Let's cut to the chase. The Timberwolves stunk tonight. Outside of that great start to start the third quarter and Troy Hudson's hot shooting in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to six, the performance of this team was horrible. I did not like what I saw from this team in this game. There were many factors to why they stunk tonight. I did not like the ball movement by the Timberwolves. It seemed most of the Wolves players decided to shoot the ball as soon as they got it rather than pass and find the open guy out there. It looked this unit played with each other for the first time ever tonight when they were running on offense tonight. Their defense was not that great either. I saw too many Cavs dunking at will tonight whether it's Lebron, Drew Gooden, Illguskas, and this kid, Anderson Varejao. I really did not like the way they executed tonight. The Wolves could have a done a better job putting themselves in a position to shoot free throws tonight Troy shot okay tonight, but I wish he would go to the rim a lot more. There has been times where he just misses out there. If he misses, why can't he go to the rim and attack out there. I really hope this loss pisses the Wolves players off. Something has to light a fire in them. I keep hoping a big winning streak will happen after a win, but then tonight, they stunk up the joint. I am tired of it. I really hope this team takes its frustrations against a very good team in the Spurs. That will not be very easy. I am just getting tired of this patten of one win, one loss. One great effort and then one stinker. I really hope they get their act together because I am tired of this.
The Wolves look alot different against the East then they do against the West, that is why I attribute their play against the East as a lack of focus. And if you are a serious championship contender you cant look to take games & halfs off and still expect to win basketball games. Troy Hudson shot the Ball well but he didnt create opportunties for others, while he was on the floor. And I think that is the type of backup the Wolves need him to be because you know most night's Cassell is going to score but when he goes to the bench the Wolves need someone who going to look to distribute and get others involved. Anyway, that Spurs game on Thrusday will be key, it will let us know exactly where the Wolves are at as far as being a contender because that is who they will most likely be playing in May come Western Conference Finals time.
This is one of the losses I don't have to hard of a time accepting, because I know the Cavaliers are a good team. But, we should be doing better than this, I must agree. It isn't surprising that Garnett had a good game, Gooden does not have very good defense. I guess a plus is that Hudson is back in his groove. He is very streaky, and at one point, asked to come out of the game because he felt out of the game. But, we really need to start playing against the East. Last year, we lost six games to the East all year. This year, we have already lost six. Thats not good.
It's kinda sad because we wanted the Wolves to move over to the Eastern Conference, but being 0 - 5 to the Central Division teams is dreadful. Last night, I would give the edge to the Cavs answering runs as opposed to the Wolves just sucking..... but it's close. The Wolves constantly let McGinness get into the lane for a floater. Z was open in the Zone for numerous lay-upsdunks. And LeBron was just on fire. They didn't want him strolling in for dunks, so he hit jumpers. Can't feel bad about that. Maybe they should have closed out on him and got some help defense if he got past....but he can pass too. Good job for them. I do feel that Hassell was given some garbage calls. The same calls could have been given to Cassell in the lane, but wasn't. It got to the point that KG had to explain defensive positioning to the players. Cassell was trying to help Wally with some info about bodying up on LeBron, but Wally seemed to just blow him off. Is Spree as hurt as he let's on...or is he showing how valuable he is? Also, Cassell was posting up McGinness pretty effectively, why didn't they continue?
"We just didn't play the right way," Flip Saunders said. "As well as we played, as well as we moved the ball in our last game, we became very stagnant. I thought we played very selfish. We looked too much for our own shot instead of moving the ball and didn't make the game easy." Flip basically did not have to add much to this statement and he basically said what I thought last night. He did not have to go on. One thing I love about Flip is that he is very honest and he does not BS stuff. I really respect a coach like that. Some coaches in sports seem to think all is well and all. I really hope these guys take a long look at themselves and start thinking what they can do to do better or match last year's standard. There has been only few games this year that resemble how the Wolves played in the second half of the season. Heck I did not even think they played that bad when they were up and down in the first two months of the year last year. This is too embrassing to watch.
This is the reason why I thought the Wolves had to take it last year. Even though they made changes, nobody expected them to run the table. Now we're expected too and it seems that the team can't handle it as much. Wally and Troy DO make a big difference...but how is it effecting the team that was so great last season?
