Wolves 129, Thunder 87
Posted on January 7th, 2009 – 7:06 PMBy Brian Stensaas
The numbers speak for themselves in this one, folks.
To review: 42 first-quarter points (one shy of a record), 72 first-half points (season high), 18 first quarter points for Randy Foye (six off a franchise record), four wins in a row (first time in more than two years).
Yes, your Wolves are rolling.
Someone asked Foye tonight if the hoop looks huge to him. I’d say at the moment, it’s like a hula hoop. Did you see some of those threes he was hitting? Not even a speck of rim. Heck, the net barely moved on some of them.
In blowouts like this - either way - there’s not a whole lot else to be said. Even coach Kevin McHale was not very talkative about the game itself tonight - and as someone pointed out recently, McHale usually talks in paragraphs 
It’s not that he’s being a grump. Think about it. Really, what more do you offer other than to say everything was clicking? I know, I know. Writers are paid to come up with stuff (not make it up, mind you). And, for the most part, we do. Ha.
Great fan reaction when Mark Madsen checked into the game and played the final 7 minutes. Man, what a cult following he has. This guy could knit a doily and someone around here would cheer it on. Oh to be that loved.
Rumor has it there is no practice tomorrow. But we’ll know for sure probably later tonight from the PR staff. If that’s the case, we’ll be dark here til a report from Friday’s warm-up for the game Saturday against the Bucks.
We’re about set for the tap here at Target Center. The Wolves are back home as one of the hottest teams in the league. Yup, at a whole three wins straight they get this moniker. Crazy.
Same lineup as last night.
Sorry this is so short, but it’s been a crazed day and I am just getting to this now.
Enjoy the game!
53 Responses to "Wolves 129, Thunder 87"
1st Quarter line for Foye:
18 points, 3 assists and 1 steal.
Solid!
This is Just Unreal…72 points in one half for the Wolves!
Four in a row baby!
4 in a row! count it!
Nice going, Wolves!
Good to see Foye play like that the last 2 nights.
It was such a blow out, even McCants got to play during mop-up time.
Madsen was on fire!
The Celtics have lost 6 of 8.
The Wolves have won 6 of 8.
McHale is enjoying this week with the Celts and Wolves reversing things for a moment.
That’s not to mention him feeling good about the Roy for Foye trade this week, too!
[…] On the Wolves – […]
Didn’t get to see the game tonight but good job Wolves but lets not get carried away, good wins but the combined records for the last 4 opponents is 41-103. Not exactly great competition.
Nice work Brian, love the enthusiasm, keep it up!
So our competition has been weaker recently, but you all have to realize that this is the NBA and bad teams beat up good teams regularly (Boston just lost to NY, Charlotte and Golden State). We’ve also done it on back-to-backs and on the road as well as home. Impressive streak so far, keep it up Wolfies!
Awesome game…3*’s…Foye,Love Telfair..
Someone knows better than I when Foye was moved to the 2. Anyway he had a decent December for scoring at 16.6 ppg, and it seems like toward the end of that month was when he found his confidence again. It is nice to see a second player step up and score. Congrats to Randy and wishes for continued success!
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?playerId=3003
Carney is a freak, and now if they can get him to be a little more patient and think before he acts. I am all about potential, and he looks a little ahead of where Gerald Green was last year.
Jerry - Is the writing on the wall with McCants. I do sure hope he is dealt. It would be great to see a piece on potential trades/moves the wolves would make.
Bradley Crowder of Austin, Texas, pleaded guilty this morning in federal court in Minneapolis to possession of a destructive device during the Republican National Convention last fall.
By James Walsh , Star Tribune
Last update: January 8, 2009 - 10:36 AM
Why can’t your readers comment on this story??????
Put them in the Iron Maiden! How’s that?
Rashad has talent but is uncoachable or just doesn’t care. He needs a wakeup call before it is too late. He reminds me more of a poor man’s JR Rider everyday. The only thing that he has to offer in trade is an expiring contract.
McHale didn’t say anything because OKC sucks. Don’t brag about shooting fish in a barrel.
And Bob, readers don’t comment on stories, they comment on blog postings.
