MVN: Most Valuable Network

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 the NBA in defensive efficiency.  Only the Lakers average more steals per game this year than the Nuggets, who also rank in the top ten in opponents' turnovers.

It was that defense along with good free throw shooting that helped the Nuggets shut down the Wolves in the fourth quarter on Sunday night and made Randy Wittman's night behind the podium that much tougher.  I can't imagine how hard it is for him to keep coming up with new ways to explain the same old frustrating aspects of this largely inexperienced team, and there's nothing he can say at this point that's going to be some epiphany about the team's struggles.

One thing he seems to be doing now, as he often did last year, is experimenting with the lineup, ideally to get a group on the floor that displays some cohesion.  11 different Timberwolves saw the floor for Wittman tonight, and only 3 of the 5 starters ended up playing more than 20 minutes by game's end.  Wittman seems dead set on making Randy Foye work out at point guard, and although he played pretty well at stretches against Denver, he hasn't been the guy to steer this team in the right direction when the game really matters.  (His turnover to Brandon Roy on Saturday night is still at the forefront of my brain.)

It's not uncommon to see a team in the midst of a long losing streak lose at least a couple of games by wide margins, but the fact that the Wolves should have beaten Golden State, had a legitimate shot at Denver, and probably could have beaten Portland had Brandon Roy been on vacation shows they haven't completely given up.  It'll be troubling if games like the 121-109 loss to Sacramento start to become the rule rather than the exception, because at least when it's close you know that if the Wolves could just stop being the Wolves for a second they would be able get a win under their belts.

I don't believe the team has reached rock bottom yet, but this week's losses are about as hard to stomach as any.  It's got to be a helpless feeling for a group of professionals who are trying to latch onto something to feel good about and to give them confidence going into pressure situations.  The main thing to remember is that it's way, way too early to give up on a season, and it's still very possible that positive things will come out of the '08-09 campaign, even if the win total isn't at the 40 win mark that Kevin McHale predicted the team would be able to reach.  Somebody needs to step up as the leader of the team - one of the scariest things I heard Randy Wittman say in an interview on the Chad Hartman Show was that the Wolves are lacking any sort of established leadership - and don't necessarily expect that guy to be Big Al.  Lack of leadership has to be a contributing factor to the fourth quarter breakdowns this team has experienced (although having KG's leadership didn't seem to help much in that department while he was here) and is something the coaches and players are going to have to figure out quick. 

It's a pair of east coast teams up next for the Wolves as they take on Philadelphia and Boston at home before traveling to Detroit next Sunday to wrap up the week.