smart performance for him. Whitman is quoted in the Strib saying that he wanted Snyder on Harpring (which makes some sense), which is why Snyder played for the entire 4th (and he played well, so no reason to take him out). More on my thoughts on that later. 3. Britt, you asked McCants to step up in the 4th quarter, and in this game he did -- 13 of his 16 points in the last 18 minutes. He had Korver on him to start the 4th, and he just abused him -- got to the rim for some shots/fouls, and also dished to open big men, leading to some of the free throws for folks like Smith and Richard. Note that the Wolves got the Jazz in the penalty in the first 4 minutes of the 4th quarter, which is pretty remarkable for this team and due in a large part to McCants. McCants' aggresiveness forced Utah to switch and put Deron Williams on him (with Korver guarding Marko). That's the type of dictating tempo/matchups that good teams do, and I think it says something about how McCants is playing and the fact that he's starting to get a rep as a pretty explosive scorer. I'm sure the rep is that if you can stop him from scoring he lets the rest of the game get distrupted, but still. 4. I wouldn't expect the Jazz to go far in the playoffs -- they seem to be a player short and are not playing their best basketball now. 5. While I like the win and I like the fact that we're 14-19 in our last 33, I still wonder what the plan is here. I would think that the primary goal here in the last 3 weeks of the season would be to continue to develop our young players (particularly our last three lottery picks plus Jefferson). Yet Foye and Brewer didn't see the floor in the 4th quarter, despite playing pretty well for the 1st three. Now there is some benefit to seeing what Snyder can do, and Jaric was clucth in the last 4 minutes (though he had a rough shooting night). But I still think that we'd be best served to put our young guys in the pressure situation, come what may. Anyone feel differently?