Wolves lose 11th straight, 93-70 to LeBron and Cavs
Posted on December 18th, 2008 – 2:21 AMBy Jerry Zgoda
The Wolves’ 0-for-December continues.
Down by just one with less than four minutes left in the third quarter, the Wolves’ losing streak hit 11 games after the Cavs finished the quarter by scoring the final six points and then by outscoring the Wolves 30-14 in the fourth.
LeBron James scored as many points in that fourth quarter by himself as the Wolves.
The 70 points wasn’t a franchise low. The team scored 61 in a 2003 game at New Jersey.
The 11-game losing streak is five shy of the club record set twice at 16, once in the 1992-93 season and again at the end of the 1993-94 season and the beginning of the 1994-95 season.
44 Responses to "Wolves lose 11th straight, 93-70 to LeBron and Cavs"
Rather than writing a mile long post like I usually do, I’ll keep it to one glaring point for me.
Randy Foye - 7 points, 3 assists: 35 minutes played
Sebastian Telfair - Did not play: coach’s decision
If that doesn’t summarize it, I don’t know what does. Our starting point guard, who played 3/4 of the game, made only three passes that resulted in buckets for us. I would say that the offensive collapse was inevitable.
And it didn’t help that Love and McCants combined to go 0-everything (0-13 to be precise).
Looks like McHale took your advice and is going to let Foye sink or swim at the point. The painful part for me I guess is I’ve known he would sink since 2005. But hey, who listens to me, right? I didn’t even want Wittman fired. But I guess since McHale is doing such a stellar job in his place….
[…] On the Wolves – […]
Just some food for thought. If you exclude the terrible loss to Sacramento. The combined record of all the teams we’ve played under Mchale is 90-35.
Just some more food for thought.
The wolves suck. They have sucked for 20 years. McHale is an idiot. Taylor is a fool. They scored 14 points in the fourth.
But zbast, they sure played with heart.
Some people remain in denial.
Isn’t it fun watching other teams run a practice layup drill on this team. Thank god they get sick of beating up on cripples or the scores would be much worse.
Our team is no good, but at least they don’t play hard.
I’m not a big Telfair fan, but I don’t really see the point of playing Kevin Ollie ahead of him on a consistent basis. What was the point of resigning him — to a two-yeaar deal, no less — if the distance between him and the very end of the bench was so close?
Jerry,
Have you heard why Telfair isn’t playing? There were a lot of players they could have signed for less much money to sit on the end of the bench. That contract looks horrible right now.
Jama,
The Telfair contract does look really stupid. They should fire the GM.
I’m sure the coach will make the right decision though. Just be patient. The wolves only lost by 23, so they may be on the right track. Hopefully, they can remain impressive with their picks. Their track record is the only positive right now. That and the great trades.
Go wolves!!!!
I’m a big Telfair fan, and was excited they signed him. I was surprised there wasn’t more interest in him on the FA market. But, by signing him what are they (mchale) thinking playing a 35yr old career backup over him. What’s he trying to prove.
Mchale has no direction to go with the team. He’s a deadman walking. If he were to make trades thats an indication that he’s coming back next year. We don’t need that. Let mchale continue to coach the pathetic lineup that he assembled.
Hopefully a new regime will be in place prior to the draft…..I actually still watch the games and actually hope they lose……last nights game was exactly what plauly said it was ..practice for the other teams bench
ONE WORD—-JOKE!
LeBron James is living proof that aliens are already among us. It’s not his scoring that blew me away. It was his lightening-fast no-look passes that energized me. What I’d give for the ‘Wolves to have a SuperStar like LeBron or even Kevin Garnett…uh, oh yeah, I forgot, we already had KG.
My bad! IT’S TIME FOR COACH TO SUIT UP!
I think one of the major complaints of Wittman was his rotation. Do people think McHale is doing a better job with his rotations? Who should be playing more and who should be playing less?
McHale is not playing people out of their position, which Wittman frequently was. I think Carney should get 10-15 minutes a game. McHale is playing McCants a lot more, which is statistically bad, but it’s also what he should be doing. Rashad should play through his problems right now and either redeem himself or make himself completely worthless by the end of the year. McHale is totally rippable for a lot of stuff, but his coaching of this team isn’t one of them.
also, I’m really surprised at the Rhino’s success. I always pictured him doing what Gary Trent used to do for this club, not dropping 13/5/5 a game. Although, I guess SOMEONE has to score some points……
One more thing- does anyone else agree that Love has looked pretty lost the past handful of games? Someone needs to clean the sand out of his labia and get him restarted.
