Daily Moment of Jaric

Charlotte at MN

Adam Morrison goes the first half scoreless. With less than 4 minutes left in the third quarter, Jaric comes into the game to gaurd Morrison; who promptly goes off for 8 straight, and 11 in the quarter. My favorite move of the quarter was when Morrison took a single dribble to the basket, Jaric fell backwards on his heels and conceded a open jumpshot to the rookie from Gonzaga. Ironically, as Wittman started to put better defenders on Morrison, Morrison started making harder and harder shots. I'm not even sure if it's in our best interest to make the playoffs. It's embarassing to see us get outrebounded so badly on the offensive glass. There really can't be any question any more, this is a bad team.

And it doesn't get better, next four games: Phoenix, Washington, Dallas, Utah.

Wolves-Grizzlies Recap

Daily Moment of Jaric:
The fastbreaking-Yugoslavian dribbles down the floor; Gasol is the only Grizzly back on defense and KG is the only other T'Wolf in the frontcourt. Instead of spacing the floor or forcing Gasol to commit, Jaric waits until the last minute and passes to Garnett who has absolutely no where to go but directly into Gasol. Garnett can hardly handle the pass in time and essentially loses the ball into the hands of Pau, who is promptly credited with "the biggest block of his career" according to Grizzlies TV commentators.
Jaric: plus one assist to the opposing team.

The Warriors are T'Wolves- but much worse

After watching wednesday's game agains Golden State, I realized that the Warriors are essentially the same team as the Timberwolves, but worse in all aspects but 3-point shooting. Both teams rely far too much on the jumpshot, they both play poor interior defense and are bottom-rate offensive rebounding clubs. The fact that the Wolves scored 63 in the first half alone, had more to do with poor defense, and less to do with good shooting or good offensive sets. KG had 8 assists in the first half because he was able to pass out of double teams, straight into a wide open teammate standing under the basket. Glad to have the blowout win, but too bad it looked like we were just beating ourselves out there.

Daily Moment of Jaric:
Fastbreaking Jaric dribbled down the floor behind Ricky Davis and Mike James, with a single Golden State defender in front, and Garnett trailing a few steps behind Jaric. Instead of passing to one of the two open guards, or splitting the one-man defense, Jaric dropped the ball off behind him for Garnett, who has to take a dribble and jump sideways to avoid committing the charge on the lone defender. Ticket goes to the free throw line for the blocking foul.

Hudson+Jaric=Lovers

Before I continue I'd like to apologize if my posts are starting to seem redundant. That said, after watching the Wolves get spanked by the Yao-less Rockets, I must once again comment on the horrendus play of Marko Jaric, and the weak offensive gameplan designed by the coaching staff. I have given Randy Wittman enough time to settle into a rotation and offensive sets, but our offense in Houston was, well... offensive. Here's the key stats for Monday's game:

Rebounds/Offensive Rebounds:
MIN: 36/6
HOU: 45/14

Free Throws Made/Attempted:
MIN: 10/11
HOU: 16/26

FG%:
MIN: 41.1%
HOU: 47.1%

Well I can't find the Points in the Paint stats anywhere online, but it should be fairly obvious that the Rockets had a huge advantage in this category. I think at halftime it was 8 points to 32, advantage Rockets. That would make sense being that their FG% is 6 points higher, they had 8 more offensive rebounds, and they were at the foul line 15 times more than we were. The Wolves shot jump shots, almost exclusively all night and no one crashed the boards.

There are two plays I'd like to point out, as they were my favorites of the night:

1. Jaric nearly falling to the floor as Bonzi Wells crossed him over and hit the step-back J.

2. In the third quarter, Wittman started with Hudson and Jaric in the back court. Hudson brings the ball up, passes to Jaric, Jaric passes back. With 5 seconds on the shot clock, Hudson dribbles to the 3-point arch and passes to KG. Ticket hits the jump shot with both feet on the arch.

This was probably my favorite play because even the Houston commentators (on NBALP) pointed out that it wasn't until only 5 seconds were left on the shot clock that the Timberwolves moved the ball past the 3-point arch. It took nearly 20 SECONDS to get the ball to the 3-point line! This play by itself, should explain to you how poor the play of the Minnesota Point Guards has been. God bless Ticket for bailing out his impotent guards once again.

