I Hate My Life
When I first started thinking about the game against the Kings, I thought it would be a good test for the Wolves who have started to play better. Then, when I found out that both CWebb and Peja would be out, I figured the game would be a walk in the park.
The Wolves started off slowly (as has become tradition), but after the first half, it looked like I would be right, taking a 6-point lead into the half, and increasing the lead to 7 immediately at the beginning of the second half after making a technical free throw for a T called on Mike Bibby as he entered the locker room for halftime.
Then, the third quarter started off about as horribly as you could imagine. The Wolves turned the ball over on what seemed like every possession. It wasn't quite every possession, but it did happen 6 times in the first 7 minutes.
What happened next seemed bizarre to me. I need to say that I'm a huge fan of Flip Saunders, and normally I think he's a great coach. But for some reason, he decided to go with very small lineups for the end of the third and beginning of the 4th quarter. At then beginning of the 4th quarter, we had a lineup of Hudson/Hassell/Hoiberg/Szczerbiak/Griffin. I'm not exactly sure why Flip chose to go small against this team, but it was just terrible.
The Kings had Miller and Songaila both out there, who are both big men who can shoot jumpers. What happened was that one of them would be open for a jump shot, and we didn't have enough size to cover both of them. Furthermore, with Griffin as our only rebounder, we were getting pounded on the offensive boards. And just to top it off, when Bibby beat either Troy or Sam off the dribble, there was nobody there to help out since Eddie was outside guarding their big men.
So that's the deal. As promised, here are two more big question marks facing the Wolves for the rest of the season:
Spree
To be blunt, he's been awful lately. He's had a couple good games, but mostly he's been bad. He's always been a streaky player, but streaky is only ok when there's at least as much good as bad. Over the last 8 games, he's shot 3-11, 3-12, 12-18, 1-5, 2-7, 1-5, 9-28, and 1-6. His defense hasn't been all that great either. If the Wolves are going to do any damage in the playoffs, they'll either need him to find his game again, or else they'll need to trade him. The problem with trading him, of course, is his huge bloated contract. This means, he'll probably need to find some way to make himself useful on the court.
Sam
Since coming back from injury, he's been OK. Not great. Not awful. He's never been a great defender, but he looked particularly bad today. It's about 24-feet from the three-point line to the basket. At one point, Bibby was six-feet past him when he got to the basket. I know Bibby's quick, but even I could stay within 6-feet of him in that small of a space. Hamstring injuries have a tendency to be nagging, and I think the Wolves have done a good job of not rushing him back.
On a completely unrelated note
I was trying to find out approximately how many people alive are 7-feet tall and how many of them have played in the NBA at some point. So far, I haven't been able to find out much. (Anybody know anything about this? If anybody knows anything, I'd be grateful for the info) In the process of my search, I ran across this interesting web page. Did you know that 1 out of 5000 people in the Netherlands is 6'10"? Holy shit! The NBA needs to start cropping players over there.
The Wolves started off slowly (as has become tradition), but after the first half, it looked like I would be right, taking a 6-point lead into the half, and increasing the lead to 7 immediately at the beginning of the second half after making a technical free throw for a T called on Mike Bibby as he entered the locker room for halftime.
Then, the third quarter started off about as horribly as you could imagine. The Wolves turned the ball over on what seemed like every possession. It wasn't quite every possession, but it did happen 6 times in the first 7 minutes.
What happened next seemed bizarre to me. I need to say that I'm a huge fan of Flip Saunders, and normally I think he's a great coach. But for some reason, he decided to go with very small lineups for the end of the third and beginning of the 4th quarter. At then beginning of the 4th quarter, we had a lineup of Hudson/Hassell/Hoiberg/Szczerbiak/Griffin. I'm not exactly sure why Flip chose to go small against this team, but it was just terrible.
The Kings had Miller and Songaila both out there, who are both big men who can shoot jumpers. What happened was that one of them would be open for a jump shot, and we didn't have enough size to cover both of them. Furthermore, with Griffin as our only rebounder, we were getting pounded on the offensive boards. And just to top it off, when Bibby beat either Troy or Sam off the dribble, there was nobody there to help out since Eddie was outside guarding their big men.
So that's the deal. As promised, here are two more big question marks facing the Wolves for the rest of the season:
Spree
To be blunt, he's been awful lately. He's had a couple good games, but mostly he's been bad. He's always been a streaky player, but streaky is only ok when there's at least as much good as bad. Over the last 8 games, he's shot 3-11, 3-12, 12-18, 1-5, 2-7, 1-5, 9-28, and 1-6. His defense hasn't been all that great either. If the Wolves are going to do any damage in the playoffs, they'll either need him to find his game again, or else they'll need to trade him. The problem with trading him, of course, is his huge bloated contract. This means, he'll probably need to find some way to make himself useful on the court.
Sam
Since coming back from injury, he's been OK. Not great. Not awful. He's never been a great defender, but he looked particularly bad today. It's about 24-feet from the three-point line to the basket. At one point, Bibby was six-feet past him when he got to the basket. I know Bibby's quick, but even I could stay within 6-feet of him in that small of a space. Hamstring injuries have a tendency to be nagging, and I think the Wolves have done a good job of not rushing him back.
On a completely unrelated note
I was trying to find out approximately how many people alive are 7-feet tall and how many of them have played in the NBA at some point. So far, I haven't been able to find out much. (Anybody know anything about this? If anybody knows anything, I'd be grateful for the info) In the process of my search, I ran across this interesting web page. Did you know that 1 out of 5000 people in the Netherlands is 6'10"? Holy shit! The NBA needs to start cropping players over there.
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