Robert, I think the wolves are awful, and I hate Mchale for all of his stupid moves. BUT, the only thing good he has done besides drafting KG, was his coaching record when he went 19-12 after taking over as head coach. I’m not saying that he has been a good coach the last 6 games. I’m only saying it’s hard to tell how good of a job hes doing when we play against top tier opponents every night. (Jazz, Nuggets, Spurs, Lakers, Kings(shouldve won), and Cavs. Put any coach besides Mchale in the last 6 games, and we have a 1-5 record at best. Again, I’m not saying he’s done a good coaching job this year. I’m saying it’s hard to judge a coach of a rebuilding team when they have only played against title contenders.
Oh, and i’m happy to share a history lesson with you Robert, the wolves have sucked for only 19 years, not 20. I don’t know if you followed the wolves this far back, but we were #1 in the western conference when we had Cassel and Sprewell the first season they got here. We then went on to the western conference finals beating the nuggets and kings. We then lost to Shaq, Kobe, Malone, Payton, and the lakers in the Western conference finals.
Some fans follow the wolves. Others are only fans when the weather is sunny, warm and fair. The remaining few look for attention from bloggers by whining about how bad they have it because their professional basketball team sucks. If you only like watching good teams, Minnesota has a very talented football team, called the Vikings you can watch on Sundays, sometimes Mondays. The weather in the dome is very fair this year. I think you will really enjoy it!
Did I just read what I thought I read?
I do like that McHale has tightened up the rotation. The biggest change I would advocate is Telfair instead of Ollie. As noted above, I’m not a big Telfair guy, but we know Ollie isn’t a long-term fix. You may as well commit to Foye and Telfair at the 1, and go into the offseason with a very clear picture of what you have (or don’t) at that spot.
lol, I think Love is going to be fine. He just needs to learn that it isn’t college anymore. He has to pass the ball back out when he gets stuck under the basket off of an offensive rebound. He’s constantly getting his shot blocked. It Shouldn’t take him too long to make that a habit. He’s going to have a better rookie season than Al Horford did when it’s all said and done.
I think Miller might be getting back on track. Love and Jefferson could get the high low going and have some success. The problem after when those three start to play to their levels is that no one else on the roster can sustain anything. Smith is playing great for what he can do but due to match ups he will never be a reliable guy in the plus and minus category.
I agree Sean, that’s the best way to evaluate for next year.
zbast,
Somewhere, there are people who care about you. Please stop smoking crack.
ROBERT!
that’s probably the most positive thing I’ve ever seen you post! You must be taking the next step toward breaking through the barrier of your inept social skills… and for that, I say thank you for your concerns Roberto!
It is getting close to Christmas (not the winter holiday, winter festival, winter break) but CHRISTMAS!!!!!!
Merry Christmas!
Does anyone think the Thunder or Wizards would take Al Jefferson and maybe 1 of our late 1st round picks (Celtics or Utah’s pick) for the 2nd or 3rd overall Pick? I wouldn’t mind a starting lineup next year of:
PG: Ricky Rubio (2nd/3rd overall pick)
SG: Mike Miller/Randy Foye
SF: Corey Brewer
PF/C: Kevin Love
C/PF: Blake Griffin (1st overall pick)
I think this would allow the Wolves to be an up tempo team. I don’t think Big Al is capable of being on a team with an up tempo offense - he’s just too slow and not athletic enough to get up and down the court. Kevin Love can’t really run, but it would be great to have him throwing outlet passes to Rubio and Brewer. Obviously this has about a .01% chance of happening - mostly because the front office needs to have a plan when putting a team together.
Very interesting. I like it, but I don’t think it could happen. I think Blake Griffin is going to be a better player than Jefferson though. Anyone know how good he is at defense?
Chris brought up Love and Jefferson working the High/Low. After drafting Love a lot was made of his passing and how the High/Low with Jefferson would be hard to stop on Offense. I can’t think of a single time this season when I have seen the Wolves set up a High/Low. Am I mistaken or does it seem like that is something the Wolves should be drawing up?
Griffin is a Power Forward and cannot play Center in the NBA. Trading Jefferson for Griffin leaves the Wolves with the same problems they have now, no Center. Griffin is not known as a great defender. I don’t see him as more than an average defender.
