Timberwolves Regress With 2 Poor Efforts In A Row
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- When the week began with a narrow loss in Boston, Kurt Rambis and the Minnesota Timberwolves were speaking optimistically about being "this close" to turning the corner and piling up some victories.
Then came home defeats to short-handed Charlotte and Portland in which the young team showed little to no energy in the opening 24 minutes, and suddenly a fan base that was starting to show interest for the first time in years is asking -- Are these the same old Timberwolves?
The talent says no. The record says yes.
A year ago the Wolves were 8-29 and muddling through what team President David Kahn called the tear-down before the rebuild. Roster decisions were based more on finances than wins and losses, and the disjointed team stumbled to a 15-67 finish, tied for the worst in franchise history.
There is no disputing that the Timberwolves have more talent and are in a better position financially this season. Kevin Love leads the league in rebounds and is pushing for an All-Star berth while Michael Beasley has shown the potential to be the dynamic scorer that the team desperately needs. They also have about $14 million in cap room, an exorbitant amount that positions them well to improve the roster going forward.
Despite all those steps in the right direction, they are 9-28, just one win ahead of where they were at this time last season. All their talk of being close is starting to ring hollow, especially in the wake of consecutive lackluster efforts against Charlotte and Portland this week.
Players aren't always following the coaches' game plans. Rambis is making some puzzling strategic decisions and the team has been lifeless in front of its home crowd, a troubling development for a team that knows it cannot rely on mere talent to win games.
"The last two games, it's been a little lackadaisical and nonchalant," Beasley said. "You can't do that, especially in the position we're in trying to win every game we can."
That doesn't reflect well on the players or Rambis, 24-95 since taking over at the beginning of last season.
The Wolves trailed by 16 in the first half on Wednesday night against the Bobcats, who were missing leading scorers Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace and starting center Nazr Mohammed, and lost an eight-point lead with less than three minutes to play in a 108-105 overtime loss.
More of the same on Friday night against Portland, when Blazers guard Wesley Matthews scored 29 points in the first half and the Wolves trailed by as much as 24 points in the second quarter.
"That's really they're job. That's what they have to figure out," Rambis said about the poor starts. "That's the mark of a pro. A real professional is somebody that delivers consistently night-in and night-out and not just every once in a while. Because anybody can do that. ... And it's hard. It's not easy. It's hard to gear yourself up and get ready to play each and every night."
Making matters worse for Rambis, the coach has made two glaring tactical errors that have contributed to two of the team's worst losses of the season.
Against Charlotte, Rambis sat starters Luke Ridnour and Darko Milicic for the entire fourth quarter. When the unit on the floor gave away the eight-point lead in the final three minutes, Rambis put Ridnour and Milicic back in the game cold, and both played poorly as the game slipped away.
Rambis later admitted that he "let some guys get too stiff on the bench" while trying to get struggling backup Jonny Flynn some more confidence by playing him late in the game.
Two nights later, Matthews came out firing, hitting all five 3-pointers he shot in the first quarter. He added two more from deep in the second period while rookie Wes Johnson and Beasley failed to close out on him time and again.
It wasn't until the third quarter that Rambis elected to put his best perimeter defender, swingman Corey Brewer, on Matthews full-time. Brewer held Matthews one field goal for the entire second half.
Rambis said Saturday that he thought Johnson was hitting the rookie wall and was leaning toward starting the veteran Brewer on Sunday at San Antonio.
But the players say it's on them, not the coach, to play better.
"We just have to keep each other accountable and keep ourselves accountable," forward Anthony Tolliver said. "We can't depend on everyone else to keep us hyped up for games and stuff like that. We have to do it ourselves. Be able to self-motivate and that's something we consistently struggled with throughout the season is having people come out lackadaisical and not being motivated from the beginning, which we can't afford to do."
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