The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

{This was ready to go up in the wee hours last night, as is typical, but the computer gremlins ate my copy so I went to bed and am banging this out in a rush to beat the New Year. Sorry for the delay.}

Game #30, Home Game #15: Minnesota 108, Memphis 98 (OT)

Game #31, Road Game #16: Dallas 107, Minnesota 100

Season Record: 6-25

1. The Worst of Both Worlds

How can a team hit its first 7 shots of a ballgame then misfire all but once, clanking 15 out of 16 attempts, in the very next quarter? The same way that same team can blow a 29-point lead with 22 minutes to play, and lose by 7, the following night--by having no idea what is successful and wise, and what isn't. Or, worse, knowing what is successful and wise and ignoring that wisdom.

The Timberwolves absolutely know how to lose. They have the right combination of a lack of core confidence, a roster suffused with redundant strengths, and glaring weaknesses at key skills such as interior defense and court vision, a toxic blend of misspent youth who have been improperly nurtured and over-the-hill journeymen thrust into leadership. They are led by a coach who'd rather not be on the sidelines, and are marinating in what has now been a five-year period of abject cluelessness. For all of these reasons, they can't always seize the gifts an NBA season invariably brings, like an opponent who comes out with flat energy and distracted minds, ready to be whupped. You won't find a more compelling Exhibit A for that gift-wrapping than the smelly egg laid by the Dallas Mavericks in the first half of Tuesday night's game. But no, the Wolves require that a team be off its game *and* be less than mediocre to boot, as in the Exhibit B Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night. Then their knowledge of how to lose may not be enough to succumb, and their decent talent level and orocess-of-elimination wielding of their one or two strengths brings them through.

For die-hard Wolves fans--and by now, there are no other kind--the most disheartening thing about Tuesday night's historic collapse in Dallas was how nonsensical it seemed in the greater context of the future course of the franchise. When Kevin McHale took over the coaching reins from Randy Wittman, he stated that he "likes this team," and whatever else one might have felt about the ex-hero of the Celtics and the Iron Range, there was a reasonable expectation was that he would at least groom the youngsters upon whom he staked his the shreds of his reputation in the wake of the grotesque mishanding of the Kevin Garnett era. But that has not happened. As the Wolves were being outscored 66-30 in the final 22 minutes of the game--this, after being up 70-41 through the first 26 minutes--it is revealing to look at who got the minutes, the playing time that is the down payment or venture capital on the future improvement of this team.

Randy Foye got a team-high 19:02 during that 22-minute span, solidifying his status as the number two option behind Al Jefferson and team cornerstone going forward--at shooting guard. I know McHale doesn't like to pinpoint positions (he reminds me of those global warming skeptics who keep maintaining that nobody had to wear sunscreen back when *they* were growing up), but it needs to be said that Foye at the 2 instead of the point eliminates a key rationalization for the Brandon Roy shenanigans, makes the drafting of Rashad McCants the previous year illogical, and unfortunately confirms the wisdom of many, many of us from Foye's rookie year forward who said with either furrowed brows or exasperated howls that Foye was not ever going to pan out as a point guard. I don't dispute that off-guard is Foye's best position, and I suppose admitting he can't run an offense is a necessarily wise cutting of losses. But ah, off-guards need to defend some pretty good shooters and Foye's defense on his counterpart, Jason Terry, in those final 22 was abysmal. Terry had 24 points on 9-13 FG and 4-5 3ptFG in 19:12. Foye countered with a couple of big treys to keep things close in the 4th quarter, but just 10 points with zero assists and 3 turnovers in that final 22, versus Terry's 1 dime (plus a steal and two blocks) and turnover-free performance during the comeback.

Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes tied for second with 16:44 worth of time in that collapse. We'll deal with Jefferson later, but suffice to say that you play Big Al as much as possible while trying to hold a lead down the stretch. In most situations I'd say the same for Gomes, and especially against Dallas, where he's a viable matchup against either Josh Howard or Dirk Nowitzki, who otherwise are very tough covers for the Wolves. Last year, I christened Gomes the barometer because the caliber of his play often served as a reliable indicator of how the team as a whole would fare. While that hasn't been as apparent this season, Monday night was the first time the Wolves won without Gomes scoring in double figures. On Tuesday night, however, Gomes was the barometer for the Mavericks. Yes, his aggression toward the hoop was a shock to almost all of us, and certainly Howard, who found himself being blitzed for 11 first-quarter points by Gomes, who went on to hit his first 7 shots. But even granting the surprise factor, the fact that Gomes was taking it to the hole on Howard with impunity, and that none of the Mavs' bigs were coming over to help, was a neon sign indicating that Dallas hadn't come to play. (There's a marijuana joke just begging to be told on Howard here, but having blazed more than a few spliffs when I was 28, I'm not going to go there.) Consider that Gomes was 8-9 FG for 19 points and three rebounds in that first 26, versus Howard's 4-12 FG for 9 points and no boards. Now flip the switch: Gomes was scoreless with 2 shots and nothing but a turnover in his 16:44 line over the final 22, while Howard went 6-10 FG en route to 14 points, plus a rebound and two assists, during his 19:02 over that span.

