albeitrue
Bench
Timberwolves: Same time, this year
Steve Aschburner, Star Tribune
November 28, 2004 WOLF1128
http://www.startribune.com/stories/511/5107778.html
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- The Timberwolves passed this way a year ago, frosty November giving way to frigid December back home while they headed west in search not of sunshine but a victory, and an identity.
It will be difficult tonight for the Wolves to top or even match their 112-109 overtime triumph over the Sacramento Kings at ARCO Arena last Dec. 5. That game was vital to the team's psyche, its season and its sense of self, packing more significance than any one of 82 ought to.
Still, they could use one like that right about now.
The Wolves' initial visit to ARCO in 2003-04 was one of the most entertaining games of the NBA season, a national telecast and back end of a Friday doubleheader, as well as one of the most memorable games in Minnesota's regular-season history. The Wolves, having lost in overtime to the Kings a month earlier at Target Center, led by 11 in the fourth quarter but trailed 102-96 with 29 seconds left. They tied it on two wing-and-a-prayer three-pointers by Kevin Garnett, then got two clutch jumpers from Latrell Sprewell in the extra five minutes.
KG, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell were the Big 3 for the Wolves last season. They have yet to recapture the chemistry so far this season.Jerry HoltStar TribuneThat game, however, did more than nudge the Wolves' victory column. With Garnett (33 points), Sprewell (37) and Cassell (26) scoring all but 16 of their team's points, it sent a message to the league, to the fans and inside the locker room about what kind of team -- whose team -- the Wolves were going to be. The three-headed monster was large and in charge, and other players -- healthy or rehabbing -- would fill in around them, picking their spots or having those spots picked for them by coach Flip Saunders and his staff.
The margin for error wasn't great, but the streamlining worked wonders: From 9-8 a few days earlier, the Wolves went 15-3 over the next six weeks and 49-16 right to the playoffs (where three eventually became two and two was not enough).
This year's group sorely needs a similar defining moment, a comparably clarifying night. Healthy is supposed to be better than hurt and more options should be easier and more potent than fewer, yet through a dozen games, the Wolves have grasped for a rotation that works and a pecking order to trust.
The blowout of Memphis on Friday night? Sure, that's the ticket. But doing it more than once, doing it against a team that isn't missing key players in the midst of a sudden coaching switch, doing it on the road against a legitimate conference rival and a star-laden lineup very much like their own, that would be a statement. And a fresh start.
"We haven't shown the ability to play consistently this well," forward Wally Szczerbiak said after gutting the Grizzlies, "so that's what we have to strive for."
Said Saunders: "If we continue to play like this, we're going to have a heckof game. Sacramento, the last thing they remember is getting beat by us [in the playoffs' second round]. ... We've gone into some hostile environments lately, and Sacramento is going to be no different."
The Wolves might better cope if they clean up some of their own problems. One of the biggest thus far has been minutes, Saunders' embarrassment of riches, if you will, after several seasons of injury-dictated rotations. Having everyone available might seem a wonderful thing, but nine Wolves players are averaging at least 18 minutes a game. That's unwieldy and disruptive to continuity.
Consider that West heavyweight San Antonio, off to a 10-3 start, has only six players racking up that many minutes. Phoenix, deep in talent and 11-2, also has six. Sacramento, with a thinner bench than in recent seasons, has six as well and has won seven consecutive games.
Saunders, in trying to divvy up playing time and find combinations that click, too often has wound up like a poker player -- draw, not Texas hold 'em -- throwing back all five cards in hopes of catching something good. That has Garnett playing with different guys at different times on different nights, strangers by circumstance if not by introduction.
It's something Saunders alluded to, too, with his quote Friday that "they're getting to the point where, no matter how much you play, it's no fun when you lose." So if no one Wolf is capable of being that go-to Sixth Man, the coaches need to firm up just who the sixth, seventh and eighth men are. Last season, Szczerbiak, Troy Hudson and Michael Olowokandi, combined, played fewer minutes in the regular season than Trenton Hassell.
Complicating that has been Saunders' situation at point guard. At the moment, he has two talented players, neither of them running the offense the way their coach likes. Cassell's game never has been reliant on speed, but if he has lost even a step to age or offseason hip surgery, then he faces adjustments on both ends. Hudson, for all his denials, is playing completely different than he did in 2002-03. He is averaging more shots per minute of court time than anyone on the team, while hitting for a lower percentage (.389) than any of them. He feels a burden to score on behalf of the subs, but that's self-fulfilling in that none of the others gets a pass in the right time, right place.
Finally, there is the center spot, as big a vacuum with Olowokandi healthy (and arrested, and suspended) as it was last season when he was hurt. Sometimes Ervin Johnson proves that less is more, sometimes that less simply is less. Mark Madsen brings hustle and anatomical sacrifice, so eight or nine rebounds and a couple of blocked shots nightly by Olowokandi ought not be too much to ask.
In the game a year ago, the one at ARCO that got them on their way, Olowokandi did not get off the bench, even as Kings' center Brad Miller was going for a career-best 35. So the night was defining for him, too. But more so the other Wolves, who won three of four from the Kings last season, then four of seven in the postseason.
"It's not like the Denver series, where it's kind of like bad blood," Garnett said. "It's just good up-and-down basketball. It's almost like if you were to go to a park and hear about this crew that's been running this park, and they come over to your park. ... The big picture is that it's a fun game."
After which the Wolves and their fans should have a better snapshot of this season's team.
