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Chicago Bulls 85, Minnesota Timberwolves 75

1. Steady Al and the Clanging Non-Jeffersons

Al Jefferson did what he does, dipsy-doodling his up-fakes, baseline spins, up-and-unders, floaters, baby hooks and catch-and-slams in the paint against an assortment of single and double-teams tonight at the Target Center. You know the drill: 19 points (8-15 FG) and 11 rebounds in 25:28. During the time he was on the court, the Wolves outscored the Chicago Bulls 52-48.

Ah, but in the 22:32 Big Al sat, Minnesota's offense mustered 23 points while yielding 37. That's about a 50 points per 48-minute output. Notice that, despite all the shot-clanging, the Wolves' defense was stingier with Jefferson out, so let's not rain too many bouquets here. We know he can score and we know he can have trouble defending and there wasn't a lot of dissuading evidence on either of those accounts tonight.

On the other hand, don't treat the zero dimes too harshly either--without trying to notice, I counted twice when double-teams on him in the post had him passing to the assist-maker on an outside jumper. And then there were all the times his teammates had open looks and misfired. When your teammates shoot 18-65 from the floor (that's 27.7%), assists are precious. Bottom line, even with the upgrades in personnel, the Wolves in 2008-09 look to be as much Al Jefferson's team as it was Kevin Garnett's during most of the dozen years KG was here.

2. The McCants Yo Yo

Then there is the helix in the paradox that is Rashad McCants. What do the tattoos say again--Born to be Hated, Dying To Be Loved, or vice versa? No matter, it would be accurate both ways.

McCants was inserted into the game with 1:58 left in the first and the Wolves down 23-9 (they'd finish the quarter with 9 points, the same amount they totalled in the 4th). After 2 turnovers, he was pulled 36 seconds into the second period--a grand total of 2:34 before his first Target Center hook of the (pre)season. After the game, knowing of the friction between him and Shaddy last year, Coach Randy Wittman went out of his way to depersonalize it, criticizing the behavior and not the player. And the behavior? Not passing. If you don't pass and you're not going to pass--ANYBODY, not just Rashad McCants--then you are going to sit, Wittman said. To prove it, he later cited the need for Jefferson to pass out of double-teams, and noted that there are more guys who can score and create openings for others on the roster this year.

Okay, I get that this was a teachable moment in getting through loud and clear very early in the season to McCants that things will go a certain way. But, ah, Corey Brewer was 0-5 FG in 10:41 of the first quarter and Kevin Love bricked all four shots in just 5:41 of the first. Yes, ball movement is crucial and McCants can be notorious in bogarting the orb--in fact he didn't attempt a shot before he sat, but was in no particular hurry to let go of the rock either. It gets back to the old question of which is a "better" shot: McCants contested or Brewer wide open?

Wittman isn't wrong for wanting the offensive to flow to the open man and thus the open look. He specifically cited a play where Brewer was wide open from 18-feet and drove to the basket for a shot, the coach claimed, "that wasn't as good." Again, I can see the reasoning-- you want to space the floor for Jefferson and your sharpshooters like Shaddy and Mike Miller. But once he starts developing units (something that is difficult right now because of injuries to big men Collins, Booth, and Harrison, plus the preparation for Telfair's 3-game suspension to start the season), I hope he starts discriminating about shot selection for different players; in terms of both range and frequency.

Kevin Love was 1-10 FG tonight. Witt correctly noted that many of the misses were highly makeable buckets that Love usually converts in his sleep--he had a big off-night. The numbers during this preseason likewise say that Corey Brewer's 1-7 FG was an aberration. But I think Love is a 20-year old rookie who stands 6-8 and is warring in the NBA paint for the first time in his life. If he distinguishes himself appreciably more than the past three first-rounders--McCants, Foye and Brewer--during their respective rookie years, I will be pleasantly surprised. (His offense is the least of my concerns, but there is plenty of time for that later.) Meanwhile, I am in red-lined "show me" mode when it comes to Brewer's point-scoring prowess. Anytime the dude goes up for a jumper, I'm registering a victory for the opposing defense on that possession. The season will be much more enjoyable for all the sooner and more definitively he proves me (and likely every scout and coordinator in the NBA) wrong by burning ballclubs that let him jack.

Back to McCants. Which means back to shuffling the Janus masks. The guy came off the bench lethargically, seemingly without his head in the game, at either end of the court. He also seemed scapegoated, given that the "ball movement" mantra had produced one assist (Brewer to Big Al) and a whopping 9 points in the 10:02 he'd been sitting--and not coincidentally because Brewer and Love were getting as many "good" shots as Jefferson.

"No matter what position you take on McCants, he'll prove you wrong within 30 seconds," I said to the guy next to me (Ben, from citypages.com, a perceptive writer worth your time), and almost right on cue in the second quarter, Shaddy stole the ball and then passed it into a turnover. He repeated the same thing sequence in the third period--a nicely anticipated step into the passing lane, an ill-advised dish that made turnabout fair play.