Honestly, Mike Miller’s injury could be the best thing to happen to the Wolves this year. It forced McHale to move Foye to the 2 and he has been playing out of his mind since then. In the 10 games that Foye played primarily at the 2, his stat line is ridiculous: 20.7 PPG 50.7 FG% 50.0 3P%.
I really hope McHale keeps the starting lineup the same and lets Bassy and Randy continue to get minutes. I actually like Miller coming off the bench and giving the second unit some stability.
Jerry there’s no chance McHale’s going to stop playing Cardinal now is there?
I die a little each time he steps foot on the court. For a horrifying moment last night I thought he and Madsen were going to be on the floor at the same time.
Pffffffttttttt Cardinal rules. Whats not to like ?
Cardinal is a great role player! He needs a NEW cool nick name though… how about White Worm 2 (Bill Curley was named the original White Worm by Kevin Garnett) or Cardinal Brian? Sorry - those were pretty lame.
The Custodian isn’t cool enough for you ?
Wolves players’ nicknames have generally stunk. I only like a couple.
As for the question about dealing McCants, what in the world are you going to get for him? McHale seems to be finally admitting what Dwane Casey and Randy Wittman told him about the guy he drafted. Best bet, I would guess now, unless they throw him into a deal to make contracts work is just let his contract expire next summer without renewing him. He’s got talent, for sure, but I don’t know what, if any, value he has.
Hi Jerry,
Do you have any guesses about why Miller is struggling so much and whether the Wolves will look to trade him before his value drops too much? I realize he has ankle trouble right now, but he’s had trouble all year. Looks like he is not fitting in as well as planned.
Shawn - Miller isn’t a shot jacker. While his PPG is down from his career numers his FG%, RPG & APG are up.
Miller needs to be more aggressive in looking for his shot. He’s passing up plenty of good-enough looks. Only Kevin Ollie and Brian Cardinal shoot less frequently than Miller on this team, and that’s just wrong.
Miller taking a sub-optimal shot is better for this team than a lot of other players on this team getting a free look.
“Cardinal is a great role player! He needs a NEW cool nick name though”
His role being an expiring contract.
Brian can go by Boilerroom(attended Purdue)
The Pope from Purdue? Sacrilelgious??
Expiring Contract might be Jason Collins nick name (or Mr. DNP - oh that’s Marko Jaric’s NN) - at least for this year. Cardinal is back next year for his last year of the contract - unless the Wolves use it to make a trade for a high salary / high profile player.
Good one Wow! It seems like yesterday when you were blogging from Vegas. Say - how does Kevin Love look compared to Summer League play?
Miller, when he has played the last five weeks, has played on an ankle he probably shouldn’t be playing on. I’m guessing he will struggle with it at least through the All-Star break. If it were me, I’d sit him until he’s completely healthy, but they’ve got him out there less than 100 percent. If he was healthy, it’d be interesting to see how he’d fit into this “new” Wolves team because he won’t be and might not need to be their second shot option. He just way more often than not seems to make the right play.
Ditto with OJ Mayo? He look a lot better or about the same?
Did you guys see the NBA.com report about how Portland is blackballing Darius Miles, so that they don’t take the salary cap hit. They declared him medically unable to play and took his $9 million/yr salary off their cap this year and next year. But, if he plays in 10 games this year, Portland will take the hit back on their cap and pay the luxury tax and maybe take the hit for next year, too and not be able to sign free agents. He played in 6 exhibition games (sounds like they count toward the 10) with Boston and 2 regular season games with Memphis, but then got cut so they wouldn’t have to guarantee his contract for the full year. Now, he’s looking for a job. But, Portland is threatening to sue any team and GM (individual lawsuit) that picks him up. How is that legal ? If he has been playing, he seems medically able to play. How can they deny him the ability to play in the NBA if he is able to play ? I would think that he could sue Portland for trying to deny him a spot on a team. Bunch of crybabies in Portland ! Take the cap hit like a man !
I don’t think there’s anything Portland can do to prvent the cap hit. However, Portland wasn’t trying to do anything wrong when they had Miles declared medically ineligible — the league has a doctor do their own examination to confirm the diagnosis (just as the Wolves did for Terrell Brandon back in the day) — so I can see how they are sore about the situation.
