OK, Randy Wittman referenced it games ago, but, even with Kevin McHale lumbering the sidelines and the Wolves looking and feeling to me quite different than just a game ago, I still feel like weatherman Phil Connors in Groundhog Dog and so, too, probably do you or anyone still interested enough in following this team.

McHale put Rashad McCants and Craig Smith into the starting lineup and from the first possession made good on his promise to exploit mismatches wherever and whenever he can find them. The Wolves did play with so much more flow and pace. And life, too. Rodney Carney (remember him?) provided a couple of athletic blocked shots and a couple of steals in 13 minutes. Smith and Ryan Gomes exploited their matchups. Kevin Love got eight of his 15 rebounds on the offensive boards.

And then everything once again went black when they blew a 94-87 lead with less than three mintues left, when the Jazz finishd with a 14-2 run that included Mehmet Okur’s winner with 1.7 seconds left. The Here-We-Go-Again-Syndrome can be attributed in good part to Love’s four consecutive missed free throws, probably a bad shot he took and a turnover in that stretch.

At least you know the guy cares. He basically was sniffling back tears in the locker room and said he needed someone to talk him down off the bridge.

McCants, who missed all seven shots he took in the first half and then couldn’t get an in-bounds pass to Al Jefferson when the play broke down after Okur scored, wasn’t about to do it.

“No way,” McCants said. “He can’t jump off no bridge because we’ve got a game tomorrow night.”

The Wolves play at Denver Wednesday night.

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