Two out of three, ain’t bad: Wolves win 108-98 in overtime
Posted on December 30th, 2008 – 12:56 AMBy Jerry Zgoda
O.J. Mayo, the former Timberwolf for about four hours, came to town Monday night for the first time and played at Target Center, a place that someone earlier in the day reminded him could have been all his.
“Could have been,” he said with a smile.
Instead, he arrived with the young, promising Memphis Grizzlies on a night when Al Jefferson and Kevin Love finally played together for the entire fourth quarter and all but the final 10 seconds of overtime and the Wolves prevailed because of Jefferson’s 38-point, 16-rebound night and Love’s most energetic performance (and 17 points and seven rebounds) in weeks.
Until tonight, Love had scored just 21 points in his last eight games. Tonight, Kevin McHale actually called a couple of plays for Love, who issued a challenge to Mayo by scoring consecutive baskets that Mayo answered by scoring seven Memphis points.
Ultimately, Jefferson was too much for a Memphis team that is 8-8 at home but 2-13 on the road. Jefferson scored 19 points in the fourth quarter and overtime and he scored as many by himself as the Grizzlies did in that 19-9 overtime.
“Al Jefferson is pretty tough for our rookies to handle,” said Memphis coach Mike Iavaroni, who starts three of them.
The Wolves now are 6-24 and have won two of three since Friday’s victory at New York.
A couple other tidbits:
– Craig Smith matched a career high for assists with five, and had all of them by the end of the first quarter.
– The Wolves somehow won despite setting a franchise record for fewest field goals in a quarter with just one, in a second quarter when they shot 1 for 16.
“Well, we sent basketball back to about 1952 in that second quarter,” said Wolves coach Kevin McHale, whose team was outscored 20-8 in the quarter. “That was just terrible.”
– The Wolves also made just one 1 of 15 three-point shots after going 21 for 37 in their previous two games. Brian Cardinal missed three of them in just six minutes in the second quarter alone. Think that was the game plan going in?’
– The Wolves flew to Dallas after tonight’s game and play the Mavs there tomorrow night.
22 Responses to "Two out of three, ain’t bad: Wolves win 108-98 in overtime"
Was at the game (sitting practically courtside no less). Here’s my take.
OJ Mayo is the real deal. I was half right and half wrong about him. I was right that he’s not incredibly athletic, quick, or strong, and doesn’t draw fouls well. I was wrong in that that would matter, because it clearly doesn’t matter. It’s painfully ironic to say it, but he’s a lot like Brandon Roy…his game is so under control and mature and he has a knack for getting his shot off against seemingly impossible odds. And he’s a damn good defender too. I checked the stats before the game…he’s shooting 45% for the season, including over 40% from three. We did beat the Grizz and Mayo airballed his last shot attempt, but it was definitely not him who cost them the game.
The one thing Mayo is VERY quick with is his shot release. Not just on his jumper, but everything. There were several plays where he was dribbling dribbling dribbling and suddenly the ball is at the bottom of the hoop and you barely saw him even raise his arms.
As for Warrick and Conley, since I’ve been hawking a trade for them, they’d definitely help us. Warrick had a bad night shooting, but he was all over the place on defense and pretty much leapt over Kevin Love a couple times for rebounds. Conley is lightning quick and creative. His game is badly hurt by Memphis’ rotation…Ivaroni never played him for more than 4-5 minutes at a time. No way to get a rhythm going like that. I’m sold that both would be huge assets for us if we traded for them.
They also clearly missed Milicic. Gasol and Arthur both looked very much like rookies trying to guard Al. Marc is pretty skilled and tough, but not as strong as his size would suggest.
On our end, Al played a masterful game. Not just the scoring, but the passing and defense were going for him tonight. He was especially good at seeing the double teams and getting the ball out. He definitely knows how to pass out of the post, it’s just a matter of him making a decision of what to do fast enough. When he waits for the defense to get to him before going, that’s when he gets into trouble.
On a downside for us, we are definitely the slowest team in the league. Not just the least athletic, but just literally the slowest. Our bigs plod baseline-to-baseline, and most of our guards (basically everyone except Bassy) got outrun too. Especially telling was how we could never turn the corner on offense and could never keep guys in front of us on defense.
But a great win. For once we finish strong. Love had a good game, he was definitely aware of the matchup with Mayo, even if he didn’t talk about it.
Also, Jerry, is there any indication Taylor might fire McHale before the end of the season? I can’t imagine he’d want to fire two head coaches in one year, but at the same time, it’s pretty clear we’re not going to hit the 35 win mark or whatever it was McHale said we’d make. But what are the stipulations here for McHale to stay on? Just get better or are there specific things that need to happen?
[…] On the Wolves – […]
I had always wished the ticket would have developed that baby hook that Love hit twice last night
The Wolves ACTUALLY ran plays for Love. I wonder why it took this long to get him 3 or 4 set plays to go his way? Hard to consistently score when you are just playing the Michael Cage role.
