It was a long 3 weeks folks.  21 days is far too long of a time to go without a win.

This morning's game recap is a little late in happening because yours truly was up in the cities tracking down the 20th anniversary version of the Cities 97 Sampler.  My wife is a big fan of the series and it has become something of a Christmas tradition to have one of these CDs waiting under the tree with her name on it.  Here in Mankato, our Target had a line of about 100 people waiting at 7 AM (some people were in line at around 2 in the morning).  Unfortunately, they didn't have enough CDs to satisfy everyone in line and many people left with nothing.  Driving past the Target in Shakopee I saw a throng of about 200 people trying (most of them failing) to walk up to the door at 8 to get their copy of the 2 disc charity set.  Folks, here's a little secret: Cities 97 loads the hell out of the Southdale Super Target and you can mosey on in at about 9 and get your precious CD.  It's the same deal each and every single year.  As a quick aside, can I ask any of our pop music listeners in the audience what in the hell is up with Duffy?  I'm a big fan of Memphis soul and early honky tonk so I don't exactly listen to a ton of contemporary adult pop, but I'm absolutely floored that this squeaky chucklehead is able to find her way onto the radio.  Listening to her cut on the CD during the ride home made me want to throw the damn thing out the window.  Anywho...

Yesterday I closed out the game preview post with this little ditty:

It's a tough choice: kill video game zombies or watch the evil zombie creation of head zombie Kevin McHale.  No matter what he screws up...he will always be back.

I received an email from an anonymous reader who was upset that I would compare the players on the team to a bunch of zombies.  She wasn't upset about the McHale comment but she thought the "evil zombie creation" line was a bit over the line as far as the players were concerned.

Admittedly, it was an off-hand comment spurred on by a reference to a new video game, but the more I think about it, I think zombie references are the way to go with this squad...for the players and front office.  Let me explain.

Zombies are pure instinct.  They are who they are.  As we learned in the Day of the Dead, mad-genius scientists can't change the nature of even the most cuddly zombie (Bub, in case you are wondering).  There are no carrots and there are no sticks; you simply have to understand that the zombies want to eat you and act accordingly. 

The Minnesota Timberwolves are an offensively geared small-ball club.  Period.  You can't teach a rotation of Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, and Al Jefferson to be a taller more defensively-minded group of guys.  You can't get mad at them and yank them out of the game when one of them misses a single defensive rotation or forgets to seal their man on a weak-side rebound.  You can't not play a rookie zombie like Kevin Love because he misses a few easy bunnies in his first 10 games of his pro career.  You get the picture. 

Last night Our Beloved Puppies displayed a blueprint for winning zombie basketball: well-spaced, up tempo offensive ball for 3 quarters before banging it down to chief zombie Big Al in the 4th quarter when the pace slows and opposing sleep walkers ratchet up their game in hopes that they can sneak away from Target Center with a V. 

Before I get too caught up in the zombie kick, let me take a step back to note that the Wolves won this game for two reasons: solid shooting and free throws. Last night Minny went 51.4% from the field.  They are now shooting 43.7% from the field and are the 24th ranked team in the league with eFG at 46.2%.  Last night they went 22-30 from the line (compared to 15-23 for Philly).  The Wolves have the 3rd best FT% in the league at 79.6% but have the 7th fewest attempts at 18.3/game.  Despite outscoring the Sixers by 7 at the line, the Wolves give up an average of 1.3 ppg at the charity stripe to their opponents.  Last night the Wolves were outstanding from both the field and the line and it would have been a minor tragedy had they lost the game to a team that went 1-11 from beyond the arc as well as shooting 4% less than Minny from the field.

Why were the Sixers so close?  Quite simply, rebounding.  Last night the Wolves were out-rebounded in the first (0-10) to (3-14).  Coming down the stretch in the 4th they lost out on the glass to the tune of (2-7) to (4-11).  Again, the Wolves started with their "tall ball" line up and it was worthless.  They ended with Craig Smith at the 4.

