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_{Photo copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)}

Game #13, Home Game #7:  Minnesota 102, Phoenix 110

Game #14, Road Game #7:  Minnesota 105, Oklahoma City 103

Game #15, Home Game #8: Minnesota 97, Denver 106

Season record: 4-11

1. Flailing

If you want the glass to be half-full on this unfolding Timberwolves season, you can note that the team has split its last six games, including wins over Eastern contenders Philly and Detroit, after enduring an 8-game losing streak. Of course that pattern--a stronger finish after a terrible start-- is one reason why folks were more optimistic about the team's chances this season in the first place. In that sense, the Wolves first month of the season is a microcosm of their entire 2007-08 campaign. Bottom line, their current record of 4-11 (.267), is as statistically similar to last year's 22-60 (.268) won-lost ledger as possible. Same as it ever was.

The three games played over the Thanksgiving holiday likewise feel familiar to a year ago. Signs of progress don't feel bankable, mostly because the plan is muddled, the performances relatively inconsistent. The chicken-or-egg quandary about whether the underlying problem is lack of talent or not enough synergy of the talent on hand (or what combination of both) continuing to be a vexing mystery. 

Let's get specific. When Craig Smith picked up his third foul with 1:07 left to play in the first quarter of tonight's game against Denver, Coach Randy Wittman went back to Jason Collins alongside rookie Kevin Love, who, 70 seconds earlier, had begun giving Al Jefferson his typical late first-quarter rest. It was far from an ideal situation, as Collins has never been remotely offensive-minded and Love is enduring rookie pains that may or may not have to do with him being frequently overmatched physically in the paint. In other words, goodbye low-post scoring. From that 1:07 left in the first through the first 1:58 of the second, the Wolves went from a four point lead to a one point deficit-- minus -5 in 3:05. But context made the substitutions defensible--the Rhino was in heavy foul trouble and Big Al needed a blow. Still, there was a dramatic change when Wittman subbed in Jefferson for Collins, especially the impact on Love. The Wolves' next ten points came on, respectively, a Love tip-in, a Jefferson slam off a feed from Randy Foye, another Love tip-in, a running lay-up from Jefferson, and a Jefferson alley-oop layup from Bassy Telfair. Of course because Collins is currently the team's best interior defender, Denver was likewise scoring with regularity at the other end, but that one-point deficit had been reversed back to a two-point lead for Minnesota.

Then, with the score tied and 1:43 left in the half,  Ryan Gomes fouls Melo Anthony. And as Anthony is busy converting his two free throws, Wittman is pulling Jefferson in favor of Collins, once again setting up a Collins-Love frontcourt. Why was this happening? It is not as if Jefferson needed a rest--he'd sat the first two minutes of the period, and had halftime coming in 103 seconds (Love, on the other hand, had played the entire period). Yes, he had two fouls, but with the Wolves about to take possession after Melo's free throws and just 1:43 on the clock, there weren't going to be that many defensive stops required--and if he picked up a third foul, it didn't seem that onerous. In any case, as he walked off the court, Jefferson had a sour, slightly bewildered look on his face. Somewhat predictably, the Wolves went scoreless the rest of the quarter, heading into the halftime locker room with their largest deficit of the game, trailing 60-54. In two stints totalling 4:48, the Collins-Love combo was minus -9, a time in which the Wolves' offense managed just 4 points.

Admittedly, this is a classic second-guess situation. I've driven the bandwagon arguing for steady minutes for Collins ever since he became healthy enough to play. If I had written a three-pointer right after last night's last-second win over Oklahoma City, I'd have been noting that while Craig Smith had a marvelous game, riding Smith and Jefferson as the frontcourt duo down the stretch necessitated that the defensively challenged Big Al guard Chris Wilcox, who first torched the Wolves for 15 fourth-quarter points and then commanded double teams that creates a pair of treys that nearly won the game for the Thunder. I understand Wittman's dilemma, that the frontcourt rotations are a defense-vs-offense give-and-take. But after that tough first stint together, I didn't think Collins-Love in the final 1:43 of the half was going to serve the Wolves well. And they didn't.

But where things become discouragingly muddled is listening to the message sent by the coach in his postgame press conference. Wittman blamed the loss on his team's lack of aggressiveness toward the basket, versus the way the Nuggets attacked the rim. He said when they threw it in the low block to Jefferson, compelling the double team and the kickout to others on the perimeter, that  nobody penetrated to the rim to exploit the situation. He cited the whopping 33-10 disparity in free throws as proof. He added that "we didn't step it up when they made their run" in the third quarter. And he specifically called out Randy Foye for not generating free throws, saying of Foye, "he's got to be one of those guys. He shoot one free throw. He has the size and strength and he's got to get to the line more."

I thought that when the main components of the Wolves' offense were in the game, the rudiments of the offensive philosophy functioned pretty well, making this postgame criticism situation and small-bore, a pattern that creates the impression of Wittman as nit-picker.