One thing is clear. When Mayo or Roy have good games, you really hear it from Wolves fans, but when Al Jefferson or Randy Foye do, you don’t hear it so much. Don’t get me wrong, Roy is a better player than Foye, but it will be harder for Foye to put up mongo numbers because he is not the focal point of his team (now ditto with Love), Al is. That’s why his 26 and 16 game the other day really impressed me, but fans were pretty “ho-hum” in their reaction.
In Portland, Roy is unquestionably the highest man in the pecking order. Again - I’m not saying we DID NOT give away the better players on draft day, but I wouldn’t classify either Foye or Love as busts. If you want to see busts - look at Charles Rogers and Mike Williams, formerly of the Detroit Lions.
Eight points in a quarter of a professional basketball game…..
Nice decision on Mayo.
Kev, be sure to win just enough to screw yourself, once again. What a gem we have in McHale, and the whole franchise.
Keep it up and you could win 15 games. That will surely bring in the fans.
Taylor,
Do this great state a favor, and move this fecal matter of a team.
Lets send out copies of the Knicks game to the rest of the NBA. Sell “ha ha” hi! McCants never looked better - maybe we could get a 2nd round pick in 2055 for him. McCants is awful!
Why exactly is Brian Cardinal getting minutes? Is he being showcased?
jama,
Let me help with your question. Cardinal is playing because he’s currently coached by Kevin McHale. Kevin McHale is a moron.
Does that help?
Bryan,
That noise you hear is crickets chirping. Get a clue you fool.
I may not have scored consistently on the court, but let me tell you, the ladies love the curly hair.
Al Jefferson will get more credit when his games with big numbers begin translating more frequently into victories.
Randy Foye’s not going to get credit because he’s far less of a player than Brandon Roy. It tells you much that Randy Foye can’t stand out on a team that isn’t very talented while Brandon Roy is the man on a team with a lot of talent.
It’s the same for Love and Mayo. Mayo is the main guy on a bad team, Love is a bench player on a bad team. With Mike Miller MIA (even before he was hurt), the Wolves are losing this trade at the moment.
Michael Cage, you were ahead of your time as a short 6′9″ C and a little underated.
P.A. said that his “sources” tell him that McHale has a 2 year deal as coach, but that he will not see the second year and Flip will coach here again next year.
P.A’s inside “sources” are about as accurate as Sid’s.
If they bring back Flip I will officially end all support of this franchise.
Mayo is already a go to guy and we run 3 or 4 plays in a total game for Love, hmmm? We are going to win just enough and not get the most ping pong balls.
Showcasing Cardinal would be pointless. His contract is too big for his worth, no one will trade for him until 2010. Playing him is McHale’s way of saying he knows his job is on the line and he wants to play the guys he thinks will give the team the best chance to win. Which is stupid in this case since Carney is a better player anyway.
Also stupid was not picking up the option on Carney’s contract. I don’t know why McHale thought he could resign the kid for less this summer. I’m convinced that even though McHale barely ever plays him, Carney will command at least what his option was worth, if not more this summer.
As for Flip, I won’t even guess what the future between him and the Wolves will be. But I am convinced that McHale will be gone at the end of the season, so we’ll have to find someone.
Hey El Douchbag,
What exactly would be the point of moving the team? So we can enjoy watching the NBA from afar, ala Seattle? What is your point, man? You don’t like the NBA, go buy a season ticket to the Lynx games. I hear the price is good, and you can even peek under their shorts during timeouts.
Bryan
Showcasing Cardinal was a joke, I thought obvious but I guess not.
I was watching the UConn-Georgetown game last night to get a look at Hasheem Thabeet and see how he would perform in a big game and I gotta say I was really disappointed in what I saw from him.
Not only did he look completely lost on offense but he appeared to be about as athletic as Brian Cardinal or Kevin Love. I knew he wouldn’t quite be “NBA” ready after this year but I didn’t think he would be this big of a project.
On offense he is only effective through strong creative guard play or off of second chance points. He has very poor post up skills and seems to get lost and drift around the court about every third possession. His help defense is very good (he had 7 blocks) and he is definitely a presence in the middle. The main problem is that he can’t guard anyone more than 10 feet from the rim b/c of his lack of athleticism.
He would definitely be an improvement for our defense but I’m not sure how long we would have to work with him to get any sort of offensive contribution from him. I like the idea of having a real shot blocker but as alot of people have mentioned, we need to get more athletic and Thabeet is definitely not that.
Well they blew a 29 pt lead. My god, that is almost Viking-like. It wouldn’t surprise me if McHale is fired tonight. Seriously, this is disgusting.
ryan - don’t bring the vikes into this. stupid comment and not really even that funny. try a little harder next time. blow a 29pt lead in the 2nd half?!?! it is because the wolves franchise has no pride in what they do. glen taylor you are pathetic and have no pride and make retarded decisions year in and year out. kevin mchale you are pathetic and don’t need to say much more than that. finally, wolves players - you are pathetic. don’t have pride and refuse to play defense. take a look in the mirror guys!
This has to be the most embarrassing thing to happen to McHale yet. Beat by the guy he fired after building a 29 point lead. I can only hope Ryan is right and he’ll be fired tonight.
