Timberwolves Relive the Past
December 14, 2007
Missing among the slogans the Minnesota Timberwolves are using this season to make fans forget about Kevin Garnett is one that urges spectators to return to the thrilling days of 1992. It is unlikely that the brain wizards on First Avenue want fans remembering the brief era of coach Jimmy Rodgers, when the T-Wolves tumbled from the promise the team showed under Bill Musselman to the lower depths of the NBA cellar.
As bad as the Rodgers boys were, the 2006-2007 edition of the Timberwolves are worse. In fact, Minnesota is challenging the 1972-1973 Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers for the fewest number of victories (9) since the NBA went to an 82-game schedule.
“Stay the course” is the current slogan used by Wolves’ coach Randy Wittman. The implications are ghastly when one considers that Witt’s coaching won-loss record is 75-151 with Cleveland and Minnesota. Staying on that course would make Wittman a candidate for the worst coach in the history of professional basketball, an honor reserved for Red Klotz of the Washington Generals.
Before the current season began, the Timberwolves announced that one of the team’s radio affiliates would be KDSJ in Deadwood, S.D., appropriate enough since the team is littered with dead wood including Mark Madsen, Michael Doleac, Antoine Walker, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes, and Gerald Green (the last five are failed Boston Celtics – a careful analysis of the current roster reveals a collection of prospects, has-beens, and troubled souls).
Friday night at the Target Center, Minnesota came roaring out of the gate against the Seattle Supersonics and took a 26-11 first quarter lead before coming apart and losing by the score of 99 to 88. The reason the Sonics were able to outscore the Timberwolves by 77-62 in the final three quarters was a piece of trickery conceived by coach P.J. Carlesimo of Seattle. The cunning Carlesimo switched defenses, going to a zone. Minnesota reacted as if P.J. had placed 10 Sonics on the floor at once to defend them. The Timberwolves folded like a cheap tent, and Wittman and his assistants were powerless in their attempts to get the players to adapt. From then on, Minnesota played with all the enthusiasm of condemned prisoners in a Russian gulag.
“The zone took away our aggression,” Wittman muttered after the game. Indeed, the Wolves were stopped in their tracks. Their coach explained that NBA zone defenses are not exactly like the Wall of China. “They guard areas,” he said. “Our guys were unable to define the open areas.” For his part, the foxy Carlesimo simply said, “We played defense well for three quarters. When you are on the road and you hold the opposition to less that 90 points, you have a darn good chance of winning the game.” Any team the Timberwolves play, at home or on the road, has a darn good chance to notch a victory. After losing to Milwaukee the following night, the team’s won-loss record stands at an embarrassing 3-19. This collapse, coming on the heels of the Minnesota football Gophers disastrous 2007 season may cause certain season ticket holders of both teams to invest in indoor lacrosse.
Seattle did not rely on the services of their superstar draft pick Kevin Durant in handling the Timberwolves. Chris Wilcox scored 19 points and pulled down 11 boards in a one-man show of strength in the second, third, and fourth quarters. Durant had four baskets from the field (one a three-pointer). Seattle also was missing the services of ace guard Delonte West, who is suffering from plantar fasciitis of the right foot.
The Sonics arrived in Minnesota with a won-loss record almost as dreadful as the one sported by the Timberwolves and left with a 7-17 mark.
“They went to a zone, and we just, for whatever reason, became tentative,” Wittman said.
Al Jefferson, a beacon in a dark storm, led the Timberwolves with 22 points and 16 rebounds.