There are, of course, many, many different ways to lose a basketball game.
Last Sunday, the Minnesota Timberwolves played their most enjoyable quarter of the season in the first period against the Golden State Warriors, shooting 54 percent while compiling 10 assists and six steals in often spectacular fashion. The passing exploits of Ricky Rubio and Luke Ridnour, the athleticism of Derrick Williams, and the versatility of Andrei Kirilenko were all on vivid display en route to a 32-18 lead.
But the Warriors are currently the deeper and more talented team, and have the added motivation of being in the thick of the playoff chase. They became much more physical in the second half, relied on key bench players Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry and eked out a thriller when Ridnour’s layup attempt rimmed out in the final seconds of a 100-99 game. Continuing season-long trends, the Wolves outscored Golden State 62-36 in the paint (including 26-0 to start the game) but converted only one of 11 three-point attempts. Despite the loss, it was a thoroughly entertaining contest from start to finish.
Tuesday night in Phoenix was something else again. I was prevented from watching the game as a result of either acrimony or incompetence between Fox Sports North and Comcast. And because it was assumed I’d be able to receive the “local feed,” I was also blacked out from watching the Phoenix announcers call the game on my League Pass subscription.
Apparently the bozos responsible for these loyalty-killing machinations did me a favor, as the radio recount of the contest described a dreadful performance by both teams. The woeful Phoenix Suns, who had previously succumbed in 11 of their previous 14 games, triumphed in overtime, 84-83, as for the second straight game a deciding last-second layup by the Wolves failed to drop through the hoop.
Thrashed in Los Angeles
Which brings us to Thursday night’s matchup between the Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Lakers. Now here is a Wolves loss that was preordained.
Begin with the fact that Andrei Kirilenko hobbled off in the first quarter against Phoenix with a strained calf and is now out indefinitely. Kirilenko would have been by far the best Timberwolf to defend Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant.
The calf problem is the third significant injury suffered by AK thus far this season. It comes soon after he was quoted saying he will wait and see whether or not he wants to exercise his $10 million option to remain with the Wolves for next season. Certainly his selfless diligence and all-around acumen have been welcome this year — it is a toss-up between Kirilenko and center Nikola Pekovic for the team MVP thus far this season. But as he gets coy about his future plans, Kirilenko might ask himself what other outfit will fork over $10 million to a player who now has missed at least 10 of his team’s games in eight straight NBA seasons, and has eclipsed 2,300 minutes in a season — less than 29 on average for an 82-game campaign — just once since 2004.
Wolves coach Rick Adelman responded to Kirilenko’s latest absence by beginning the game with Derrick Williams guarding Bryant. A month ago, this could have been credibly regarded by conspiracy theorists and Williams defenders as part of Adelman’s ongoing attempt to undermine D-Will.
But the opposite seems to be true: As Williams has improved various aspects of his game, Adelman has given him a longer leash on playing time, to the point of occasionally favoring him over Dante Cunningham in crunch time. For a team whose roster has been decimated by injuries and whose playoff ambitions have consequently been thwarted, it only makes sense to give Williams, the No. 2 overall pick in 2011 draft, more burn in his second NBA season. But it helps that D-Will has at least partially delivered on Adelman’s extended faith. He is now the Wolves’ leading scorer over the past 10 games (16.5) and very nearly their top rebounder (9.0 to Pekovic’s 9.3).
Defensively, however, D-Will has been very inconsistent — solid in his footwork, attention span, and help-assignment rotations for a while during games, and then totally lacking in those areas at other points. By throwing him on Bryant, the craftiest and one of the most prolific gunners in the NBA, the coach was obviously trying to hone Williams’ powers of concentration, think outside the box and simply see how his young forward would respond to a challenge.
Not well, unfortunately. With exactly one minute gone in the game, Kobe posted up Williams on the left wing. Rather than shading him toward the middle, where Pekovic awaited, Williams allowed him to spin the baseline, moving past D-Will for a slam before Pek could meet him at the rim. Kobe finished the period with 11 points and three assists.
But that wasn’t what set the nail in the Wolves coffin during this eventful first quarter. With 2:41 to play in the opening stanza, Pekovic strained an abdominal muscle while finishing a layup — an ailment related to back aches that were clearly bothering him earlier in the game — and was out for the rest of the context.
No Kirilenko to guard Kobe and now no Pek to even hope to contain the Lakers’ other superstar, Dwight Howard. Everybody knows this, but it bears repeating for revisionist historians down the line: The amazing lineage of injuries that have befallen the Wolves this season renders moot any specific criticism leveled at the ballclub as a whole. There is simply no way to know what this particular team was capable of achieving, individually or collectively, but we do know it would have been a hell of a lot better than what we have all — coaches, players, fans, pundits — have been forced to endure.
Zoning out
With Pek gone, Adelman inserted backup center Greg Stiemsma into the game when the Lakers trotted out Howard for his second stint at the beginning of the second period. When Stiemsma promptly picked up two fouls in the first 101 seconds of the quarter, Adelman switched to a zone defense that had helped the Wolves rally back in their last game versus the Lakers a month ago.
