Wilkins in, Hollins out with record streak at stake against Nuggets
Posted on November 29th, 2009 – 8:32 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
Tonight’s lineup shuffling — Damien Wilkins in, Ryan Hollins out — at Denver isn’t necessarily the change or changes Kurt Rambis has said he is contemplating.
Rather, it was made mostly for matchup considerations: Ryan Gomes started on Kenyon Martin. Rambis felt Wilkins’ experience would give him a fighting change against Carmelo Anthony.
Didn’t last long.
Anthony has 13 points already in the first quarter — and Nuggets lead 28-19 with a couple of minutes left — and Rambis soon switched Gomes over to try against Melo.
If the Wolves lose tonight, they tie the franchise record for longest losing streak at 16 games.
This has been a subject on sports-talk radio lately, but I’ll also throw it out here:
Who’s going to win more games this season: Vikings (including playoffs) or Wolves?
40 Responses to "Wilkins in, Hollins out with record streak at stake against Nuggets"
Vikes easily win more. Smith is listed at 6-6 and Ellington at 6-5. Someone is not telling the truth. Smith just housed Wayne for a lay up and looked like he was playing nerf ball vs little brother.
I was at a game on the floor before the game, thanks to a friend, and Ellington was taller than me and I am a little over 6′3, so Ellington is at least 6′4 but 6′5 seems close if not right on.
Tonight is a perfect example of why Brewer can’t play the 3. I know Carmelo is one of, if not the best 3 in the league, but the Wolves don’t even attempt to have Brewer guard him.
That first quarter had about as much D as an All Star game yuck.
The team is finally playing with some effort, Al and Flynn are playing hard, wonder if it will last
This is why Flynn has to keep starting, his confidence is increasing. I’m all for starting Sessions with Flynn, and then Brewer, Al and Love when he comes back. That starting 5 would be much better.
was that just a 12 point run FOR the wolves?
No it was a 14 point run.
my bad, I am just in shock, 21 - 5 in half a QTR to the wolves. CRAZY
Denver has Lakeritus, they let their guard down and thought they would coast tonight. We are keeping the run going with Al and Gomes on the bench too.
Gomes is upping his trade value, trade him tonight after the game, sell high
No matter how this ends, I love the effort on defense tonight, hustle plays are great to see even though they have been losing a lot. Ellington is playing hard too.
[…] On the Wolves » Blog Archive » Wilkins in, Hollins out with record streak at stake against Nuggets blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/wolves/2009/11/29/wilkins-in-hollins-out-with-record-streak-at-stake – view page – cached Tonight’s lineup shuffling — Damien Wilkins in, Ryan Hollins out — at Denver isn’t necessarily the change or changes Kurt Rambis has said he is […]
Brreeeeewwer and one ! 2:42 left ! Pull it off !
Wooooooooooooooooves!
Why did Rambis take that timeout with 51 seconds left. Now we only have 1 left.
I haven’t been this nervous during a Wolves game in a long time, I didn’t want them to blow it, they need a win badly.
Good game Wolves, that was a lot of fun to watch
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh ! 
Great game for Flynn, nice to win on the road against a legit team.
Wow! Congrats to the Wolves for beating the Nuggets in Denver.
Is it the best win since Garnett? I don’t think in the past two seasons we’ve beat Boston, LAL, Cleveland, Portland, Dallas, S.A., or Denver. I think we beat Phoenix on the road once and a couple times at home, Orlando on the road two seasons ago, New Orleans at home last year. I think this is the best team we have beaten since 2006. On the road no less and trailing by 19 points. Way to go Wolves! Way to go Rambis with the adjustments! Way to go Gomes for coming back from the dead! Way to bounce back from Friday’s debacle, way to show 110% effort.
win..
SWEET BLISS guys! Time for a little James Brown… I feel good… right now.
Celebrate good times!
Every win means more than it ever used to.
I will never take for granted a win again.
Wish we had Kevin Harlan here to announce in classic Harlan Fashion… WOLVES WIN! WOLVES WIN! 106-100
It doesn’t get much better than this right now.
Great game! I wasn’t expecting to see that kind of maturity this earlier…
Yeah, what’s with Gomes dropping 27?
Did Kahn tell him he needed to increase his trade value?
Imagine a pick and roll game with Jefferson and Flynn, i think that would look nice.
We’re comin’… We’re comin’… What were the wolves down by? 20-something? Hilarious that they beat Denver on the road. Way to go wolf-pack. Your welcome Portland!
Its nice to see Chauncey shoot 2-13 for once. And not in a T-wolves uniform.