Moving on to another part of the zombie blueprint, the Wolves played their most effectively paced game of the year last night.  Overall, their pace has creeped up into the teens (18th) but they are still playing too slow for the type of personnel they have and the type of ball opponents allow them to play during the 1st 3 quarters of ball.  Last night OBPs took 20 shots in the 1st, 20 shots in the 2nd, 19 shots in the 3rd, and 15 in the 4th.  Granted, they had more free throw attempts coming down the stretch, but the game visibly and statistically slowed down (as it tends to do in the 4th when the opposition wakes from their slumber and tries to close out the good guys after 3 quarters of somewhat ambivalent ball.)

When the game did slow down in the 4th, our zombie squad developed something of a plan and a pecking order with Big Al taking 6 of the team's 15 shots in the quarter (all of them coming after the 8:06 mark).  Randy Foye, to his great credit, foiled the Wolves' marketing gurus and played his best point of the year; doing little more than getting the ball down to Mr. Jefferson.  There is zero need for 4th Quarter Foye when you have a zombie beast like Big Al on the low post.

Since we're on the subject of pecking orders, I'm going to hold true to my promise about not talking about the coaching on this squad, but I am going to take note of the need for this team to start filtering down its rotations.  There is no reason on God's green earth that Jason Collins should be starting or taking minutes from K-Love.  This squad should be sticking to a strict Miller, Jefferson, Gomes, Foye, Love, McCants, Brewer, Smith, and Sebastian Telfair rotation.  These are the only guys who have a chance of sticking around and they are the ones who should be getting the minutes.  This post is getting a bit long so I'll save the subject of rotations for another day, but this team should have more of a rotational identity by now; it would benefit the players' confidence and the team's performance. 

Let's wrap this up with some bullet points:

• KG is coming back to town tomorrow night.  What are the odds he takes a swing at Mr. Love? KL fits the bill: big and white. 
  
• Minnesota has the highest scoring bench in the league, averaging 40.6 ppg compared to the starters' 60.1 ppg. Last night, led by the Rhino, the bench zombies scored 42 points while the starters went for 60.
  
• Speaking of the Rhino, he had 21 points and 0...let me repeat that: 0 rebounds.  We'll get back to the subject in a post about rotations, but even thought Smith had a fantastic night on the offensive end, his lack of rebounding nearly killed the team at the end of the night.  Remember, Philly almost won because of rebounding.  In a way, this game was both the blueprint and anti-blueprint for victory.  They won because up tempo ball allowed their players to do what they do well and they shot well.  They almost lost because they didn't put the correct personnel in the game down the stretch when the tempo finally changed and Big Al took over.
  
• Big Al had an interesting tidbit on last night's radio broadcast.  He really stuck up for Randy Wittman and said that people criticizing the team should focus on the players, not the coach. 
  
• Bassy had a nice game on the stat sheet but in real time he seemed off. 
  
• God bless Willie Green and Mo Cheeks.  For once it was nice to play against a team that seemed to have more rotation issues than the Wolves.  I'm not sure what was going on in Mr. Cheeks' mind but every time Green came in the game (and Thad Young went out) good things happened for the Wovles. 
  
• As mentioned yesterday, I wouldn't want to be a Philly fan right now.  They have some great young talent in Young and Marreese Speights, but they also have 3 vets in Andre Miller, Elton Brand, and Andre Iguodala who are ahead of them on the pecking order and who place this team in a kind of nether land between young and old that just doesn't seem to pass the smell test. 
  
• Last year Samuel Dalembert blocked 9 shots against the Wolves including Big Al's last-gasp attempt to win the game.  This year, Big Al ate Sam for lunch. He's a bad man, that Mr. Jefferson. 
  
