T-Wolves -vs- Golden State Warriors (12.19.07)
BOXSCORE:
http://www.nba.com/games/20071219/GSWMIN/boxscore.html
POSTGAME PODCAST:
http://www.timberwolvestoday.com
WARRIORS POST GAME COVERAGE:
http://goldenstateofmind.com/story/2007/12/19/15710/538#commenttop
Well well well. Shockingly we blow an early 14 point lead and lose again. Ok, not shocking at all. I didn’t actually go to tonight’s game because I’m kinda rundown and not feeling too well. This did allow me to watch the game from the couch, which was rather warm and comfortable. I might cut this “Musings” a little short as I’ve got the Detroit-Boston game queued up on the DVR. Honestly, I can’t believe I’m even sitting here typing this and foregoing the Celtics game for the time being. That’s ol CW… I’m here for my fans.
The Wolves only had 10 active players tonight, which resulted in a much smaller rotation. Out tonight was Randy Foye (with a knee booboo), Antoine Walker (broke shot), Marko Jaric (lonely), the Expiring Contract Formerly Known as Theo Ratliff (Old Age), and Greg Buckner (may or may not still be alive.) Two other guys garnered DNP-CD’s, which resulted in an 8 man rotation. Those two dudes were Madsen (too white) and Doleac (too ugly.) In the forums I predicted that we would lose 111-99. I was only off by one point, which is nice. Props to me I guess. (If only gambling were legal…) Anyhow, if you want to read more, just hit the jump button below.
(Click “Read More…” for thoughts and analysis.)
So what happened? It was definitely a tale of two halves. The Wolves came out ready to play and could seem to do no wrong. We were hitting our shots and feeding the ball into the paint. We were dominating the points in the paint and apparently playing adequate defense as Golden State was bricking shots at an alarming pace. (I think Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson were trying to build us a new arena.) I believe we held their field goal percentage to somewhere in the low 40’s by the end of the first half, and we were leading by 8 at the break. We also had only two turnovers, which blew my mind. We are a pretty sloppy team and typically commit more turnovers than our opponents. I believe Golden State had 9 turnovers at the half.
The Wolves would have had an 11 point halftime lead; however Baron Davis nailed a three pointer with one second left. In Wittman’s post game “presser” (press conference for the laymen), I couldn’t believe what he was saying in regards to the Bearded One nailing that shot: “He hit a hell of a shot. We played excellent defense and defended him as well as we could. It was just a hell of a shot.” Umm… no Captain Clueless, you did not play excellent defense. I don’t know what Wittman was blabbering about, but Davis was WIDE open. There is no excuse for allowing him to get off a shot that easy before the half. Craig Smith jumped out to try and contest the shot, but didn’t even get there until after the Hairy Mammoth had shot it. It was actually terrible defense, you turkey. (Dim)Wittman never ceases to astound me.
The thing that killed us in the third quarter was that we got sucked into playing at Golden State’s up and down pace, rather than continuing to slow the game down and feed the bigs (much like what we did in the Phoenix game we won.) We turned the ball over too much and Golden State inevitably started hitting open shots, especially some dagger three-pointers. The Wolves ended the game with 16 turnovers, which means we had 14 in the second half. That’s more like it! I was wondering when the law of averages was going to kick in and rear its ugly head. The Wolves had some awful possessions that I’d rather not even try to rehash… mostly resulting in turnovers or bad shots. Long story short, we got outscored 37-17 in the third quarter and it was all over but the crying.
I would like to take a moment and mention Wittman’s post game press conference on FSN. I have really come to start enjoying these things. He’s a clueless dolt. He’s inarticulate and uninspiring. I could go up there and stumble through a press conference with more levelheadedness (I just made that word up) and calmliness (another new word) than he is capable of. He went to college… didn’t he take a basic Communications class? He doesn’t have answers for any questions, and speaks mostly in recycled clichés. If I have to listen to him talk about us “getting punched in the mouth and we didn’t punch them back” one more time, I’m going to punch him somewhere other than the mouth. I wish I could “cut and save” various segments from stuff that is recorded on my DVR, but it sadly is not possible. If I could, I would make one hell of a “Wittman Press Conference” collage.
Jim Peterson cut to a shot of McHale at the game and informed us that it was his 50th birthday. His hair was a mess and he looked completely disheveled. Happy birthday smuck, have a turd sandwich.
Also, if anyone cares… I am killing in my “Different Wolves Starting Lineups -vs- Total Wins” watch prediction that the Wolves would have more different starting lineups this season than wins. The “Wins O’Meter” is currently at 3. During the last game I watched on TV (which was the Miami Heat game on Monday) I was informed that we have had 12 different starting lineups. I don’t know if tonight’s starting lineup was unique this season or not. I think it might have been since McCants was starting with Brewer, Al, and Craig Smith. I’m not confident, but who cares. We probably won’t even get to 12 wins; let alone how many different lineups we will end up having the entire season. If…errr, I mean “when” Foye comes back, it will open up a plethora of endless possibilities for even more different starting lineups. I’m so excited. We’ll say 13-3 for the official tally.
Onward to the participants of this friendly scrum!
– Let’s get some of the Warriors players out of the way first. They won so they get the first ink. Harrington was probably the player of the game. He dropped 25 points, with 14 in the third quarter. He was nailing three’s like it was nobody’s business. Rebounds still scare him like the bubonic plague, but when he’s nailing 4 out of 5 from beyond the arc, who cares? Not Donnie Nelson, that’s for sure!
