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Wolves Week That Was #5

By Scott Henneboehle | December 1, 2008 | Wolves Watch

We're over a month into the season, but the Wolves have finally started to show signs of improvement as opposed to taking steps backwards. Although playing .500 ball won't get you into the playoffs in this conference, it's a hell of a lot better than the .000 winning percentage the Wolves had from Nov. 1st to the 19th. Since then, the Wolves have had three wins and followed up with a loss all three times. Two of those wins have come on the road, a good sign for a young team. We can only hope that getting a win here and there will make for a hungrier team and *ahem* string together more than one victory at a time. Until then, I'm glad to see that the Wolves were able to get at least one win this week, albeit on a buzzer beater that, had it missed, would have been...

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T'Wolves drop another game, now have ten losses on the season

By Scott Henneboehle | November 27, 2008 | Wolves Watch

With the way the Wolves were able to take advantage of the defensive shortcomings of the Phoenix Suns in Target Center last year, one was given just enough hope to still be disappointed with the result last night as the Wolves dropped their tenth game of the season. The Suns are 11-5 now, and with the addition of Matt Barnes, they have at least attempted to make up for their decision to deal Shawn Marion. Barnes isn't and probably will never be as good as Marion was in his prime alongside Steve Nash, but he's definitely a good complimentary player on a team that already has it's share of superstars.We saw Amare and Big Al have some epic offensive games last year, and this time it was Jefferson that got the better of Stoudemire in the head-to-head comparison (not that it matters, though, because Amare's team still won and is...

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Wolves Week That Was #4

By Scott Henneboehle | November 23, 2008 | Wolves Watch

We got a brief reprieve from the Wolves' losing ways on Wednesday with the win over the Sixers, but the now 3-9 team reverted to it's former self in Friday's loss to KG and the Celtics at home. Even worse, that loss was the first time the Wolves have been blown out since their 121-109 defeat in Sacramento on the first Friday of November. Luckily, the T'Wolves were able to steamroll the Pistons on Sunday night in easily their best win of the season.Although we were able to stay with the Celtics through the first half and actually take a 3 point lead into the locker room, the Beantowners showed who the better team is in the third and fourth quarters to exit Target Center with a 17 point victory. As good as it was to hold Boston to just 36 points in the first 24 minutes of the game,...

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Finally, a win!

By Scott Henneboehle | November 20, 2008 | Wolves Watch

In Monday's blog, I questioned whether Big Al would be a leader on this team. Perhaps Al is a reader of Wolves Watch, because he had one of his best fourth quarters of the season and prevented his team from surrendering another lead. Jefferson was all over the paint, creating opportunities for both himself and his teammates. When the Sixers threatened to spoil yet another game for us, #25 found #33 for a sweet three pointer with thirty seconds left that was essentially the nail in the coffin.Finally, we are starting to see some returns from the Miller/Love trade. Love has already made some contributions in his limited role on this roster, but Miller was brought in to be the go-to shooter in situations just like the ones the Wolves have found themselves in numerous times this season and were in again on Wednesday night. On Wednesday morning, when Fred...

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Practice notes from the Strib blog

By Scott Henneboehle | November 19, 2008 | Wolves Watch

Star Tribune staff writer Brian Stensaas had a few good notes worth posting on Jerry Zgoda's blog from Tuesday's practice:Good day. And that's not just a greeting. Those were the exact words Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman described today's practice, a day before taking on the Sixers at home. Wittman said, despite a 1-8 record, the mentality of the team remains positive. The Wolves went through the usual motions today, allowing the media in to see a little bit of scrimmaging and then some after-practice individual work. - Brian Cardinal and Mark Madsen did a good bit of running. - Kevin Love worked on perimeter shooting. - Corey Brewer, Ryan Gomes and Randy Foye did some quick pass, quick shoot work. - Rashad McCants lifted weights.This a day after the team pretty much worked on its own. No official practice was held Monday.Love worked on perimeter shooting? I believe Kevin McHale's...

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Wolves Week That Was #3

By Scott Henneboehle | November 17, 2008 | Wolves Watch

Last Monday, the Wolves stood at 1-5 and had been beaten down emotionally by deflating losses to Sacramento and Portland. This Monday, the psychological duress that the players have surely undergone in search of a victory to snap this losing streak has to be even worse than in the previous week.Sunday night, the Nuggets were able to hold serve on their home court against the Timberwolves with a 90-84 victory. Seemingly given new life with the Billups-Iverson swap, the Nuggets may be a team to be reckoned with once again this year if they can continue to improve on defense, an area they have been weak at in previous years but seem to be figuring out a little bit in '08. It's surprising that the Nuggets' defense would improve with the loss of Marcus Camby, but they had 8 steals and 6 blocks against the Wolves and rank 8th in...

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Still more questions than answers

By Scott Henneboehle | November 16, 2008 | Wolves Watch

I hate to get too doom and gloom on everyone, especially this early in the season, but right now the Wolves look like the Detroit Lions of the NBA. I thought we would at least be looking at an improvement over last year, but it seems as though this team is failing in similar way's to the 07-08 Wolves and can't do anything about it. Fans of the movie Major League may still have faith in a second half turnaround to this season, but the Wolves making the playoffs this year would almost be too unbelievable, even for Hollywood. The most obvious solution to this problem may be to fire Coach Wittman, and although that may help somewhat in the short run, it still comes down to the holes on this roster that make the team susceptible to a loss on any given night. The uncertainty at the point guard...

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Timberwolves bear their teeth in Golden State, almost

By Scott Henneboehle | November 12, 2008 | Wolves Watch

The Wolves have to take 'em one game at a time if they hope to make it through this season alive, and that's exactly what they'll be doing after a heart-breaking loss to Golden State.It was a fast start for the Timberwolves in their fourth road game of the season as they outscored the Warriors 19-6 in the first half of the opening quarter. That effort was all for nought, though, as the Warriors went on a run of their own to tie the game at 27 by the start of the second period. Minnesota was playing in sync at the outset, something they've struggled with on the road, but were unable to sustain the effort for the full twelve minutes.The teams exchanged hoops for a majority of the second quarter, but the Wolves offense went cold just before halftime and they were unable to answer the Warriors attack as...

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How the West will be won

By Joe Boikess | October 22, 2008 | MVN Outsider

With the NBA regular season set to tip off in less than a week, it's time to reveal my predictions for how the Western Conference will shape up. Last year the requirement was at least 50 wins for a team to make the playoffs in the ultra competitive West, and I believe this year will be no different. That's not to say that all the same teams will be there in the end, however...In addition to ranking the teams in the order that I believe they'll finish, I decided to also separate the teams into tiers based on their potential to win the West. Here goes...Tier 1: The Clear Favorites1. New Orleans Hornets (1st in Southwest) - I realize that preseason performances should only be taken with a grain of salt, but the Hornets are 6-0 so far, and they have allowed the third-fewest points of any team during the...Read more

Read more | 7 Comments | Tags: Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA, NBA Outsider, New Orleans Hornets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, Western Conference

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