• Outside of being a worthless graduate of the worthless Bloomington Jefferson HS, Kevin Lynch is not exactly filling the shoes of Billy McKinney as the team's color commentator.  We all know that Jefferson grads have trouble with complex ideas and many of them are unable to use simple tools, but I expected a bit more from Mr. Lynch due to his time at the U.  Of course my view of him may be slightly tarnished due to my time at Bloomington Kennedy but...well, I'm kidding a bit about the former Gopher.  He was quick to pick up the team's latest talking point; telling the audience that Mike Miller is incapable of taking bad shots within 5 minutes of the opening tap.  Here's hoping he continues to improve and the team can get back to what it had last year with Alan Horton and Mr. McKinney. 
  

Finally, everybody's favorite Belgian Wolves fan, Wim, needs our help getting the NBA to add Belgium to its list of supported League Pass countries.  Please click here and ask the NBA to kindly allow Wim to spend his money on their product. 

Yesterday in the comments section TMiss (of The Mississippifarian fame) noted that he was upset that the NBA makes its product hard to find for many potential customers.  Last night I could not get the Wolves on League Pass here in Mankato.  I do not have cable and watch the games via Apple TV and my computer.  I paid for the product yet I can't watch it.  Each year I pay for league pass even though I know where I can get the product streamed for free.  Wim is over in Belgium dying to pay money to watch the NBA's product.  I'm down here in the hometown of the team's frickin' owner paying for a product I can't see.  Come on NBA, get with the program. 

OK, I lied...one more thing: as mentioned before, KG comes back tomorrow night.  You can still buy tickets here. We also need to come up with something Big Al can say to KG after last year's epic trash talk where he told KG that they both have something in common: not winning a ring.  Now that KG has a ring Big Al is bound to be on the wrong end of some...shall we say, rough KG verbage.  Remember that this is a family site and we like to keep it as clean as possible (use "Smurf" or "Smurfin'" for swears) but we'd like to know what you think Big Al should say to KG when the Big Ticket inevitably starts running his mouth at Jefferson about last year's comment.

Until later.

Remember Philly fans, in the NBA there are no ties. 

Discuss.

UPDATE: Wyn is Twittering the game here.

UPDATE ii: Victory!!!

Wolves fans, I suppose it could be worse.  You could be rooting for a team that is off to a less-than-overwhelming start after picking up a previously-injured free agent star who may or may not have stabbed his old team in the back and who is lead by a Hollinger All-Decline Team pick and an absurdly high paid 2nd scorer.  

As you can see from the picture above, the 76ers are also one of the poster children for poor NBA attendance.  They are currently 28th in league attendance at 12,758 fans per game.  Of course, as anyone who has been to an NBA game lately can tell you (or as anyone with League Pass can tell you), there's no way on God's green earth that over 12k fans are showing up at some of these games.  Our Beloved Puppies are reportedly ranked 24th in league attendance at 14,509 fans per home contest.  Horse plucky.  I didn't see 10k fans at last Saturday's Portland game even thought the attendance was listed as being over 12k.  Ball Don't Lie has more on NBA attendance woes:

The financial crisis has had an impact on all professional sports teams in some way, but it sure feels like the NBA may have been hit harder than anyone over the last couple of years. Just two seasons ago, the league broke its own attendance record ... now you read stuff like Mushnick's column.

What happened?

When you look at the attendance figures one thing is clear: fans want to see a winner. The Magic (ranked 20th, after six home dates) are the only team in the bottom third of the chart that has a winning record. Winning would cure a lot of teams' concerns, but I don't think that is the overriding problem.

I just think the NBA game has gotten stale in a lot of markets.

When I go to games, even ones that are packed in other cities, I don't see a lot of fans decked out in their team's gear, I see a lot of yuppie businessmen who have decided that the NBA game is the place to be seen. They could care less what happens on the court, as long as they can glad-hand the rest of the "important" people.