At the beginning of the season, most observers, myself included, thought the offense would rely on spacing and the inside-outside potential of Jefferson's low post potency and an array of perimeter sharpshooters led by Mike Miller but including Foye and Shaddy McCants. Yeah, penetration would be part of the arsenal, but watching Jefferson empty his trick bag of paint maneuvers and gleaning the catch-and-shoot swishes of the long-range deadeyes felt like the primary components. Then Miller decided he was going to demonstrate his "complete player" skills, turning down viable shots (especially for someone of his marksmanship) in favor of the extra pass, or, indeed, taking his man off the dribble in hopes of a layup or a foul. It was maddening to watch this 52% shooter trying to set up his 44% brethren en route to compiling a fairly nifty assist-to-turnover ratio that was nevertheless inferior to Foye's, and not getting to the line very often to boot. Then, lo and behold, on Friday night in Oklahoma City, Miller aggressively went for his shot for the second time all season (the first being the overtime loss to the Spurs). Even when he was misfiring (4-11 FG in the first half), it opened up the floor and sharpened his eye. Perhaps it is a rationalization, but I think when go-to shooters attempt a few jumpers with a tougher degree of difficulty, the "easy" ones become even easier to convert. Whatever the case, Miller's 17th FGA of the night was a cold-blooded game-winner off an upfake on the baseline with a tenth of a second left.

The Thunder game showcased the Wolves' offensive potential. With Miller a constant threat to unload his accurate jumper, Jefferson being his usual load down low, and Craig Smith taking advantage of his unique matchup capabilities in the 'tweener game, the inside-outside offense worked extremely well. Jefferson and Smith combined for 42 points and got to the line 23 times, just the two of them. Point guards Foye and Telfair had 11 assists versus just three turnovers between them. Like Miller, they also never generated a shooting foul and were a combined 0-0 from the line.

And yes, that was the inept OKC Thunder, who hadn't beaten anyone but the Wolves (four weeks ago) in 16 tries. The Nuggets, who had won 9 of 12 since acquiring Chauncey Billups, would obviously be much tougher on this home end of the back-to-back for Minnesota. Yet, the inside-outside offense was still nicely established on Saturday. Often through the good efforts of Foye, who led the team with six assists, Miller had a plethora of choice, wide-open looks. That he shot a miserable 2-10 FG, including a horrific 0-6 from beyond the arc, quite simply is what cost the Wolves the ballgame; that and woeful defense that allowed Billups to go off for 27 points on only 9 official shots from the field.But defense aside, I can't think of a single one of those 10 shots from Miller that didn't make perfect sense in the flow of the offense. Meanwhile, Foye was a nifty 11-20 FG, albeit just 2-6 3ptFG and with that lone free throw. But that's still 25 points to go with five rebounds and six dimes (and four turnovers). Was getting to the rim really the thing you want planted in his head after that kind of performance?

If Wittman wanted to criticize the ballclub in a manner that felt consistent, he could have harped on the perimeter defense. In each of the past three games, the opposing point guards--Phoenix's Steve Nash and Seattle's Russell Westbrook before Billups--could get pretty much wherever they wanted to go, and generate offense via either the pass or the shot with a mere modicum of sweat equity. But the message he told his team after the Denver loss seems similar to his postgame press conference. "I should have gotten to the free throw line more. That's my fault; I've got to get my act together," said Foye in the locker room. Added Jefferson a few minutes later, "They decided to turn it up and we didn't, we didn't match their energy... They got in attack mode and we didn't match that."

Not so very long ago when the Wolves were enduring an eight-game losing streak, Foye was being blistered by me and others for being bereft of both his customary shooting eye and his still-missing point guard skills. But in the three previous games to Denver (two of them wins), he'd compiled a gaudy 26/6 assist-to-turnover ratio and seemed to be getting more relaxed. The fact that he'd only attempted 4 free throws in those three games seemed beside the point.

During that same down period when Miller was ostentatiously passing up shots, Wittman offered some sage insight: His new shooting guard was rushing too much, not noticing all the good shooting opportunities flying by. Now, on a night (ironically "Mike Miller Night" at Target Center) when he was mostly measured and definitely judicious with his shots, Wittman is talking about getting to the line and meeting their attack mode in kind. That's a mixed message. Even a little context would have been invaluable, something like, "we were spacing the floor well and getting good shots, but they weren't falling and when that happens we needed to try and make some more things happen in the paint."

Or not. After 15 games, I'm not totally sure what the offensively philosphy of this team is anyway. Certainly a primary objective is pounding the ball down to Jefferson in the block--an admirable bit of bedrock upon which to build. But the tone as well as the philosophy seems to shift, as the coach variously castigates and calls out his troops--he expressed shock at their lack of readiness for Phoenix--and praises them for their effort. And while the defense--the coach's stated top priority--has improved significantly since the long losing streak, only two players who have been assigned relatively bit roles--Collins and Corey Brewer--seem to identify as defenders first and foremost. The recognizable faces and personalities of the franchise, from Jefferson to Foye to McCants to Miller to Love, are all more comfortable slinging the rock than preventing it from being slung.

