<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Randy Wittman has tried a lot of things. He has tweaked and re-tweaked the lineup, shuffled the rotation. He has called his team out and kept it behind the scenes. He has been upset and understanding. And still, Wittman is looking for a way out of this season of malcontent. After the Timberwolves had practiced Monday, Wittman talked about the frustration of trying to get his team to play more consistently. "All I can do, seriously, is keep teaching and coaching them to play the right way," he said. "That's what I'm going to do. But we've got to defeat the demons that are inside ourselves. Not the other team. We still have demons inside of us that come back to bite us." Again, it's nothing Wittman hasn't seen already: The concept of sharing the ball. Not being upset with playing time -- or a perceived lack of it. The problem is, Wittman already has tried to quash this sort of thing, plugging one hole only to have another leak spring. "But you know what? You've got to keep plugging the leaks," Wittman said. In the wake of an 0-2 road trip that included an especially disappointing loss at Atlanta on Saturday, Wittman did have the team work on some specific things Monday. He wants the Wolves to come out at the start of games with a more aggressive defensive posture, thinking that better defense will help the team get into a better offensive flow. But the bigger picture? It's not about X's and O's. It's more of an attitude. "Did we compete [at Atlanta]? Yeah," Wittman said. "We just had breakdowns. We played hard for the most part. But again, it's the ... little lapses. We can't have the lapses of, 'Geez, why am I coming out of the game?' or 'Why am I not getting more touches?' You go through three, four minutes and you're out. But those three, four minutes might cost you a game. That's what we have to get over." Against this backdrop is the fact that a playoff spot continues to be in reach. A number of teams vying for the final spots in the Western Conference have struggled of late. Even after losing five of six, the Wolves began Monday only two games out of a playoff spot. And the Wolves will play many of the teams ahead of them in the standings on the five-game road trip that starts Friday. "It's maddening," Wittman said. And so, with a game against Indiana tonight and a road trip looming, Wittman chose to work on his team rather than worry about the opposition.</div> Source
