MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rockets sweep season series 3-0 in win over T’Wolves

The Wolves’ record has now fallen to 18-52 for the 2007-2008 campaign, the 52nd loss coming at the hands of a 6′9″ Argentinian and a guy who looks blitzed at all times. I’m referring of course to Luis Scola and T-Mac, respectively, and both have had a hand in all three of the Rockets’ wins over the Wolves. Scola, once a bench player who now finds himself in a starting role, had 18 boards, 18 points, and 3 steals. He was Houston’s spark plug as they made a push in the third quarter to extend their lead.

Just as the Wolves managed to cut the lead to 3, the Rockets won a battle of wills on the boards during one possession and finally scored after 3 consecutive tip-in attempts by Mutombo, Rafer Alston, and then Scola who ended up putting the ball in. Scola then stole a Kirk Snyder pass and got his 2nd layup in 20 seconds, the second of which was an old-fashioned three point play after Scola converted on the free throw. That gave the Rockets an 8 point lead that they held (for the most part) throughout the remainder of the third quarter and into the fourth.

As for McGrady, he got things going in the fourth quarter with 3 outside jumpers in the first 5 minutes, and since the Wolves offense once again went dormant in the fourth quarter, it was enough for the Rockets to cling to a 6 point advantage. That was until McGrady hit 2 more jumpers to give the Rockets an 86-74 lead and a vice grip on the game with 5:41 to go. T-Mac was listed as questionable for the game because of a sore shoulder, but he still managed to find a way to get 25 shots up by the night’s end. Shaddy and Big Al tried to make things interesting towards the end, but it proved to be too little, too late.

After the game, McGrady was quoted as saying, “I just couldn’t afford for us to lose this game, so I had to impose my will on it.” It’s a shame he didn’t do that more in all of his team’s first round playoff defeats.

(As a follower of the Wolves, I’m extremely dubious about making cracks about first round playoff exits, but what the hell?)

As predicted here on Wolves Watch, the score of the game was fairly close until the Rockets established their dominance in the fourth quarter. The score really doesn’t reflect how close the game actually was though; the Rockets looked like the team that was giving more effort. The Wolves were terrible on their defensive glass, allowing Houston 20 offensive rebounds, and every player wearing a Rockets uniform that got minutes in the game had at least one offensive board. Houston had 58 total rebounds to the Wolves 38.

One of the problems was that the Wolves stuck to one of the smaller lineups they can go with for a large part of the game. The starting five was comprised of Jefferson, Gomes, Snyder, Jaric, and Foye, each of whom saw 30+ minutes. Craig Smith and Chris Richard had only 25 minutes combined, so it was mostly Jefferson and Gomes taking care of things inside. Not surprisingly, the Rockets frontcourt had a combined point total of 47 points. Jefferson had five blocks, but it was usually fairly easy for the Rockets to score points in the paint.

Randy Foye was virtually a non-factor, doing little to get the offense moving and missing a handful of both mid and long range jumpers. I’m becoming more and more convinced every day that he is better suited to the 2 guard, but even then, I don’t think he would be a starter on a winning team. His shooting is hit and miss and there are times where he looks uncomfortable or out of sync when attempting to run the offense. I’m willing to give him until halfway through next year to prove his value to the team, and by that time we’ll have had close to 2 full seasons to evaluate him.

Ryan Gomes, on the other hand, has done a lot to raise his stock for next year in the eyes of this writer. He was 2-3 from downtown, grabbed 9 rebounds and scored 17 points in a losing effort, breaking the 5 game winning streak for the Wolves when Gomes scores 17 or more points. He’s finally taking more shots and taking on a more active role in the offense. In the first half of the season and even after the All-Star break, there were times that it seemed Gomes wasn’t assertive enough on the offensive end given the tools he possesses, but now he’s playing with a more aggressive style.

The Wolves get one day of rest to make the quick plane ride to San Antonio where they will face the Spurs on Friday night. We’ve seen the Wolves make things interesting against the Spurs in the not-so-distant past, but then again we’ve also seen them get lit up by Manu Ginobli, the Spurs’ leading scorer who gets to the line an average of 6.2 times per game. Obviously the Spurs balance of interior and perimeter game makes them difficult for any team to guard consistently well over the course of the game, but the Wolves lack of size makes the task that much more challenging. I’d put my money on the Spurs - like the Rockets (and unlike the Wolves), they have to worry about playoff positioning, and every win counts.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Randy Foye, Craig Smith, manu ginobli, Chris Richard, Al Jefferson, Tracy McGrady, NBA, Minnesota Timberwolves, Ryan Gomes, Timberwolves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.