Wolves Get Bitched

It's common knowledge that there are a lot of conspiracy theorists out there who believe that NBA officiating is biased. I'm not one of those people.

There is a psychological bias that everybody has that causes this. In poker, it is very common. Everybody thinks they're getting bad beat more than they dish it out. The truth is that the bad things just tend to stick out in one's mind more than the good. This leads people to believe that the officiating almost always favors the opposition. As a matter of fact, I can't think of a single Timberwolves game where I thought the officiating was blatantly in their favor, but can remember a lot of games where I feel the officiating cost them the game.

It is for this reason that I tend to avoid commenting on or blaming the officiating for a Wolves loss.

Despite my belief that NBA games are not "fixed" by the officials, there have definitely been some cases historical cases where the officiating was so bad that even the most impartial observer can't deny the bias in the officiating. Dean Oliver gives several examples in Basketball on Paper. Another example that occurred after the book was written was a Wolves vs. Lakers playoff game from a few years back. After the game, Sir Charles said "That was the worst officiated game I've ever seen." The Wolves actually won the game, despite some horrendous calls, but it took them into overtime when they should have won by a comfortable margin in regulation.

While I wouldn't put last night's game in a the same category with any of those games, there seemed to be one call that was biased and might have cost the Wolves the game. Here's the scenario:

With 4:56 left in the 3rd quarter and the Wolves down by 2, KG draws his fourth personal foul. About a minute later, Jaric misses a three. KG goes after the rebound in the corner but can't get it. The Spurs come up with the ball and move it up the court. KG starts to run up the court when Ginobli sticks his ass out and KG grazes it. The ref in the corner blows the whistle and calls a double foul on KG and Ginobli. It's KG's fifth and he has to go sit on the bench.

First off, the contact was entirely incidental. This type of thing goes on all the time. Second of all, Ginobli initiated all the contact. But the thing that really made me question the integrity of the call was that he called a double foul. Had he just called a foul on KG I would have merely though it was a horrendous call and not a biased one. But the thing is, he can't call a foul on KG there because Ginobli initiated all the contact.

Every double foul I've seen called in the NBA involves two people who are really struggling and wrestling with each other. The don't call a foul in the backcourt when two people just bump into each other. But like I said, he can't just call a foul on KG here, so the only way to call a foul on KG is to call a double foul, and calling a double foul here simply doesn't make any sense.

The timing seemed a bit strange as well (though I'm getting a bit into conjecture here). KG's fourth personal was still fresh in everybody's mind. It seems as though the official had this fresh in his mind, and was just looking for a chance to send KG to the bench.

Am I being reasonable here, or have I become everything I ever hated?

Wolves Destroy Dallas

I think Casey might have read my previous post, because the Wolves stayed with their gameplan for the entire 48 minutes on Wednesday against Dallas.

The game started out pretty sloppy, and the Wolves missed a bunch of shots. Again, we had a chance to pounce on the opposition early but missed it. At that point, I pretty much assumed it was a matter of time before the Wolves began to collapse and Dallas started running up the score. But like a team that needs to win, the Wolves kept at it.

I'm not sure the Wolves would have won that game in such easy fashion had the Mavs not been on the second night of a back-to-back, but I'll take it. The Mavs D struggled in the second half and the Wolves were able to get good shots. They did a good job pushing the ball to really wear out the Mavs.

Now the Wolves have probably the toughest back-to-back imaginable. If they can get one of two, they'll be in good shape with a somewhat easier upcoming schedule.

Sonics Fire Weiss

Link

The NBA had their first head coach firing today. Weiss was cut loose from the struggling Sonics.

In Weiss's defense, people were probably holding him to unrealistic expectations. The Sonics overachieved in a major way last season. Despite being 22 games over .500, the Sonics only outscored their opponents by an average of 2.6 points. The small point differential leads one to believe that they weren't actually as good as their record indicated.

If you remember, the Sonics were supposed to be awful last season, but surprised everyone. It turns out they were a lot better than everyone thought, but still not as good as they appeared.

A couple of days ago, I gave Casey his first criticism of the season.