Okay, so if I concede it is not wrong to play Foye at the 2, and that Jefferson and Gomes were necessary and viable among the frontcourt positions, what is so disheartening here? The players getting the 4th and 5th most minutes: Brian Cardinal and Kevin Ollie.

When McHale said he "liked this team" and when McHale was praising this roster as being capable of making a big leap forward over last year's 22 wins, Cardinal and Ollie were nowhere in the picture--nor should they have been. Cardinal was taken as a deal-sweetener for Memphis who was desperate to unload his salary, in the draft day deal this summer. And Ollie was added as the last spot on the roster, in a neck-and-neck competition with Lilliput Blake Ahearn, a choice even McHale has indicated was insignificant.

Just to prove that we know the argument, let's trot out the rationale for Cardinal and Ollie being on the floor. In my last trey, I wrote about Cardinal's knowledge of how to enable his teammates at both ends of the floor, and his remarkable string of plus/minus positives (broken, naturally, the next game, when he was minus -1 versus Memphis). He was the team's best defender on Nowitzki in the first half, getting physical and goading him into a silly foul and loss of temper. And even in the wasteland of that second half pasting, he was the one Timberwolf on the floor who seemed to grasp the need for rapid ball movement and then moving without the ball--he had half of the squad's 4 assists in the final 22 minutes. And Ollie's role has risen in almost direct proportion to the concession about Foye's unsuitability to play the point. The other backcourt option, Bassy Telfair, is pretty undersized against a big galoot like Jason Kidd, and besides, Ollie had done a decent job guarding Terry in the first half when he and Foye switched off.

Now, having said all that, WTF is Kevin McHale thinking here? Clearly, he consciously decided to stunt the development of his young personnel and ride a slow 31-year old power forward and a 36-year old point guard down the stretch in order to improve his team's record to 7-24, a win that would have moved the Wolves ahead of Washington for the 28th best record in the 30-team NBA, and put it only 11 games out of the 8th seed in the playoffs. Those were the stakes. And, incredibly, the Wolves *blew a 29-point lead anyway*. Could it really have been worse than minus -36 over a 22-minute span giving that playing time to top draft pick Kevin Love, who had something of a breakout game just a night before; Bassy Telfair, who has begun to emerge despite (and emphatically not because of) McHale's heavy thumb the past few weeks, and who possesses a new two-year multimillion contract with an option for a third year;  and Shaddy McCants, whom McHale had just defended and expressed his affection for during the postgame press conference on Monday, and who had gone 4-4 FG in the first half?

We'll never know, because Love was limited to 5:05 over that final 22, same as 5th wheel Rodney Carney and 13 seconds less than Craig Smith, of whom McHale seems irrationally enamored, even against Dallas, one of many teams who provide horrible matchups for the Rhino on defense, as was conclusively demonstrated again on Tuesday, when Notwitzki toyed with him at both ends of the court. With Smith and Cardinal holding down the bulk of the power forward minutes during the collapse, Dallas missed only 16 shots (26-42) and got 9 offensive rebounds (beating the Wolves, who had 7 defensive caroms, on their own boards. Since Dallas had a grand total of one turnover during that 22 minute time period, that means the Mavs scored on 26 of 33 possessions, not counting the 12 trips they went to the line. It might have been nice to see what one of the league's top rebounders per48 could have done to secure more one-and-dones for Dallas, with the added bonus that he also happens to be your top draft pick in desperate need of seasoning.

Meanwhile, Bassy was allotted 9:36 and McCants a measly 2:47. By contrast, Cardinal had 16:31 and Ollie got 12:13. As if all this wasn't head-slapping enough, in the portion of the postgame press conference shown by FoxSports, McHale exclaimed that his goal during that second half was to push to pace, as the team had done successfully during the first half. Yup, it's always a good idea to leave your frisky young talent on the bench and play your wise but slow journeymen vets while engaging in a track meet on the road against a team ranked 5th in the NBA in fast break points playing in front of their 291st sellout crowd. The only other thing left to do to seal this ignominius giveaway of a 29-point lead is to hold off on calling timeouts--the Wolves left three unused in the second half--so the Mavs and their crowd could work up a good froth.