Re-inserted by Wittman just 2:09 after he'd been benched, Shaddy made the punishment look shrewd by emerging on high-alert, passing the ball, and hewing to anyone's version of savvy shot-selection. On one play he was open from about 15-feet on the right baseline, feinted the shot, dribbled in hard to lure the defenders, and zipped to Jefferson for a slam. Other times he forced the action at the right time and drew the contact. Coming into the game, he was 9th on the team in minutes played and yet first in FT attempts by a wide margin thus far this preseason, and tonight he made six trips to the line in the second quarter alone. But--your 30 seconds are up!--he also seemed to be complaining to the ref who'd just rung up a foul that got him to the charity stripe in the second quarter: What was he lobbying for, a flagrant? And after he hit the first shot, he put his head down and walked halfway to the basket with his fists outstretched to either side. But no teammates stepped in to bump them.

In the 3rd quarter, McCants went off for a bushel--as with Jefferson, you know the drill. The Wolves were down 10 with 4:27 left in the period when he subbed in for Brewer and quickly drew a foul on Nocioni. Between foul shots, Wittman subbed in Love and Kevin Ollie for Jefferson and Foye, and swapped in Rodney Carney for Miller less than two minutes later. You take away Shaddy's three main rivals for the team scoring title and replace them with a rook having a horrible shooting night, a guy fighting for the third-string point guard position and a defensive-oriented jumping bean. Message delivered. Shaddy started looking for his, and his teammates-especially Ollie, helped. McCants committed one of his steal/turnover parlays, then nailed a bunny jumper. Miller (still in the game at the time) dove on the floor for a loose ball, dislocating Larry Hughes' shoulder in the process, and fed it to a teammate, who got it to Ollie and over to McCants for a trey...bang! Wolves down 4. Kirk Hinrich hits a layup but McCants follows his own missed runner with a putback layup. Then McCants counteracts Noah's two free throws with a 21-footer, again off a feed from Ollie.

On to the 4th quarter. Ollie and Carney trade steal-assists and breakaway layups with each other, cutting the lead to 2. The Bulls call timeout, get two Nocioni free throws on their next possession, but then watch McCants bury another trey on yet another dime from Ollie. After being down 29-9 at the end of the first, the Wolves trail by a digit, 73-74, with 7:47 to play. McCants, who scored his team's last 11 points of the third quarter and then adorned it with that trey, has 19 points in 18 minutes, going 6-13 from the field (2-4 3pt FG) and 5-8 from the line.

Then comes the fade. Chicago has paired two bigs, Noah and Gray, and add in the stellar rook Derrick Rose along with Nocioni, with Shaddy's man Sefolosha being the fifth. The Wolves only sub until the final minute is Foye for Ollie with 4:44 to play. McCants is jacking to no avail--three missed treys and two-pointer blocked by Sefolosha. Zero assists. Nada on the free throws. As a team, the Wolves score two points--Kevin Love, finally on the board courtesy of a nice feed from Carney for a dunk--in the final 7:47. And in the final minute, Sefolosha passes to Rose, Shaddy half-heartedly comes over to double, Rose whips it right back to Sefolosha, who dribbles past the out-of-position McCants right down the midsection of the paint, where Carney seems surprised he doesn't pay a toll, Love is backpedalling furiously lest he take a charge or something, and Chris Richard accepts his role as not-so-innocent bystander. Easy lay-up on a McCants-initiated chain reaction of four lousy defensive efforts, and a six point deficit is now 8 with 37.2 to go.

3. Odds and Ends

* Derrick Rose is the real deal. The box score will show Rose with 17 points (on 7-16 FG, 3-5 FT), six assists, five boards and five turnovers, versus Randy Foye's 12 points (4-9 FG, 1-3 3pt FG, 3-4 FT), 3 assists, four boards and one turnover, but in terms of point guard command and efficacy, the gap was larger than that. At the halfway point of the 4th quarter and the Bulls up only three, Rose found himself grabbing a contested ball with little time on the shot clock. As he began making his move toward the hoop, most people figured he was putting himself in position for a desperation jumper from 20 feet. Instead he zipped a pass to a wide open Noah underneath for a layup that just beat the buzzer. Earlier, in the 3rd period, Foye found himself pushing hard on the dribble of a 2-on-2 breakaway, a situation where the point guard needs to get a lay-up, an assist, or two foul shots. Instead, Foye's layup was blocked out of bounds--Wolves retained possession, but no points. Yes, that dramatic contrast is unfair to Foye if it is regarded as representative of both players' entire evening, I make it because it is difficult for me to imagine the two players switching roles on those two plays--I think Foye would have shot the jumper, and it may well have gone in. And I think Rose would have generated one of the three positive outcomes from that 2 on 2 break.

* Wittman says he will cut the roster after tomorrow's exhibition game against the Bucks. (For most of you, "tomorrow" is probably today, Thursday. I won't be attending, but the comments section will be open for your take if you wish to make it.) He says Telfair's suspension will provide a little relief, presumably meaning that he may not have to immediately make a decision between Ollie and Ahearn (that was the way I took it anyway). One presumes Calvin Booth will be bought out (Witt said Booth may play vs. Milwaukee). Whether the team decides to keep the newcomer Harrison is another interesting development.

* Witt says the defense of Carney has been "a pleasant surprise." From what we saw against the Bulls, he has a little of that Kirk Snyder vibe. How that fits in on this ballclub, which has less role-room for marginal talent than last season's edition, remains to be seen.

* In response to the Strib's Patrick Reusse, who very clearly was not impressed with the ballclub, Wittman firmly reiterated that "without a doubt" this team is better than last season's team.