Steve Aschburner, Star Tribune
November 28, 2004 WOLF1128
http://www.startribune.com/stories/511/5107778.html
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- The Timberwolves passed this way a year ago, frosty November giving way to frigid December back home while they headed west in search not of sunshine but a victory, and an identity.
It will be difficult tonight for the Wolves to top or even match their 112-109 overtime triumph over the Sacramento Kings at ARCO Arena last Dec. 5. That game was vital to the team's psyche, its season and its sense of self, packing more significance than any one of 82 ought to.
Still, they could use one like that right about now.
The Wolves' initial visit to ARCO in 2003-04 was one of the most entertaining games of the NBA season, a national telecast and back end of a Friday doubleheader, as well as one of the most memorable games in Minnesota's regular-season history. The Wolves, having lost in overtime to the Kings a month earlier at Target Center, led by 11 in the fourth quarter but trailed 102-96 with 29 seconds left. They tied it on two wing-and-a-prayer three-pointers by Kevin Garnett, then got two clutch jumpers from Latrell Sprewell in the extra five minutes.
KG, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell were the Big 3 for the Wolves last season. They have yet to recapture the chemistry so far this season.Jerry HoltStar TribuneThat game, however, did more than nudge the Wolves' victory column. With Garnett (33 points), Sprewell (37) and Cassell (26) scoring all but 16 of their team's points, it sent a message to the league, to the fans and inside the locker room about what kind of team -- whose team -- the Wolves were going to be. The three-headed monster was large and in charge, and other players -- healthy or rehabbing -- would fill in around them, picking their spots or having those spots picked for them by coach Flip Saunders and his staff.
The margin for error wasn't great, but the streamlining worked wonders: From 9-8 a few days earlier, the Wolves went 15-3 over the next six weeks and 49-16 right to the playoffs (where three eventually became two and two was not enough).
This year's group sorely needs a similar defining moment, a comparably clarifying night. Healthy is supposed to be better than hurt and more options should be easier and more potent than fewer, yet through a dozen games, the Wolves have grasped for a rotation that works and a pecking order to trust.
The blowout of Memphis on Friday night? Sure, that's the ticket. But doing it more than once, doing it against a team that isn't missing key players in the midst of a sudden coaching switch, doing it on the road against a legitimate conference rival and a star-laden lineup very much like their own, that would be a statement. And a fresh start.
"We haven't shown the ability to play consistently this well," forward Wally Szczerbiak said after gutting the Grizzlies, "so that's what we have to strive for."
Said Saunders: "If we continue to play like this, we're going to have a heckof game. Sacramento, the last thing they remember is getting beat by us [in the playoffs' second round]. ... We've gone into some hostile environments lately, and Sacramento is going to be no different."
The Wolves might better cope if they clean up some of their own problems. One of the biggest thus far has been minutes, Saunders' embarrassment of riches, if you will, after several seasons of injury-dictated rotations. Having everyone available might seem a wonderful thing, but nine Wolves players are averaging at least 18 minutes a game. That's unwieldy and disruptive to continuity.
Consider that West heavyweight San Antonio, off to a 10-3 start, has only six players racking up that many minutes. Phoenix, deep in talent and 11-2, also has six. Sacramento, with a thinner bench than in recent seasons, has six as well and has won seven consecutive games.
Saunders, in trying to divvy up playing time and find combinations that click, too often has wound up like a poker player -- draw, not Texas hold 'em -- throwing back all five cards in hopes of catching something good. That has Garnett playing with different guys at different times on different nights, strangers by circumstance if not by introduction.
It's something Saunders alluded to, too, with his quote Friday that "they're getting to the point where, no matter how much you play, it's no fun when you lose." So if no one Wolf is capable of being that go-to Sixth Man, the coaches need to firm up just who the sixth, seventh and eighth men are. Last season, Szczerbiak, Troy Hudson and Michael Olowokandi, combined, played fewer minutes in the regular season than Trenton Hassell.
Complicating that has been Saunders' situation at point guard. At the moment, he has two talented players, neither of them running the offense the way their coach likes. Cassell's game never has been reliant on speed, but if he has lost even a step to age or offseason hip surgery, then he faces adjustments on both ends. Hudson, for all his denials, is playing completely different than he did in 2002-03. He is averaging more shots per minute of court time than anyone on the team, while hitting for a lower percentage (.389) than any of them. He feels a burden to score on behalf of the subs, but that's self-fulfilling in that none of the others gets a pass in the right time, right place.
Finally, there is the center spot, as big a vacuum with Olowokandi healthy (and arrested, and suspended) as it was last season when he was hurt. Sometimes Ervin Johnson proves that less is more, sometimes that less simply is less. Mark Madsen brings hustle and anatomical sacrifice, so eight or nine rebounds and a couple of blocked shots nightly by Olowokandi ought not be too much to ask.
In the game a year ago, the one at ARCO that got them on their way, Olowokandi did not get off the bench, even as Kings' center Brad Miller was going for a career-best 35. So the night was defining for him, too. But more so the other Wolves, who won three of four from the Kings last season, then four of seven in the postseason.
"It's not like the Denver series, where it's kind of like bad blood," Garnett said. "It's just good up-and-down basketball. It's almost like if you were to go to a park and hear about this crew that's been running this park, and they come over to your park. ... The big picture is that it's a fun game."
After which the Wolves and their fans should have a better snapshot of this season's team.