2. Big Al

There is one thing, and one thing only, that the Wolves can take to the bank as we close out the 2008 portion of the 08-09 season: That Al Jefferson is a monstrous, beastly load in the low block. As almost every other member of the Timberwolves has proven at some point during the season, it is easy to make shots when the game is early, the pressure is light and the play is flowing, quite another to stick it in the hole when it is crunchtime do-or-dying, insecurity is gnawing your psyche, and the opponent is selling out to stop you. Any team that has a player who can get his when the game is in the balance has a valuable commodity indeed, and Jefferson laid any doubts to rest about his go-to status in this thrilling, maddening, ultimately discouraging back-to-back split of games versus Memphis and Dallas.

There wasn't anybody in a Memphis uniform that was going to stop Jefferson on Monday night. Certainly not Marc Gasol, a water buffalo who moves most rapidly backpedling his way down the paint while Jefferson soars over him for slams and layups. Not stringbean rook Darrel Arthur, undersized pogostick Hakim Warrick, injured Darko Milicic or future wrestling villain and zero-minute man Hamed Haddadi from Iran. As has been the case all season, at least if your name is not Dwight Howard, the best way to defend Jefferson is to send multiple bodies at him, like a kung-fo flick, and hopefully wrest the rock loose from his grasp. As much fun as it was to watch Kevin Love sink all four of his shots in the 4th period Monday (and still lose the mythical matchup with OJ Mayo on style points, real points and all around composure and maturity), Jefferson can put the victory over Memphis up in his locker like a pelt. If the Wolves hadn't bungled the out-of-bounds play with the score tied and 27.5 to go in regulation--unable to get the ball to Jefferson as the call required, the possession ran out with Foye contorting himself for an ugly miss--Big Al could have prevented overtime . By that point, everybody in the building knew that if he touched the ball, he was going to make the scoreboard click for Minnesota. The 16-25 FG is gaudy enough, but diminishes what happened in that nip-and-tuck final 17 minutes of the 4th and overtime--Jefferson was 7-8 FG for 19 points.

Even in the soon-to-be-legendary foldup job in Dallas, Jefferson nearly single-handedly staved off the Mavs with his low post offense. He was 6-11 FG, and six of his last 9, in the 22 minute botch, even as the Mavs correctly assumed that no one else could beat them (the rest of the Wolves were 5-22 FG) and sent the cavalry at him. The addition of his midrange jumper and the refinement of his baseline spin on the left block--he's better at sealing his opponent with the jab-step (or fake jab) to the middle and then taking the leagues hardest angle for the bank to the hoop--have made him that much tougher to defend. In previous posts, I've had my issues with Jefferson's inconsistent defense and his occasionally abrasive and hypocritical attitude toward his teammates. But I haven't had as much fun watching the Timberwolves (as opposed to their opponents) this year as I did marveling in the offensive display he put on during crunchtime on Monday. Bravo.

3. Quick Hits

Obscured by Jefferson's heroics and the monumental collapse, Telfair continues to dramatically improve his offensive arensal. All color commentators deliver the old saw about how if a player sees the ball go in via a free throw or a gift layup, it helps his shooting eye on more typical jumpers. but in Bassy's case it seems to be true. Ollie is a fine, upstanding individual, who rocks a suit as well as I've every seen a Wolves player dress on the sideline, but giving him more than 5-8 minutes a night, and not giving Telfair the added boost of starting alongside Foye, seems counterproductive for both the present and the future.

Allow me to be the last person to weigh in on Mayo. Most impressively, he seems to have a complete game, without any real discernible weakness. His strengths seem to be the ability to both catch-and-shoot and score off the dribble moving in either direction; that and his mature sense of not needing to be the man until the situation warrants. He stayed within the offense for nearly the entire game, but aggressively looked for his shot, and nailed a trey, after a pair of Love baskets had pulled the Wolves into a 79-79 tie Monday. I see what people mean about there not being much further upside to his game--he's remarkably polished already--but his current baseline augurs for Mitch Richmond territory, the player comparison that makes the most sense after seeing him in action. I did find it interesting that Memphis put Mayo on Carney and allowed defensive specialist Quinton Ross to guard Foye when they were all out there, but overall, Mayo seemed a reasonably solid defender. On the limited samples I've seen, I'd still make Derrick Rose my Rookie of the Year, but Mayo is the second-best rookie thus far this year. Meanwhile, I'll keep raving about Russell Westbrook, who has the potential to rival Rose in a Paul-DRon fashion down the road.

Speaking of point guards, how does Deron Williams make the West All Stars this year? Paul is a slam-dunk choice, and I think you'd have to say the same about Billups in Denver. Meanwhile, Williams has been beset by injuries and even when healthy hasn't been able to push Utah (who have had others banged up) away from the brink of being the odd team out of the playoffs. And if you are going merely by numbers and reputation, how does Williams get the nod over Kidd in Dallas?