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

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

Game #26, Home Game #13: Minnesota 102, Houston 109

Season Record: 4-22

1. Compete or Develop?

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

Game #25, Home Game #12: Minnesota 70, Cleveland 93

Season Record: 4-21

1. A Clean Kill

There were 3 minutes and 30 seconds left in the 3rd period when Al Jefferson spun around and nailed a 12-footer from the left block to bring the Timberwolves to within a point of the Cavs, 57-56. But nobody really expected the 4-20 Timberwolves to keep going and vanquish the 20-4 club from Cleveland. And nobody was wrong.

_{Photo copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)}

Game #20, Home Game #10: Minnesota 96, Utah 99

Game #21, Road Game #11: Denver 116, Minnesota 105

Season Record: 4-17

1. Confidence Game

_{Photo copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)}

Game #17, Road Game #9: Orlando 100, Minnesota 89

Season Record: 4-13

1. Rubbing It In

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

Game # 2, Home Game #2: Minnesota 85, Dallas 95

Game # 3, Road Game #1: Oklahoma City 88, Minnesota 85

Season record: 1-2

1. Untrustworthy

The Wolves had just manufactured their first loss of the season against a very ordinary Dallas Mavericks ballclub and Randy Wittman was at the postgame microphone. Rather than offer any introductory remarks, he simply said, "Questions?" Silence.

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.

It was a blast bouncing back and forth between the Red Sox and the Vikings pulling out squeakers last night. Bereft of Tivo, there is a stubbornly (stupidly?) old-school desire of mine to let caprice take its course, knowing that Sportscenter would have the really spectacular sports moments that I missed in the flipping. (BTW, PBS's excellent three-hour doc on Jimmy Carter also put in a strong claim on my viewing habits, but fortunately their stuff is widely available on video and reruns.)

Don't get too excited or bummed out by anything I'm about to say. Like the rest of you, I'm itchy for the beginning of the NBA season and took great joy is sussing the action Saturday night in Mankato as the Wolves had a 35-minute intrasquad scrimmage in front of the general public. But the team has had exactly one week of practice. Their star, Al Jefferson, is recovering from a knee injury, and their most valuable off-season pickup, Mike Miller, was gimpy with a hamstring or thigh problem. I'll be more confident in my judgments when the sample size isn't so infintesimal.

(Pictured: The 1000HP Hennessy Viper. More on this one in a later post. Hennessy is the porn king of American cars and reportedly a real prick. E-mail him.)

This will be an on-going follow-up post to my "Nature Porn" comments a few months back. In my my previous post, I covered the world's most obscene SUV for the money—the Hennessy Grand Cherokee SRT-8.

Note: I know I said I'd have a Wolves recap for you Monday, but with all the playoff ball consuming my time (not to mention other writing projects--my editors know what they are) I now realize I'm never going to get this done unless I break it into parts.