I feel like I’m caught in one of those time-lapse movies. Every time I look up from my computer screen, the Los Angeles Clippers’ basketball court is closer to being assembled.

The Clippers host the Rockets tonight. I honestly don’t think I’ve seen a full NBA game since I covered Shaq, Dwyane Wade and the Heat for parts of the lockout. The last game I covered was in Toronto against the Raptors. I used every hockey cliche I could.

I’m pretty sure I actually wrote “Shaq stood on his head.” Not surprisingly, I wasn’t asked by the editors to cover another Heat game.

I missed hockey during the lockout. These days, I just miss any semblance of good hockey.

The Wild, let’s just say, they’re not very good right now. I really, really hope all the Wild fans in the crowd today didn’t actually spend money on plane tickets to come out here and see today’s performance.

Coach Jacques Lemaire ripped into the boyz after this one, especially because of the team’s terrible first and second periods. It was just a clumsy effort all-around. Guys were literally falling over themselves.

Lemaire said the players weren’t ready. And he felt it had a lot to do with the team’s post-practice yesterday. These guys are professionals, so they can do what they want, but most every player scattered into the Southern California sun after practice. The bus going back to the hotel had like a half-dozen players on it, and Lemaire bemoaned after, he’s not a “babysitter.”

Regardless of the reason for the Wild’s terrible effort early in this game, what’s more frightening is nobody in the locker room I interviewed would admit to it. I am not kidding you, other than Antti Miettinen, five of the six players I interviewed all felt the team’s start tonight was fine and it played well in the first and second periods.

Sure. I guess it was deceiving when the Wild was being outshot 40-20 at one point.

Actually, it was deceiving that it was 1-0, then 2-0. The Wild should have been down by three or four goals, but Niklas Backstrom brought his ‘A’ game.

The Wild couldn’t make passes. Guys like Benoit Pouliot were bumped off the puck easily. Guys like Brent Burns and Erik Reitz inadvertantly iced the puck at times. There were errant passes (Andrew Brunette missed Pierre-Marc Bouchard on a potential breakaway by 10 feet).

Even Mikko Koivu wasn’t sharp. He turned the puck over twice in his own zone late in the third period, which caused time to be lost when the Wild was trying to get Backstrom off the ice. Then, Koivu dumped the puck on a line change and Lemaire pulled Backstrom with L.A. having full control of the puck. Well, it took 14 seconds for Alexander Frolov to score and make it 3-1.

Dustin Brown freight-trained Kim Johnsson early, and from that point on, the Wild wanted no part of the physical game. In fact, the Kings’ forwards consistently made Wild players fly when they bumped ‘em.

Yes, there was bad luck. Miettinen hit the pipe in the third, Bouchard hit both pipes in the second on one shot.

The Wild’s scored three goals in the past four games. That’s three goals in the last 12 periods folks.

The Wild has lost four in a row in regulation for the first time since Nov. 2003. It’s never lost five in a row in regulation, although that could be coming because this team seems lifeless right now and it visits Anaheim on Sunday.

Talk to you tomorrow from the Pond.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Game coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.