Khloe Kardashian…..is the reason McCants is struggling so bad. He needs to get his priorities straight if he plans to stay in the league, or is he tanking it to get to the coast…
Isn’t now the perfect time to see what you can get in trade for Randy Foye? I’m not saying you give him away but his value has to be higher now. What would it take to trade him?
Jama - Why in the world would you want to trade Foye ?
Do you really think Randy Foye is a starting two-guard on an elite team?
Depends on what elite team we’re talking about.
I don’t think Foye is a starting two-guard on an elite team now. But, I think if someone told you three years ago that David West and some guy named Montae Ellis were going to do what they did last year, you’d say “who the heck are they?”
The Wolves are going to end up letting McCants go and for the next decade we’re going to be hearing from Sid about how awesome he is in leading his team to championship after championship in The Mongolian D League.
You can always point to the exceptions, and say “Aha! Anything can happen!”.
But the reality is that the number of guys who have been big-time players at the shooting guard spot who have been Randy Foye’s size is pretty small.
Is Foye the exception? I don’t know that I’ve seen enough from him at this point his career to believe that’s the case.
I’m not saying the Wolves should definitely trade him, but I don’t think the Wolves should shut the door on moving him. Given the draft picks and expiring deals the Wolves have, they shouldn’t be afraid to possibly move Foye in a package with those other assets if the right kind of player(s) can be had in return.
Sean - What ? There aren’t a lot of big time SG’s who were roughly 6′4 & 215 lbs ? What !?
Good point Sean. I do see the logic in that, but at the same time the league’s two guards are beginning to shrink too … A two in Foye’s stature is not as rare as it used to be. Randy is listed at 6′4. Here are the other 6′4 and under starting shooting guards.
Memphis - 6′4 OJ Mayo
Philly - 6′3 Willie Green
Clippers - 6′3 Eric Gordon
Cleveland - 6′3 Delonte West
Chicago - 6′3 Ben Gordon
Miami - 6′4 Dwayne Wade
Detroit - 6′0 Allen Iverson
Golden State - 6′3 Monta Ellis
Wade ! Dumars ! Baylor ! And thats just off the top of my head…I bet I could think of a ton of quality 6′4′ 215 pound SGs given the time…hell Jordan was only 6′6 220.
So, let’s look at that list. Iverson, Wade and Ellis are far more athletic than Foye is. They also play a distinctly different style — they are far more scorers than shooters. Randy Foye doesn’t get to the line the way those guys do. Even Ben Gordon gets to the line more than Foye does.
The rest of the list is filled with guys who are largely forgettable. If Foye’s comparable to Delonte West or Willie Green, who cares?
Mayo looks like he’s going to be an exception, and it’s too early to tell on Eric Gordon.
Swan — Two inches is a lot in the NBA. Imagine Kevin Love or Craig Smith if they were two inches taller … it would make a huge difference.
Id doesn’t matter if Foye is comparable in height to a lot of other shooting guards, because the bottom line is the best are all a lot bigger, and that’s a problem defensively.
I use Kobe as a benchmark for 2 guard size because he’s about in the middle…6′6″, around 200-210 lbs. Some are smaller, like Wade at 6′4″, some are bigger, like Joe Johnson at 6′7″ or TMac at 6′8″. And it’s one thing to have Foye chasing Ben Gordon around, but would we really want him out there guarding Kobe or McGrady? Even of all the guys on that list, Wade is the only one I’d even consider having guard Bryant and that’s only because he has the explosiveness to drop out of the sky on command, which Foye clearly doesn’t.
There’s a lot of players Foye can guard as a 2 guard because, let’s be honest, there are few 6′7″ guards with Kobe’s abilities. But ideally, you definitely want someone in the 6′6″-6′7″ range at the 2 spot.
CAMBY OR KAMON….who would be a better fit on the wolves ? ….I vote for Camby, an athletic big….It looks like either could be obtained prior to the draft deadline.
Neither are the answer thou….I’m still holding out for Dwight Howard
Sam Dalambert or Pryzbilla could get them for little and they both don’t need shots and play good defense and rebound and block shots. Either would be good fits with Jefferson and Gomes up front.
I’d love to see Pryzbilla on the team….