Gomes played his best game of the season, Flynn tied a career high with 6 assists. 24 total assists for a team averaging 17.7. Great team effort, nice to see them hang in there and pull it out against a tough denver team, especially at home! Everyone needed to play big this game to win and they all did! Wolves win! Keep it going! It’s all about confidence!
People need to clarify that Gomes played his best offensive game of the year. Most of Melo’s points in the first came against Gomes. His defense still sucks!
That being said a win is a win! Nice to see some urgency out of the local team.
Well, WTF. This was the last game I expected us to win this week.
Having Wilkins on the floor helps. I have not understood why Rambis hasn’t been playing Wilkins more. They need a vet like him to help organize the youngsters, and he hustles and works.
For a few games Rambis wasn’t playing him at all, giving all of the minutes to Sasha, who has been horrible! Tonight Sasha didn’t play at all. Seems like a good move.
Very nice win. Lots of chances to fold, but they kept playing hard. It helps when Denver misses shots, but Wolves also were better cleaning up on the boards than they have been, too.
I think it’s noteworthy that, as Sessions mentioned in one of JZ’s Strib pieces, there hasn’t been a lot of booing at Target Center despite some very lopsided losses. And part of parcel with that, there’s this quote from Flynn in the AP report on tonight’s game: “We came into the locker room and celebrated like we won a championship,” Flynn said. “Everyone was hugging each other. It was hard going through this slide but with a great locker room and great coaching staff, it helped us through it.”
A cynic will read that and think about a culture of losing, that they are so happy to be 2-15; I see a team that’s sticking together and a fan base that understands what the progression will be.
All of which, I think, is a testament to Rambis’s ability to keep the focus on learning and not getting down on people, Randy Wittman-style. And it’s a testament to Kahn, for managing the expectations of the fan base this season. Smart fans understand this squad doesn’t have the talent, but they also see the foundation for future clubs might be here, developing before our eyes. But obviously you have to take baby steps; beating a good team on the road is an important one.
Memphis, Wednesday night. Another team with more talent than the Wolves, but maybe the Wolves can start to forge an identity and put a couple things together before Love comes back and we really see how and if these pieces really fit together long-term.
C-note Al is always mentioned as one of the best offensive bigs in the league, he is still recovering from a knee injury. Basing your comments on an Al at about 70-75% vs a healthy Bosh is why I think Al is just as good as Bosh.
As for opinions someone in a prior post suggested Kaman for Al straight up, this is why the trades proposed here crack me up.
Lastly, we are now 2-15 what worthwhile free agent is going to want to come to a team that isn’t winning? Juwan Howard didn’t want to play here why would Dwight or any of the other big names.
Sasha is a very frustrating player. He’s Wally-like in his desire to over-dribble in traffic, and damn, he’s a streaky shooter. Ordinarily I would opt for Sasha’s range over Wilkins’ overall game, but not if Sasha’s shooting 35% from the field and 28% from three. (I have to laugh, knowing that Pavlovic and Wally were actually on the same team for awhile in Cleveland. That had to be fun to watch when LeBron wasn’t on the floor.)
And maybe Wilkins is better than I thought as a glue guy and SG/SF stopper on the defensive end. Certainly hit some big shots tonight.
The Griz have more talent than the Wolves? Mayo and Gay aren’t that great I know all you guys are high on Gay but he plays less D then Pech (and that is saying something) Gasol is not very good these guys are getting # on a team that was way worse than the Wolves last year.
As for the Wolves D I don’t know what scheme they have been playing but unless its called Ole. They really need to work on communication and help defense in addition to occasionally trying to stay in front of their man.
Ed, they’ll make a deal for somebody; that’s how they’ll suck up the cap room. It won’t matter whether somebody wants to come here or not; what will matter is if they want to get paid.
I mean, Baron Davis signed with Clips, Joe Johnson with Hawks when they sucked, Al Jefferson signed here. Hedo Turkoglu signed with Toronto (and took the tax hit along with it!).
Gasol’s a quality player, Ed, and still quite young. Wolves would take him in a heartbeat to be their C. Mayo, Gay, Tinsley, Zach Randolph…yeah, Grizz have talent for sure, they just don’t fit well together.
Ed, Al looks fine to me, he is certainly playing at more than 75%. And Al at 100% is still not as good as Bosh, no one outside of MN would take Al over Bosh straight up. Kahn wants him gone, Bosh isn’t coming here but he is better than Al at everything except low post moves, but I’m not going down this road with all the homers here that will take Al over any big probably.
Marc Gasol is becoming a very good player, he is a Kaman type player for far less and not injury prone.
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