4-1 and trouble in Toronto after 90-86 victory
Posted on October 16th, 2008 – 10:31 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
The Wolves won for the four times in five games, and Randy Wittman wasn’t happy that for a second consecutive game his reserves carried his starting five’s butts.
As they had in Chicago, the team’s second unit provided the difference. This time, it was Blake Ahearn, Rodney Carney and Ryan Gomes, among others, who transformed a game in which the starting five again looked lethargic and settled for too many jumpers.
Wittman used the occasion to call out his starters afterward (even though with Big Al, Corey Brewer, Craig Smith, Foye and Rashad McCants Thursday it was a different starting lineup from Tuesday in Chicago). He praised Ahearn and said he was the team’s best playmaker on the floor, which shouldn’t be the case with Foye and Sebastian Telfair out there. And he said Jefferson needs to get in better shape by the Oct. 29 opener against Sacramento.
“We’ve got 13 days,” Wittman said. “I don’t know who the starting lineup is going to be Oct. 29. We’re going to play guys who will be aggressive.”
Jefferson, in turn, said he isn’t concerned about the starters. “Ever game is a different starting five,” he said of preseason play. And he said he had a cold Thursday and it showed in his conditioning.
“I have 13 days,” he said. “I’ll be ready.”
Ahearn and Carney, in particular, turned the game into a sprint in a second quarter in which the Wolves outscored the Raptors 34-20.
Ahearn made his first six shots, three of them three. Hey, they should poke the guy in the eye before every game. He left Wednesday’s practice after getting poked there for the second time since camp opened Sept. 30 and thrived on Thursday with that second-quarter shooting and a nifty left-handed, behind-the-back pass to Ryan Gomes during the decisive fourth quarter. That’s when the Wolves’ reserves flex themselves yet again.
“I’d take that,” Ahearn said about the poke-in-the-eye suggestion.
Twenty years after the team’s inaugural television spots urged so, the Wolves, finally, for a few minutes there in the second quarter lived up the slogan “Run with the Wolves.” Carney had two springy breakaway slams and was mighty lively in that stretch.
“You’ve got guys like Rodney Carney and we were saying it’s like a track meet and the gun went off,” Ahearn said. “He just took off sometimes.”
Other thoughts and observations:
Brewer took a step back after playing so well the last two times out. He made as many shots as he missed (2 for 4) and had six rebounds, but bobbled the ball in the open court and had four turnovers in a five-point night in 28 minutes. Still, with time running out in the third quarter, he made an effortless three from the left corner to give the Wolves a seven-point lead going into the fourth. That was the only three he attempted in the game and now has seven (7 for 9) in five preseason games, as many as he made all last regular season.
In his first start, McCants went 0-for-7 and scored two points on a pair of free thrwos. He also had three turnovers on a night when those pesky thing again vexed the Wolves. This time, they had 19, including three each from the starting backcourt of McCants and Foye.
You know the Wolves are going to be better because Ryan Gomes is now about their eighth or ninth player, as opposed to two or three a season ago. He got to the foul line 12 times , scored 17 points, had seven assists and FOUR (count ‘em) steals. The Wolves’ reserves had 15 of the team’s 21 free-throw attempts.
“It’s all about playing hard,” Jefferson said. “That’s what the second unit did. They moved the ball. They shared the ball. They didn’t settle for jump shots like we did.”
Mike Miller didn’t play for the second consecutive game after he awoke Thursday with soreness in the sprained ankle on which he practiced fully Wednesday. Wittman held him out as a precaution and started McCants alongside Foye instead. McCants, back as a starter, did the KG thing and clapped a cloud of rosin all over the scorer’s table before the opening tap. Gee, I’ve missed that.
13 Responses to "4-1 and trouble in Toronto after 90-86 victory"
Let’s see how Brewer come’s back in the next game, and hope his growing confidence wasn’t shaken too much.
I know a starting line up should be a combination of your best player and the best group of five. Here’s my take on the Wolves depth chart (once all are healthy).
Collins
Jefferson
Brewer
Miller
Foye
Telfair
McCants
Love
Gomes
Smith
Carney
Harrison
Did I forget anyone? That puts Madsen, Cardinal and Booth on the IR. The top 8 or 9 will likely see time in every game. I think the rotation could be very match-up oriented. Different players will get more minutes depending upon the opponent.