Then, the second half started. The Wolves did an alright job at first, but their bad luck in shooting seemed to continue. Then, as the Heat took the lead and started to pull away, the Wolves seemed to go into panic mode. It was like some of those games early in the season where they seemed to forget that KG was even alive. As the Heat pulled away, the Wolves shot selection got worse and worse. It was kind of a snowball effect.

Casey cannot let this happen. So we blow a huge lead (that might have been an even huger lead) and are now down by 10. That's fine. Call timeout, regroup the team and run a play for KG. So it's not the situation we had hoped for, but the game is far from over. Just get the team together and make sure everyone knows what they're doing. Instead, the Wolves looked disorganized on the court, and nobody seemed interested in getting the best shot possible. Everyone just kind of took whatever shot was there (except KG, who rarely touched the ball).

I'm not saying Casey should be the next to go, but a little pressure from above might help him out. Casey needs to take a little stronger initiative during the game. Maybe calling timeout when we start to struggle and reminding the team to get the ball to KG would be a good idea. He might even attempt to "overwork" KG if there's pressure on him. And by overwork, I mean give him the correct number of shot attempts during the game, as opposed to letting him run back and forth setting high screens.

I remember a few years back watching a Spurs game. The Spurs got way ahead early (something in the neighborhood of 15-20 points). Then, they got a little bit sloppy. They turned the ball over twice and gave up four easy points. Most teams would just blow this off because they already had a big lead and play on, but not the Spurs. Popovich called timeout, gave his team an earful and made sure the Spurs kept their huge lead.

I was super impressed that Pops would do this. Many coaches would do this later in the game, but not many. Points scored in the first half are worth the same as points scored in the second half. Pops recognized this and wasn't willing to let a small run turn into a large one. A 10-point run in the first half is just as likely to cost you the game as one in the second half (the Wolves have many 2nd quarters this season to demonstrate said point).

This is the kind of aggressive coaching I would like to see from Casey. Stop the game if the team seems to have forgotten its game plan. Make a plan and make sure your team sticks to it. If they seem to stray from it, fix them up. Rather, it seems as though the Wolves have a plan, then forget about it as soon as the reserves come in and don't get back to it.

Losing it

The games. Two brutal losses.

After singing EG's praises after the Sonics game, he seemed to revert to his old three-point-hucking self against the Magic. I think he just got too much confidence after that game and decided it was OK for him to take bad shots again. But I think Casey may have had a talk with him because he did a better job against Miami.

Speaking of Miami. The Wolves played really well--for about one-and-a-half quarters. After taking a 7-point lead into the second quarter, I was worried that the Wolves bench was going to get manhandled by a superior Heat bench. But they didn't, and actually played quite well.

The Wolves actually had a chance to take a huge lead in the first quarter, but they missed a good deal of easy shots. KG and Wally both seemingly had about 3 or 4 shots rim out, and there were a handful of missed layups. Yet despite this, the Wolves took a 3 point lead into halftime.

Then, the second half started. The Wolves did an alright job at first, but their bad luck in shooting seemed to continue. Then, as the Heat took the lead and started to pull away, the Wolves seemed to go into panic mode. It was like some of those games early in the season where they seemed to forget that KG was even alive. As the Heat pulled away, the Wolves shot selection got worse and worse. It was kind of a snowball effect.

Casey cannot let this happen. So we blow a huge lead (that might have been an even huger lead) and are now down by 10. That's fine. Call timeout, regroup the team and run a play for KG. So it's not the situation we had hoped for, but the game is far from over. Just get the team together and make sure everyone knows what they're doing. Instead, the Wolves looked disorganized on the court, and nobody seemed interested in getting the best shot possible. Everyone just kind of took whatever shot was there (except KG, who rarely touched the ball).

McCants recent performances have been truly awful. In the second half of the Miami game, he tried to run a break 1-on-3, then jumped about two inches in the air, flung the ball in the air, and almost hit the underside of the rim. At this point, I screamed out "What the hell?", even though nobody else was around to hear it. I'm not sure what his deal is, but he seems to be pretty good at getting to the rim, but once he's there, he has no idea how to finish. If he can't do this, then he's pretty useless to the team. We don't need another jump shooter (not that he's particularly good at that either). The reason the Wolves drafted him was because they needed someone who can slash to the basket. I'm not giving up on him yet, because seeing how well he can get to the basket is promising. He just needs to figure out how to get the ball past the 7-footers.