As someone who used to attend about 20-25 games a year, I was a little shocked by the apathy in the building during the Portland game (which was my 1st home game this season).  It was over produced and the only "energy" in the building was the result of drunken or dancing fans and piped in noise.  A good product certainly helps but the dog-and-pony show has become so prominent and forced at NBA games that it's almost like watching pizza shop animatronics...although maybe not quite as entertaining:

We talked about it at the Portland game: the NBA cannot maintain its current financial and attendance course.   Back in August I wrote a post entitled If I Ruled the World.  You can read it here. It puts forth a few suggestions about how I would change the NBA.  What would you do to make the game and league better?  Something needs to give.

New Wolves editor/reporter Jonah Ballow had an interesting note on the team's site today:

Most teams do not have the luxury of featuring a player that averages 22 points and 10 rebounds a game. Al Jefferson is an extremely talented big man that rarely receives the type of national recognition he deserves. The center averages more points than Dwight Howard, Carlos Boozer, and LaMarcus Aldridge. Jefferson also hauls down more rebounds per game than perennial all-stars: Tim Duncan, Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett, and Amare Stoudemire. On his way to a career season, Jefferson shoots 51 percent from the field and just under 80 percent from the free throw line. True basketball fans recognize the talent Jefferson possesses but until the Wolves start to compile wins, No. 25 will fly under the national radar.

Did you catch it? "The center."  This is the first time I can remember anyone associated with the team calling him a center.  We've talked about this issue before.  Click here to read about Al the 4 vs Al the 5.  Remember that at this time last year we were listening to the Iron Ranger prattle on and on about how nice it would be to have a shot blocking center line up next to Big Al.  Oh Theo, where have you gone?

Remember, there's a plan, people...there's a plan.  (If you say it enough you may start to believe it.)

Wrapping this bad boy up, I'm guessing the Wolves will put up a good showing in the 1st quarter followed by even play throughout the 2nd, 3rd, and part of the 4th.  They will then proceed to score between 14-16 points in the 4th while Philly grabs the victory.  This leaves yours truly with a choice: watch yet another version of a game I've already seen too many times this year, or go on line and play the greatest video game of all time, Left 4 Dead:

It's a tough choice: kill video game zombies or watch the evil zombie creation of head zombie Kevin McHale.  No matter what he screws up...he will always be back.

You can read the Sixer take over at our sister site, Liberty Ballers.

It's that time again: the time where mainstream columnists, reporters, radio hosts, and anyone with a mic decide that that the Wovles are so bad that it's safe enough to openly call for the coach to be fired.  Reusssseeeeeeee is the first to really weigh in:

Wittman is 35-98 (.263) as coach of the Wolves and 97-200 (.327) including Cleveland. That's the fourth-poorest winning percentage in NBA history for a coach with 290-plus games.

This woebegone operation needs credibility. Firing Wittman and replacing him with Fred Hoiberg as coach offers none. Firing Wittman and continuing to cede all personnel power to McHale offers none.

It's time for Taylor to call Medina and make this offer to a coach with a .597 winning percentage in the NBA: Flip, you come back as coach, Hoiberg gets the GM title but you make the roster decisions, and we let McHale save some face as a "special adviser" -- with no advice needed.

Of course, we've heard this song and dance before:

McHale says he did not bring Wittman back with the intention of replacing Casey. But Wittman will now take over as head coach.

Star Tribune sports columnist Pat Reusse says Wittman is a better tactician than Casey, and the team will probably start running better plays. But he doesn't think Casey should shoulders the blame for the team's erratic performance and he's skeptical a change in coaches will make a difference.

"This is not going to be a more consistent team, because the players aren't that good," according to Reusse. "Everybody is inconsistent except the seven or eight elite teams, and this sure isn't one of those.

Reusse says the blame ultimately falls on Timberwolves management. He says the McHale is the one who picks the players, and he hasn't done a good job at it.

A better tactician.  Of course.  Reussssseeeee is also the guy who wrote off Kevin Love before a single regular season game and once referred to women's basketball as "synchronized tip-toeing". 

