Wolves record: 4-19
On Sunday, his team lost its ninth consecutive game — a run of failure one game longer than any last season — to a Lakers team that inevitably produced its 20th victory in 23 games, just 11/2 games off championship rival Boston’s 22-2 start. The Wolves are 0-4 since McHale lost his front-office duties and title and replaced fired coach Randy Wittman.
The Lakers’ height and length left Gasol towering over 6-7 Craig Smith at power forward and Byum looming over the 6-10 Jefferson at center, a pair of mismatches McHale and the Wolves tried to exploit with quickness at one end of the floor to compensate for what they surrendered in height at the other.
After a quick look at the stat sheet, McHale noted, “It’s hard to shoot 36 percent and win many games.”
The Lakers enjoyed a huge height advantage with a pair of 7-footers in Gasol and Andrew Bynum, but the Wolves won the battle of the boards 53-46.
What bothered McHale most was his team’s failure to play with the kind of push and pace he has been trying to instill.
From the Associated Press:
Al Jefferson had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead Minnesota, but he shot 8-of-24, missing 15 of his last 19 shots. Craig Smith added 18 points and eight rebounds, and Ryan Gomes scored 13 for the Timberwolves (4-19), who lost their ninth straight game and fourth in a row since Kevin McHale took over as coach last Monday…
The Timberwolves have the NBA’s second-worst record and are 2-10 on the road, but they led 57-54 with 6 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter after scoring eight straight points. But a 3-pointer by Bryant, a basket by Odom and five straight points by Luke Walton gave the Lakers a seven-point lead, and they were on top the rest of the way. It was 69-62 entering the final period.
Afterward, Kevin McHale said his team is not yet mentally or physically prepared to push the ball the way he wants them to play. He wants them to push the ball at every chance not in an attempt to become a fast-break scoring team but rather to get into the ball to Al Jefferson in the post and get into their offense with, say, 18 seconds left on the shot clock rather than eight.
“We’re not sprinting it down to shoot it, we’re sprinting it down to play inside-out,”McHale said. “If you drop it inside with Al, they double team. If you have 18 seconds, you can really do some stuff. If you have eight, you don’t have much time.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