Ollie
Richard
I think the Ahearn-Ollie choice, provided they don’t find that third point guard elsewhere, could be really interesting. You talk about complete opposites: young/old, shooter and playmaker vs. steady and guiding. At this point in their redevelopment, this team still should be all about finding players for its future, which is why I’d be inclined to keeping Ahearn and see what he’s got over time.
OK, so who gets cut to trim the roster down to the max 15 players? Obviously there’s going to be 5 to 8 guys that don’t see regular playing time, including the ones on IR. They want to keep one of the two guards, and probably at least one of the 7 footers. Whose contract is easiest to get out of? Buy out Booth, let Harrison go? Who starts the season on the IR?
Having Collins and Harrison on the squad is redundant. You don’t need two 7 footers.
Jerry - Don’t you think its about time Foye and Telfair have a steady guide (Ollie) teaching them ? I mean, have either of them had a good steady veteran point guard to listen to and learn from at any point in their career ? The answer to that is no.
That is a reason why I’d be inclined to have Ollie around.
Ollie will be kept with Ahearn being offered a NBDL with a promise of being given the same opportunity to join the squad next season.
Swan Dizzle: the advantage of having two 7footers will be seen when playing the spurs, suns, trailblazers, magic, celtics, etc. It’ll keep AJ out of foul trouble and put the wolves in a position in being able to sub size for size. 12 fouls are better than 6.
Foye is having trouble balancing the distribution and scoring. Natural since he didn’t really play PG in college. this is essentially his 2nd season at the outset here and he’ll get better at his assists w/the improved talent around him. Telfair needs to learn to shoot, i hope he spend the summer with Brewer learning to do so.
Arenal - I don’t think it really matters about having the 2 seven footers. We have plenty of bigs (when healthy) to use up fouls.
There aren’t many 7 footers I’d consider offensive threats anyways…one is plenty on the 12 man roster methinks.
And just be ready and remember I said this now, those 7-footers on the other squads are going to be foul machines on our “tiny” Big Al and K. Love.
This season, we can afford to have weaknesses, since our goal, or what we would consider a successful year, would be something like 38 wins. 38-win teams have clear-cut weaknesses, so having an undersized front line is tolerable in the short-term.
We will never, ever, beat teams like LA and Portland in a playoff series, however, as long as they line up front lines like Gasol-Bynum and Aldridge-Oden. You can’t get dominated inside and win, unless you’ve got Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan. Unfortunately, LA has Kobe and Portland has Brandon Roy.
So, long-term, we should be looking to find 7-foot centers that can neutralize the huge centers in the West, like Bynum, Oden & Chandler. As Boston showed last year and San Antonio has shown in many post-seasons, the team that controls the paint controls a playoff series.
Swan Dizzle, I guess the question is, really, how influential do you think a guy like Ollie will be? It sounds good, great in theory, but is there real value in that? There might be, I don’t know. Will they listen and learn from him any more than they do the coaches? I’ll bet if Ahearn goes D League, he’ll catch on with somebody as the season progresses and injuries mount.
From what I’ve heard from Sixer fans, Ollie is practically a coach (and a good one at that) to younger point guards. The group I spoke to credited Ollie for the emergence of Louis Williams. So as far as I’m concerned, we definitely should keep him rather than Ahearn. If Foye and Telfair don’t learn from the guy, then it’s their own fault for not trying, and in that case, we have a lot bigger problems to deal with.
As for the starters, I’m ok with the past couple of games. The turnovers need to come down, but ultimately, we don’t know who the starting 5 is yet, and at the same time, we DO know that Mike is one of them and he hasn’t played the past few games. My only big concern is the one that always seems to come up….Foye isn’t showing any significant improvement as a point guard, or even hints that he understands the position.
But in the end, we’ll be relying on our bench a lot no matter what our starting 5 looks like. So if they have to carry us, then so be it. They’re equipped to handle that load, even if they shouldn’t have to.
Swan Dizzle: again it will matter when we play the spurs, suns, trailblazers, magic, celtics, etc. not to mention keeping AJ free from that defensive responsibility and out of foul trouble. take collins of harrison off the team and no, we don’t have plenty of bigs. at least bigs to deal w/the bigs on those teams.
no, those 7 footers on the other team aren’t going to be foul machines on AJ, KL…at least until the 4th quarter. particularly on AJ unless he steps up his FT’s.
Its just nice to be able to trot out 12 big fouls every game. Not to mention AJ/KL may be foul machines against those big men on the other team. We can’t afford that.