As long-time Hoopus readers know, we have long said that Witt has no business coaching this squad.  However, when you choose to hire a coach with a career record of .333 and little to no record of player development, nobody should be acting surprised or put-out when he coaches a team with young talent to a .263 record and the players don't develop.  How many more times do fans need to watch this little dance? 

As a life-long fan of the team, and as someone who has put considerable time and money into the franchise over its 20 year history, I can honestly say that I'm reaching some sort of point of no return with this club.  From the blotched 1999 Draft to the Joe Smith fiasco to questionable free agent signings to the Marko deal to replacing Spree and Sam with Ricky and James to the firing of Flip to the backstabbing of Casey to McCants over Granger to Foye over Roy (and Gay) to needlessly trading a 2nd round pick that could have been used on Mario Chalmers and to all the things I've left out because naming them all would take too long, this club has one immediate need to take care of: to rid itself of Kevin McHale and bring in someone from outside the country club to run the front office.  No Hoiberg, no Babcock, no inside job.

Folks, they can talk about it until they're blue in the face but Our Beloved Puppies aren't going to reel in any free agents in 2009 or 2010.  They may overpay for some joker they could have probably landed with a full MLE, but they're not getting anyone that would really take the weight off of Big Al's shoulders.  No Joe Johnson.  No Michael Redd.  Definitely no Lebron or D-Wade. 

Next year's draft is the last chance this team has to make it right in the post-KG era.  They have the possibility of landing 4 1st rounders.  They have an expiring Mike Miller contract.  They have a highly-regarded stashed Euro center.  They have young role players with reasonable contracts.  In other words, they have some assets to move around on draft day. 

No matter what happens with Witt, and no matter who they bring in here to coach this mess until the season mercifully ends, we fans know that as long as McHale has a voice in that front office, the country club survives and this team will continue to put a losing product on the court. 

NBA GM'ing involves two things: luck and competency.  As I've mentioned before, Blazers' GM Kevin Pritchard doesn't become an uber-genius without the luck of a coin flip and the incompetence of the Iron Ranger picking Foye over Roy.  The Wolves lucked out by having Brandon Roy land in their laps.  Unfortunately, having won 1/2 the battle, they lost the war by dealing him away in a fit of incompetence. 

While yours truly believes Kevin Love will be the better long term pro and that the deal with Memphis was a steal, there's also a large chunk of Wolves fans who believe the Wolves once again threw luck out the window when they moved Mr. Mayo down the river to the Griz. 

Wrapping this thing up, firing Witt without detailing an exit plan for Mchale does nothing for this club.  Even if this club lucks into something amazing in next year's draft, who here among us really believes they'll get it right? Forget bringing back Flip.  Papa Glen should give the Iron Ranger an ultimatum: coach this team to a .500 record over the final 70 games of the season or lose your job. 

For the 2nd night in a row, Our Beloved Puppies were defeated by a team that was able to sleep-walk through somewhere between 2/3 and 9/10 of the game yet still turn on the jets near the end to secure victory.  The game against Denver also marked the team's 8th loss in a row, a mark that equals last season's longest losing streak. 

Before I go on about last night's game, let me take a quick moment to say a few things about Saturday night's game against Portland.  Since the Stop-n-Pop family moved to southern Minnesota we don't get to as many Wolves games as we used to.  We used to buy a 10 pack or two of tickets in order to make sure that we saw all of our favorite teams and players, but now that we're 75 miles away from the arena, I spend my b-ball money on League Pass, a t-shirt or 2, and a nice warm up jacket. 

Saturday night's game was the 1st game I've attended at the Target Center since the last game of the 06/07 season.  We had some incredible seats (many thanks to the people who made that happen) and a great time was had by all.  The NBA still has the best athletes in the world and there is no better sport in the world to view up close.  For those of you looking for a good way to spend your entertainment dollars, the NBA is very much worth your while. 