Ah, but the Wolves had AK and Pek logging time during that game, giving them a banshee on the wing and a bulwark in the post for their zone. When Stiemsma bagged his third foul and was sent to the bench after just 5:11 of play, Adelman replaced him with Chris Johnson, who at 210 pounds would make a useful bench press for Howard if he could properly plank his frame.
Knowing that Johnson had no shot at containing Howard, the Wolves packed the paint even tighter in their zone for the rest of the game, inviting the Lakers to fire away from outside. L.A. obliged, shooting 12 of 21 from distance in the pivotal second and third quarters, and 16 of 32 for the game. Howard was contained to only 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting, a pyrrhic victory given that the Lakers amassed 116 points overall, en route to a 22-point triumph.
Bottom line, even before Pek went down, the Timberwolves had almost no shot of winning this game. The Lakers are trying to salvage a grotesquely underachieving season with a closing spurt that would put their $100 million payroll into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and they have one of the proudest and most maniacal competitors in Bryant to get them there. Williams was not the only person who had trouble containing Kobe, who had 11 points in each of the first three periods before sitting in the fourth. It was tragic-comical watching Kobe deliberately pressing up against Luke Ridnour — who is four inches shorter, 25 pounds lighter and a tad less athletic — when Minnesota was in the zone in the third quarter.
With the Wolves preoccupied with Howard and Bryant, the scrubs had a field day. Steve Blake nearly matched his season high with 13 points and Jodie Meeks chipped in 16 — the pair was seven three-pointers, on 14 attempts, between them. Steve Nash was able to coast for just 25 minutes of action, although the Wolves, especially Ridnour, exposed his shoddy defense. In fact the Lakers once again demonstrated that they lack the defensive prowess to be a force in the playoffs (they are currently 17th in efficiency, or points allowed per possession) by allowing the clank-happy Wolves to shoot better than 50 percent for the first three quarters before Minnesota regressed in garbage time.
It all added up to the Wolves’ 21st straight loss to the Lakers.
The Wolves' guards
• It has become a familiar routine watching J.J. Barea surf the sine wave of his shooting surges and slumps in an ersatz-heroic effort to rally the Wolves back into contention. Barea had a typically fecund 14 shots in just 25:29 minutes, resulting in a team-high 20 points. He also had five assists versus just two turnovers and provided a genuine spark in the second quarter.
But it is no secret that Barea is most comfortable, and perhaps even most productive, when he is dominating the ball. In that sense, this injury-decimated roster fits right into his wheelhouse — on a team with precious few “go-to guys” remaining, he’ll happily fill the role. But he remains the highest risk-reward performer on the ballclub, a dynamic that will become more dramatic if he is still with the team as it plays games that hopefully are more consequential next season.
• Despite his occasional abuse by Kobe, Ridnour had one of those sterling “good soldier” games that have won him the admiration of many Wolves watchers. Adelman wisely had him doubling down on the Laker bigs, where Luke’s quick hands are perhaps more valuable than his relatively scrawny frame guarding off-guards on the perimeter. Digging in the low block resulted in two of his team-leading three blocks. Meanwhile, he continued his hot shooting, going 7 for 10, including 2 of 4 from distance and made all three of his free throws while registering four assists with zero turnovers.
• It is fun to watch the national reaction to Ricky Rubio, who had 13 assists in the game televised last night on TNT. At halftime, Shaquille O’Neal was comparing Rubio favorably with Nash, as Dennis Scott, Shaq’s longtime bobo, mostly assented. It was left to Kenny Smith to point out the huge strides Rubio must make in his shooting arsenal and accuracy before being considered a top-10 NBA point guard, let alone in the same conversation with Nash. I’m a huge Rubio fan — check out this smooch for proof — but it is difficult to anoint him as anything more than a dazzling passer and doggedly capable defender when his career shooting percentage is 35.1, including 29.5 percent from three-point range.
• It is becoming an open question whether or not there is any fiber in the character of Alexey Shved. After a promising start to the season, Shved has regressed horribly over the past two months. As opponents have learned to rough him up, he has gone from fruitlessly begging for help from the refs to sulking and shrinking from the challenge.
Since the calendar flipped to 2013, Shved is shooting 33.5 percent from the field and 25.6 percent from three-point range, with an assist to turnover ratio of 1.59-to-1. Compare that to 40.4 percent from the field, 33.3 from three-point range and 2.08 assist-to-turnover ratio the first two months of the season. Some of this seems to be from a sheer lack of effort: Specifically, Shved is moving less without the ball and not rotating on defense even as well as his lackluster showing earlier in the season. Like Barea, he is fond of pounding the ball as he surveys his options in the half-court offense, but unlike Barea, he seems incapable of zipping passes unless he is on the move. At 6-6, with obvious skills, he remains an enticing prospect. But he needs to toughen up over the off-season.