2. Rediscovering Gomes

Yet another reason to like Jason Collins is that he has bumped all the Minnesota "big men" a notch down the paint-defending pecking order and thus returned Ryan Gomes to his rightful value as a solid 'tweener defender and an overall jack of all trades. With the Thanksgiving holiday affording me the rare opportunity to get off my treadmill of deadlines and poke around, I went to the treasure trove of Wolves links provided by Sonia at twolvesblog.com (highly recommended) and found a summary of the Phoenix-Wolves game by Charlie Rosen, a hoops analyst I respect quite a bit but rarely read. Rosen mentioned something that I discovered last year, then began to automatically assume, and then took for granted so thoroughly that it fell out of my thought process: That Ryan Gomes is the Wolves' best, perhaps only, two-way player.

This weekend's past two games have reinforced that wisdom. Gomes has been called upon to be the primary defender against the opponent's top scorer: Kevin Durant on Friday and then Melo Anthony tonight. The former is lithe and lanky, the latter explosive and deceptively rugged. Both are natural born scorers. Gomes held each below 40% shooting and was especially effective against Durant. Tonight, while his teammates were shooting 3-19 3ptFG, Gomes hit 3-4 from beyond the arc and had a typically clandestine 11 points. All of us can only hope that the days of a noncomplaining warrior like Gomes brawling in the paint with much longer and/or wider power forwards is a thing of the past.

3. Ups and Downs

The Greek tragedy that is Rashad McCants's tenure as the savior and/or enfant terrible of the Wolves' offense feels like it is headed for its climactic act. After three years of working the yo-yo on the roller coaster, Shaddy seems in danger of flat-lining in the dungeon with his latest offerings, beginning, after being sidelined with a back ailment, with a memorably grotesque 3:17 stretch against Phoenix where he committed three blatant turnovers, then appeared genuinely perplexed that he was given the Showtime At The Apollo hook  With the Wolves down 13 with 2:25 to play, Wittman reinserted him for some desperation treys, and of course McCants, banged home a trio of them--shots he never makes when the score is very close--to make it interesting down the stretch. That didn't prevent him from earning a DNP-CD against Oklahoma City Friday. Tonight he got two brief stints: A 2:53 stretch in the second quarter when he immediately turned the ball over on a lazy pass and then shot on airball on a jumper from the corner; and a 2:58 run at the end of the third where he stole the ball from Billups and went two-man with Gomes down for a layup, then nailed a trey near the end of the quarter. Back in his sweats on the sideline as his teammates began preparing for the 4th quarter down 17, he erupted with an angry, hurt, howling scream that made a few people around him, including some teammates, jump.

The math is difficult. With Gomes splitting small forward with an improving Corey Brewer since Collins returned, McCants is hovering around that last musical chair in the rotation, after the starters are done their first stints and in competition to when Telfair kicks Foye to off-guard and Miller temporarily goes to the bench. But Miller is second only to Jefferson in minutes and Bassy has to play enough for Foye to rest. I've always felt that McCants is too talented and, over time, has produced enough better-than-expected numbers, to be unceremoniously dumped a la JR Rider. The guy is nitroglycerin in all its positive and negative manifestations. But the balance is tilting against him, the wildly inconsistent play hasn't abated, restricted free agency looms on the horizon, and the good-citizen replacements for the Shaddy-drama are perhaps becoming less troublesome solutions. Of course a 40-point eruption, or, less likely, a series of well-played, thoroughly integrated team peformances, could restore his luster and make the latest blips on the radar seem much less onerous. You never know when the carney is going to pull the lever and stop the ride.

Over at Clankers Anonymous, Corey Brewer seems ready to graduate from the program with a recent (if brief) string of confident performances. Following in the immortal steps of Malik Seally, Anthony Peeler and the great Sam Mitchell, Brewer has become a drifter to the corner, where the trey distance is shortest and defenders generally tend to forget about him. If this team does indeed want to emphasize defense and also get out on the break more often, increased minutes for Brewer would help the die-hards imagine a better future ahead.

Telfair is less encouraging, especially after his 1-8 FG tonight dropped his shooting percentage perilously close to 35%, a figure somewhat redeemed by his robust 8-17 mark from beyond the 3pt line. Bassy is hands-down the best passer on the team, and probably the best dribbler. Fortunately, that's enough to lock down the backup point guard position. But the longer his career seems sabotaged by this one skill flaw, the more thoroughly he's going to have to rebut it on the court. I remember Sid Lowe in the twilight of his career at conversely the first two seasons in Wolves history--opponents literally backed away when he received the ball, not only daring but taunting him to shoot. Bassy has tried to forestall this circumstance by firing away when he has a wide open look. But the percentages aren't with him. How much longer can we say he's young and has time to shore up this aspect of his arsenal?