With that said, I was surprised by a few things.  First, for the better part of the 1st half, you could literally hear the hum of the building (PA + furnace) over the crowd.  The most crowd-inducing moments of the night came when an older gentleman took off his shoes and went footloose during a dead ball contest and when a drunken guy in a white shirt displayed some of the worst white-boy dance moves imaginable on the big screen.  Seeing that the crowd wasn't exactly into the action on the court (which is a tragedy all onto itself and a subject for another post) the team now has a set of in-house announcers (one of whom is a Wally look-alike) who prattle on and on about how much fun everyone is supposed to be having, as well as introducing the dance team and the start of t-shirt contests.  I've been going to NBA games long enough to know that they sometimes go a bit crazy with the dog-and-pony show, but....well, when there's such a great deal of dissonance between fan interest and, say, Wally and his announcing gal friend, and when you can literally hear movement in the rafters over the cheering of the crowd, I think this should be a nightly reminder that excitement will only return to the building when the Wolves are able to put a product on the floor that can entertain its followers without all the external bells and whistles.  I should add that this is especially tough for die hard fans to watch. 

Moving on to last night's game, it was notable from the start in that Randy Wittman trotted out a starting lineup of Sebastian Telfair, Ryan Gomes, Jason Collins, Mike Miller, and Al Jefferson...who quickly proceeded to get murdered by a 12-2 run right out of the gate.  It wasn't until Randy Foye, Craig Smith, Corey Brewer, and Kevin Love came in against a trio of Nugget reserves that the Wolves were able to put together a mini-run to keep the 1st quarter from being anything more than a 10-point blow out.  (BTW: that's another 10 man 1st quarter for those of you keeping track at home.)

The starting lineup offered a mini-glimpse into what is quickly becoming the most obvious problem with this team: a dearth of above-average talent highlighted by awful guard play.  For those of you out there who have been clamoring for a tall-ball lineup, this was about as large of a lineup the Wolves can trot out on the floor.  It was quickly exposed for the offensive nothing it was. 

Each and every single time Jefferson caught the ball in the post, he was quickly doubled by anyone but Mike Miller's guy. Mostly the double came from Bassy's man, but we did see a few runs from over Gomes' way as well.  Double team, double team double team.  Even if Al was a good passer, there really wasn't anywhere for him to go as once the ball entered his hands, Mike Miller's running and cutting don't do a damn bit of good as Jefferson isn't going to hit a moving target, and it's also not likely that he'd be able to make a skip pass should Miller set up on the other side of the court.  I can't say it enough: this team has to win with offense.  If you think its small ball personnel is bad on the defensive end, you ain't seen nothing until their tall-ball guys give it a go on offense. 

Of course, the problem here may be neither small nor tall ball. 

During the Portland game, Minnesota showed some encouraging signs of offensive life in the first 1/2, scoring 51 points against a fairly decent Blazers squad.  They did so while running a nicely spaced offense that actually featured 4 men on or near the perimeter and Big Al on the low block.  Believe it or not, there were cutters and jump shots.  However, once the ball was entered to the big fella, Portland would run a double at him from behind, across the baseline.  This would force Al to either attempt a shot through a double team, a skip pass across an athletic front line, or hit a cutter.  With small or tall ball, if you are going to run your offense through a guy that can't pass, it's going to get ugly when teams scheme to make him have to choose between 3 options; 2 of which he really can't do.  Al is a fantastic player but he is also fantastically limited.  With humming rafters and drunken fans that offered more entertainment to the casual fan than did the product on the court, you really have to ask yourself if "cornerstone" is a word that should be used around Mr. Jefferson.  You also have to ask yourself if not having a real coach or a functional back court is adding fuel to the fire or whether or not Big Al is simply Zach Randolph without the baggage.

