Houston Rockets, 17-9
SRS: 3.23 (8th of 30) â–ª Pace Factor: 90.4 (22nd of 30) â–ª Offensive Rating: 107.6 (11th of 30) â–ª Defensive Rating: 103.2 (5th of 30)
Minnesota Timberwolves, 4-21
SRS: -7.44 (28th of 30) â–ª Pace Factor: 91.4 (18th of 30) â–ª Offensive Rating: 101.7 (28th of 30) â–ª Defensive Rating: 110.1 (25th of 30)
<SBG> The Timberwolves have now played 25 games and have the exact same record as last year's club after 25 games. You may recall that last year's club got off to an absolutely terrible start as they waited for second year guard Randy Foye to recover from a knee injury. They actually did win game #25, but then proceeded to drop 13 of their next 14 games before finishing 17-26. It's hard to envision even this club falling to say, 5-34, if for no other reason that there are a lot of pretty crummy teams in the West this year. But, I thought I'd compare this year's club with last year's club a little bit.
| FG% | OPP FG% | 3PT FG% | 3PT OPP FG% | FT % | OPP FT% | TS% | OPP TS% | |
| 2007-08 | 0.441 | 0.460 | 0.345 | 0.361 | 0.731 | 0.783 | 0.510 | 0.557 |
| 2008-09 | 0.426 | 0.473 | 0.310 | 0.385 | 0.763 | 0.761 | 0.500 | 0.559 |
| Change | -0.016 | 0.013 | -0.035 | 0.024 | 0.032 | -0.022 | -0.010 | 0.002 |
| AST | OPP AST | STL | OPP STL | TOV | OPP TOV | PTS/48 | OPP PTS/48 | |
| 2007-08 | 476 | 559 | 183 | 204 | 386 | 337 | 94.3 | 101.7 |
| 2008-09 | 524 | 524 | 149 | 169 | 355 | 333 | 93.0 | 100.7 |
| Change | 48 | -35 | -34 | -35 | -31 | -4 | -1.243 | -1.019 |
Read 'em and weep. The Wolves are shooting slightly worse than last year (and are the worst shooting team in the league) while allowing their opponents to shoot slightly better than last year (and the Wolves opponents, collectively have shot like the fifth best team in the league). They are doing a little better handling the ball, but in the end, the scoring margin this year is actually greater through 25 games than it was last year. (Oy!) And with no Randy Foye coming back to give this club a shot in the arm, one would expect that the Wolves, while probably not continuing to keep pace with the terrible first half of last year, don't look to have the improved second half, either. The result is that they look like a team that will struggle to get to 20 wins (in fact, their scoring margin projects to just under 20 wins). Ugly.
No Timberwolves coach has ever started a stint 0-7. Both Bill Blair and Kevin McHale v2.0 have started 0-6. It looks like the former greatest GM in all of sports has a pretty good chance at setting a club record tonight. </SBG>
I was gonna pipe in earlier and write something about draft picks. But the system kept telling me that SBG was editing this post and I didn't want to screw it up. It doesn't really look like he's changed much of anything, but I guess it's too late now. Next time though, I will write something that blows your mind!!!
Sorry about that.
I should add that a big reason for the Wolves failure this season has been their shooting. In fact, it seems as though they're really doing pretty well in every other aspect of the game. But when your opponent outshoots you by 5%, that's a tough margin to overcome. If you're taking 70 shots per game, that averages out to about 7 points you're spotting your opponent. And when you look at it, that's almost exactly the margin that the Wolves are down.
The shooting difference is enormous. But, it's not just bad shooting. The other teams are shooting like an elite team. So, bad defense and bad shooting.
Right, it would be pretty tough to assemble a team that shoots over 47% from the field, although it should be easy to assemble a team that shoots better than this one. Better defense and defensive schemes would probably help a lot too. Basically, the Wolves need to improve on both ends of the court, which is no news to anybody who has watched this team at all this season.
So, bad defense and bad shooting.
Other than that, they're really doing pretty well in every other aspect of the game. :)
Maybe Witt was a genius coach. These guys look clueless right now. The personnel on this squad is awful. Simply awful.
You can polish a turd, and you can polish a turd, and you can keep polishing that turd, like, forever. In the end, it's still just a turd...
And yet, it was still kind of sweet when the Mythbusters polished those turds.
They both stinketh.
Jim Pete -- The Wolves could easily have 7 or 8 more wins. Crack kills, Pete!
Just wait for them to get that 7 game stretch against the shock, sparks, storm, mystics, liberty, stars and lynx. Then they'll get their 7 in a row.
BAJ really does have nice footwork.
OVERBECK!???
Mad Dog sighting in the third quarter!
I've seen better ball movement at the YMCA...
Shoddy workmanship. Yes we McCan't,
Man, Mad Dog misses two free throws -- and remains scoreless for the season.
BAJ with a very good effort tonight.
BAJ has been great, but the Wolves don't play defense.
Game over. McHale sets a club record for consecutive losses to start a coaching stint. At least it wasn't an embarrassing blowout.
Always nice to see an old friend set a record.
Under 7 minutes for Love, 2.5 fewer than Mad Dog. Ouch.
Good to see that we are building for the future.
It never dawned on me that Love wasn't playing, but yeah, I don't even remember him being out there.