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Game previews:
Stephen Litel/Downtown Journal talked with Fred Hoiberg about Al Jefferson in an interview that took place after the player’s injury occurrred.
Eight or nine years down the line, is Jefferson the center on this team or has he moved to the power forward exclusively?
“Our plan is to build around Al. Anytime you have a guy you can throw the ball to at anytime in the game is a luxury. He’s one of only three guys in the league averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds and he’s shown he wants to take big shots.”
“As we move forward, we want to put shooters around Al. I think we put a guy in Kevin Love next to Al who will compliment him very well. We drafted a guy last year-Pekovic-who will be here in 2010 that will compliment Al on the defensive end. He’s a banger.”
The Wolves are now five games into their post-Al Jefferson voyage; and, no surprise, the cosmic seas are a little rough. Much of the time (particularly in Friday’s unwatchable home loss to Indiana) they’ve looked as lost as you might expect: uneasy and skittish on offense and game but undersized and overmatched on D. But occasionally–the second half of their surprising win over Miami last Wednesday or, even more surprisingly, for much of Sunday’s intensely entertaining loss to the Lakers–they’ve played the frenetic, wide open style that will have to be their hallmark if they want to keep things from getting nightmarish.
Rashad McCants made his Sacramento debut last night with a scoreless (0 for 2) 10-minute performance in a 112-105 home loss to New Orleans.
New Wolves Shelden Williams and Bobby Brown have had Monday’s practice and Tuesday’s shootaround to get used to their new team, but Kevin McHale said before tonight’s game that he probably won’t play either at all.
“I’ve never been a big advocate of playing a guy for three minutes,” McHale said. “If you’re going to play the guy, you at least would like to have him be able to get his feet wet. It’s hard to get them in there. I’ve looked at some things. It’s going to be matchup driven.”
The Timberwolves left Air Canada Centre late Tuesday still with a better record on the road than they own at home.
Why?
“I don’t know why,” Wolves forward Ryan Gomes said. “It should be reversed, of course.”
The Wolves are 10-19 on the road after Tuesday’s 118-110 loss to Toronto and 8-19 at home entering tonight’s game against Utah at Target Center. That’s a .345 winning percentage away and .296 at home.
Only Detroit, New Jersey and the Los Angeles Clippers also are better away than at home this season.
-Brian Cardinal got under the skin of both Bosh and the Toronto crowd. The two players each got a technical foul after Bosh reacted strongly to Cardinal’s hard foul late in the first quarter. When Cardinal returned to the game in the second quarter, those normally polite Canucks booed him lustily.
It is no secret in these tough economic times teams must work overtime to get the fans out to heir stadiums. Every team in the NBA has some kind of promotion to lure the fans in, but the Minnesota Timberwolves have found two that are working very well.
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