Moving on to the back court, after watching the last 2 games I feel more confident than ever in saying that Randy Foye has no business being an NBA point guard.  While he has cut down on the let's-jump-in-the-air-without-a-point plays, his new main focus appears to be passing up open threes on kick outs in favor of taking a dribble or two inside the line and jacking up the worst shot in all of basketball: the not quite 3.  The shot chart isn't up yet for last night's game but against Portland he had 6 shots that were just inside the line.

It was mentioned in the comments (plinytheelder) that perhaps Foye should view being a point as simply bringing the ball up the court and emptying it to a wing or the post and then transforming into an off guard who doesn't have the responsibility of finding mismatches, running plays, creating space and angles, etc.  I can't think of whether or not I should high-five or cry about this opinion.  This is a guy who was the team's top pick in the 2006 Draft and he is supposed to be the point guard of the future.  Yet, he doesn't seem to be aware of even the most basic point guard responsibilities.  Last night late in the game he dribbled to the wing where it was obvious a play was to be run involving a screen.  Jason Collins and Mike Miller were in the area and Foye kind of weakly passed it to Miller who was then trapped in a tight space with a 7-foot Collins, his man and 3 other bodies.  Foye just kind of stood there; apparently not seeing any sense of urgency in providing Miller with an out or creating some space on his strong hand to allow him some room to operate.  Turnover.  Foye was greeted on the bench with a WTF look from Witt. 

Let's wrap this bad boy up with some bullet points:

• Kevin Love = 4th quarter MIA.  At this point in the season, let me play a bit of Devil's Advocate by asking this: If Love isn't going to play in the 4th, and Big Al needs a back court buddy more than ever, can the Mayo/Love trade already be declared a disaster simply on terms of how the 4th quarters have been played this year? 
  
• Denver went on a 21-4 run to close out the game. 
  
• Shaddy played decent defense last night against Melo.  After his awful performance against Portland (which was greeted with some boos) this fact probably accounts for all of his 16:11 of playing time.
  
• When will Mike Miller shoot the ball?  4 shots isn't going to cut it for a guy who can't defend.  I always suspected they'd trade him after the season was done.  I'm beginning to think he won't last that long.
  
• Minnesota has lead during the 4th in 6 out of their 8 losses.
  
• Britt's place has a new URL.  No comments!?

That's about all for now. 

Until later.

It will be Hoopus night at the game so y'all are on your own with this thread. 

Until later.

It's rematch time gents.  

Over at the excellent Blazer's Edge, Dave has once again given Portland's keys to the game:

1.  If you either slow down Al Jefferson's scoring or match him point for point you should be able to beat the ‘Wolves.

2.  This is a game where Portland should dominate on the boards.

3.  Deny the middle and make the Timberwolves score from the perimeter sidelines.

4.  Offensively the Blazers need to go hard into the heart of the Minnesota defense.  Post-up play is one way to do that but it allows the defense to get set.  Even better:  get past your initial defender and take the ball down deep.  You're guaranteed to have an easy scoring attempt or a pass to someone else for an easy scoring attempt.

5.  Speaking of passes:  two decent ones in any possession and you'll have whatever shot you like.

The guys over at CanisHoopus were quibbling with Point #3 the last time I made it, but it's a pretty safe bet that having McCants and Foye and company hoisting over the top is a lot better bet than letting Jefferson and Love work inside.  Last game we held them to a comparatively low 41.7% from the field and let them shoot a comparatively high 41.% from distance and won the game.  Do it again.  Long shots = long rebounds = running = rampant score escalation = Minnesota is done.

At this point I would simply like to welcome Dave to the Wonderful World of Randy Wittman.  Let me dress up a comment I made over at Britt's place:

Plugging this theory into the last Portland game, if Kevin Love doesn't go 0-7 and if Mike Miller takes more than 8 shots, the Wolves win the game.  They can play the exact same defensive game and with just a modest improvement on the offensive end, they win.  The same can be said about games against Dallas, San Antonio, Golden State, and OKC.  This team needs to play over-the-top more than it is.  More 3's, more transition, and more shots from Mike Miller.  It's not rocket science.