-GL

Kevin McHale, You Should be Ashamed

Briefly: The Wolves lost last night. Of course, Chris Paul had his way with Mike "I can't play D" James - but the more important story was Tyson Chandler. Chandler put up 16 points and 18 rebounds. 18 rebounds is not a huge deal - however, he got his points on 8 of 9 shooting. Watching the game made it clear that the Wolves did not hustle. Chandler had 5 offensive boards, all of which turned into put-back points. The big men for the Wolves did nothing to stop him; they gave him 10 free points.
Also, the Wolves proved again that they cannot get to the line. I love KG, but c'mon, when you are as good as he is, you should be able to get to the line. KG: ZERO free throws. We need KG to bang inside. I understand that he's beat up, and he's not built for a tough inside game - but it was freaking Tyson Chandler and David West KG was going against.
Ricky Davis is probably one of the few players on the team that is not overpaid (more on this in an upcoming post). But he still takes too many quick shots and way too many dumb shots. Someone needs to tell him that he is not Ray Allen, and thus does not have the green light to shoot whenever he feels like it.



OK. Here is an interview with KG. I know I rag on him a lot, probably too much - but I do know that he's a competitor and hates losing. This interview made me rethink my criticism of KG. At about 6:30 in the clip, he breaks down. Watch the whole thing...Kevin McHale you are a bastard for making the best player in Minnesota sports history go through all this.

-AF

Not Just a Basketball Post

The Wolves play the Hornets tonight (in either New Orleans or Oklahoma City, but does anyone really care) and they need to win - if only to prove they can consitently beat bad teams. With Peja out for the Hornets, the Wolves have significantly more firepower than the Hornets.
Unfortunately, the Hornets have Chris Paul - and one of the Wolves biggest weaknesses is containing a good point guard. Good point guards usually do what they want against the Wolves, and Chris Paul is one of the best. Last time they played, the Wolves managed to hold Paul to 18 points, however, in the other meeting this season, Paul torched the wolves for 35 point on 12 for 18 shooting. There's no Stojakovic this time, so the Wolves have to take advantage of their offensive advantage.
David West is a solid post scorer, but Tyson Chandler is not going to be any threat offensively. I give our big men a huge advantage in this on - Mark Madsen should have a career day. Our backcourt is going to struggle: Mike James has been playing with an injured toe, and Randy Foye is not at the same level as Paul. Ricky Davis is our equivalent of Desmond Mason - call that matchup a draw.
The Wolves will win this one, but it will be closer than it should be, and Chris Paul will once again expose our backcourt deficiency. Rashad McCants made his return, and he'll be better in a few weeks, but he won't be ov much help tonight.


SIDE NOTE:
The new Yahoo! Sports page layout is horrible. It is extremely counterintuitive, and way too heavy on graphics and images. There was a reason it was the best sports page to find stats and scores - it was fast loading, simple, and had a clear and concise layout. Now it looks like a wannabe ESPN.com. Remember Friendster? Me neither, that site failed because they made the layout overly flashy, when users just wanted a simply way to connect. Look at Facebook: clear layout, simple, not graphics heavy, and users love it.
Yahoo has seriously fucked this one up. They fucked up Flickr with the new upload limits and registration requirements, and users are leaving as soon as their contract runs out. Yahoo used to be the best sports site, now because of a shitty design overhaul they are going to lose much of their userbase.



POST SIDE NOTE:
Props to the Twins for signing Morneau and Rincon to one-year deal, and Punto to a two year deal. If we can keep our team together until the new stadium is built, we will be the best team in the AL Central for many years (think '90s Braves, but with more World Series Championships).
The new stadium will be open in 2010. Once it opens the Twins will have enough revenue to keep their young players through 2010. Ages in 2010: Joe Mauer - 27 (entering prime years), Boof Bonser - 29 (prime), Jesse Crain - 29 (prime, possible our closer), Matt Garza - 27 (entering prime), Francisco Liriano 27 (entering prime), Johan Santan - 31 (prime, and he'll still have at least 5 great years in him), and of course Justin Morneau (prime).
If we can somehow sign these guys to contracts that will pay them mor e once we get our new stadium we will be fine.

-AF

#23

first of all, how do you lose a game on a wide-open 15-footer from Kevin Martin; how is there no one within 7 feet of him? ... more later