Damn. Pray for Rubio then. If not, we can settle for Thabeet which wouldn’t be so bad. Either way we need Rubio or a legit pg next year. I saw that Curry is ranked #9 on the new draftexpress mock draft. Anyone think that he will actually drop that far? I don’t think there is any way he gets picked outside the top 5. He’s legit, and it looks like he’s going to be able to play the point at the nba level with the amount of assists hes getting this year. I don’t watch too much college basketball. I just look at box scores so feel free to say if I’m dead wrong on these guys.
I guess Curry is ranked 5th now.
I don’t think Curry at the point in the NBA is a sure thing. His assists are in large part a function of the effort expended by the other team to get the ball out of his hands. I’m not convinced that means he can run an offense at the NBA level. I also think athleticism at the NBA level is also a concern. I would love to get him with one of our other gajillion picks in the first round, but if we’re picking in the top 5, I’m not buying it yet.
word is ricky rubio isn’t coming out until 2010 draft…
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2008-12-11-jennings-rubio_N.htm
Curry will probably be similar to Monta Ellis of the Warriors, who is a very good scoring PG/SG
Curry is shorter and less athletic than Ellis. It’s going to be a big challenge for Curry to play minutes at the 2 in the NBA.
If only we had a young quality point guard, like say, Mario Chalmers. Oh wait… we had him and traded him for draft picks.
Ugh.
I’m totally on board with all the McHale ripping, Whittman ripping and Taylor ripping. They’re all a bunch of boobs (especially McHale). BUT, it’s worth trying to have a positive outlook on things. The Wolves aren’t going to get notably better tomorrow, next week or next month. I agree with all the “the Wolves have sucked for 20 years” comments too, but that’s history. I’m not saying stop complaining completely (calling for changes certainly can’t hurt) BUT let’s not all be totally negative either. The team needs some fan support.
That’s all.
Actually, that’s not all…
I haven’t heard any propositions like this, but what’s the chances we could dump McCants for a decent center? Obviously we wouldn’t get an all star, but somebody big enough to cover center so Jefferson doesn’t have to and who’ll actually play some D, score a few points and get a few boards. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why Whittman had Collins starting at center for as long as he did, OTHER than the fact that it is nice to have Al at forward.
McCan’t has zero trade value, folks.
i think they should play love, jefferson, and smith across the front. they are all too short but wide and strong, that’s what we have. miller is a given and i guess foye although he lacks consistency. all of the shooters except miller lack consistency. mccants needs to go, he’s a shooter who can’t shoot.
Re: Love/Jefferson High-Low
Love is no threat in the High position. He’s not a 50% shooter from mid-range (yet) and has zero ability to fake and drive. If he sets up outside his defender can drop down to the paint with impunity because on the kick out the defender can rush back because Love will be grounded in place.
The simple fact is that as of now Love has no offensive game other than (non-blocked) put-backs and a not yet reliable mid-range shot. He can’t get his own shot, is not a threat that requires help and for all intents and purposes, you can’t run the offense through him. That’s why his scoring is low and the so-called great passer averages only +/-1 APG.
I didn’t see any mention of James Harden out of Arizona State. He’s a freshman, so it’s uncertain if he’ll enter the draft, but the guy is a stud. He’s averaging 23 ppg and is shooting 58% from the floor. Obviously we need a shooter.
“I agree with all the “the Wolves have sucked for 20 years” comments too”
I disagree. How many years did they have 50 wins or more. To me, a team that gets 50 wins or more doesn’t suck. I’m not saying they had the most exciting teams to watch, but they didn’t suck 20 the entire 20 years, come on.
Jeff - that was a big generalization. Obviously there have been some high points, but generally speaking they’ve been underachievers and made a lot of dumb moves. Read the rest of my post - the entire point is to say that we need to be more POSITIVE as fans.
Brutal stretch of losses. Anybody notice that Mike Miller had his first semi-aggressive game against Cleveland, a team that is rumored to be interested in a shooting guard?? I’m just saying…
atrain - My apologies. I must’ve misunderstood your post. Yes, we do need to be more positive as fans. I think that we were over achievers in some regards simply because of all the bums they surrounded KG with.
“Anybody notice that Mike Miller had his first semi-aggressive game against Cleveland, a team that is rumored to be interested in a shooting guard??”
He finally took some shots, but disappeared later in the game. Mike Miller is a tall dude. He should be able to shoot over most of the guards in the NBA even if they are right in front of him.