Cribbing a point of interest from Dave, here's the Wolves' keys to the game:

1. Fire Randy Wittman and force Kevin McHale to coach this team to a .500 record in their remaining games or else face the axe. More than 16 three point attempts in the game.
   
2. Mike Miller needs to shoot the ball more than 10 times. 
   
3. Randy Foye and Rashad McCants need to take their open shots.
   
4. Mike Miller needs to spend his time on the court opposite Al Jefferson.
   
5. Rotations, rotations, rotations. No more 11 players being played in the 1st quarter. No more yanking Kevin Love and Corey Brewer for the entire 4th quarter. No more subbing Craig Smith for Mr. Love when your team needs rebounds the most.  No more Ryan Gomes at the 4.  If this team is going to start Bassy, Brewer, Miller, Love, and Big Al, there is exactly 1 player in that lineup who isn't geared to play an up-tempo style.  Granted, he's probably the best player out there but the other guys need to run a bit more.  Surely a decent coach can find some balance here. 
   

Other than that, this marks Greg Oden's first trip to Minny since his days at OSU.  It's also part ii of our yearly 4-part reminder that Randy Foye was the not-so-delicious interior of a Brandon Roy/Rudy Gay draft sandwich and that the Blazers were able to land their big 7-footer by the grace of a coin flip with the star-crossed Wolves.  While you may hear quite a bit about how good of a GM Kevin Prichard is (and he is), remember that the Blazers are the Blazers only because of another Kevin (McHale) and a coin flip.  Otherwise, we Wolves fans are headed off to watch KG, Roy, and Oden go up against the young upstart Blazers, led by...well, perhaps Mr. Foye.  Did I mention that it's a pain in the ass to have to be reminded of all this 4 times a year? As you can imagine, the term "Pritch Slapped" is especially nauseating in these parts.  There's no such thing if the Wolves had a 1/2 way decent front office.

I don't mention this because of sour grapes (although, it probably does play some part), but rather to make a point about the weird nature of the NBA: a league where you need a good deal of luck + a good GM to make excellent things happen.  A team like the Wolves only gets lucky so many times and it's up to the front office to capitalize on their very limited chances.  From Foye to Roy to coin flips with Portland and Memphis, most Wolves fans don't like their chances even if this particular front office is dealt a winning hand.

Until later.

With news that Mark Madsen donated $2,500 in support of California's Prop 8, I thought it would be a good time to ask our readers about their thoughts on athletes and politics.  

I haven't brought this issue up before because this is the first time I can remember a player supporting a specific issue, rather than a specific candidate.  Individual candidates can attract all sorts of different people for all sorts of different reasons, but individual issues have the potential to be more...shall we say divisive.

Mr. Madsen is a Mormon and the LDS church has been very out front in telling its congregation that they should support Prop 8.  I mention this not to strike up an argument, but to point out that Madsen may support this amendment on religious grounds, not just political ones. 

The question for our readers is this: Do the political views of your favorite athletes matter?  After all, these are typically very wealthy men with high visibility who can make a difference.  Regardless of your answer to this question, surely at some point they do matter.  Where do you draw the line? 

I'm not interested in having our readers debate the pros and cons of Prop 8 (you can do that in the previous post's comments section).  I simply want to hear your thoughts on athletes and politics.  Is there a point where you would stop paying money to see a player play if his political (or religious) views radically differed from your own? 

I don't need to tell our existing readers to be respectful of one another because I know you all are, but if we have any new readers who come across this post, please know that this is not a political site and we have no interest in people who like to swear at, belittle, or bully those who would simply like to have an interesting discussion or those who have a different opinion than your own. 

With that being said, what say you?

UPDATE: David Brauer takes up the discussion over at MinnPost.