– Monta Ellis is a stud. Good thing we didn’t draft him. We didn’t need him. He had 24 points before getting hurt and leaving. I hope he’s ok, I was going to try and trade for him on my Western Conference Only Auction Keeper Fantasy Basketball team. Stephen Jackson contributed 20 points after starting 0-6 from the field. I still can’t believe he’s a Co-Captain on that team. Lol. Baron Davis shot poorly, but still went off for 18 points and 10 assists.
– Biedrins only had 15 total rebounds. I say “only” because he had at least 9 in the first quarter. At least that’s what Jim Peterson told us… he could be wrong though, he usually is.
– Some people like “plus/minus” statistics… the highest on Golden State was Harrington at +27 and the lowest was Matt Barnes at -12.
How about them Wolves eh?
– Big Al put in 24 points and 14 boards, while going 10-17 from the field. Good percentage, too bad we don’t give him the ball more. I’m sick of beating the proverbial dead horse when it comes to feeding Big Al, as it won’t accomplish anything. We really can’t keep playing Al at the “5” and starting Craig Smith or someone else at Power Forward. It was probably fine this game due to the small ball style that Golden State plays, but it’s getting to be the norm and it’s scaring me. Check out 82games.com and you’ll see some scary stats which point out the reduction in Al’s effectiveness when playing Center. Can’t we play Chris Richard at Center and Al at Power Forward? Bring Craig Smith off the bench and either move Al to Center for short amounts of time or let him rest. It doesn’t seem too complicated to me. Playing Jefferson and Smith at the same time is redundant and clogs the lane. Jefferson needs to be playing with a big defensive minded center to maximize his abilities. That way he won’t have to guard opposing centers and will be able to create a mismatch while exploiting power forwards that are not capable of guarding him. Whatever Wittman, keep sending your horseshit lineups out there each game.
– McCants played 45 freakin minutes. I guess it’s understandable since we only had 10 active players, but geez… He was 9 for 16 from the field, which wasn’t terrible, and 3 for 7 from way downtown. He started off hot from behind the arc, which was nice to see. If he could just consistently hit the three and spread out defenses he could be a decent player. Instead he plays defense like my grandma (she’s not even still alive), commits too many turnovers, and takes too many bad shots (most of the time.) In his defense he did tie his career high with 6 assists and had only 1 turnover. So, he was more good than bad tonight I guess. He only had two fouls, but they were both bad, especially the one that was away from the ball. It could be worse though… I’d take a game like this from him every night. Who wouldn’t?
– My boy Ryan Gomes played pretty decent. I still contest that his role is undefined and his strengths are best suited for a good team with more veterans than youngsters. It doesn’t help that his playing time is inconsistent. It triply doesn’t help that Wittman really hasn’t established a rotation or pecking order in the slightest. It’s not all Gome’s (or the other players) fault. He had 8 points, 6 boards and probably what I would call the dunk of the year amongst Wolves players so far this season.
– Gerald Green. That wasn’t really Gerald Green out there tonight. The real Gerald Green was kidnapped and replaced with Pistol Pete’s Apparition.
– Chris Richard played almost five minutes tonight? I didn’t even notice him. I guess the potential matchups weren’t exactly the most appealing for him tonight.
– Other than Telfair’s 8 assists, his stats were pretty bad. 3 for 11 from the field with 5 turnovers. He’s also too small to play effective defense on Baron Davis, although Davis helped the cause by bricking jumpers more than posting up. He would have ate Telfair for lunch on the block.
– Craig Smith had a pretty uneventful game, playing only 23 minutes. I guess our astute broadcasting team said he had “flu-like symptoms” before/during the game.
– Corey Brewer can’t shoot. 4-12 again tonight. His field goal percentage on the season is 29%. It also happens to be the lowest field goal percentage in the entire league of anyone that has taken 100 or more shots. The rest of his game is decent for a first year rookie, but man does he miss some wide open shots. I think he forced a few shots again tonight, but he needs to keep shooting to gain some confidence. At least that’s what people say. I think he should just try to dunk it every time. He’s already wide open so why not drive to the hoop? Heck, he might even get fouled. How innovative!
– Madsen and Doleac didn’t play. Yawn.
– Our best “plus/minus” was Gomes at 0. Lol, that makes me laugh. Our worst was Big Al at -16.
Miscellaneous Stats:
– Wolves got outfreethrowed (fun making up words) again tonight 22 to 17.
– Like I said before, we also had 16 turnovers to Golden State’s 14.
– We had 22 fouls to GS’s 16.
– Golden State was on fire from behind the arc, going 11 for 23. That equates to 47.8%, which is sick. The Wolves went 7 for 19 from downtown, which does not equate to 47.8%
– The Wolves blew a 14 point lead.
– The Wolves got out fastbreakpointed 14 to 2. I’m not sure Wittman knows that it is legal for us to attempt a fastbreak. Hell, I don’t know if he even knows what a fastbreak is…
– These stats don’t even bother me anymore as they are the norm.
– The attendance was listed at 13,001. Hahahaha yeah right!
Time to go watch the Celtics – Pistons tilt. Peace~
CW
[hype] [cw2]
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
