Again: I'm very happy to see the team ending the season on a winning note. However, for a second there right before the 1/2 I thought that they had found a new way to utilize Mark Madsen's amazing tanking abilities: the little-known you-can't-come-off-the-bench-with-your-shirt-untucked technical. At that point in the contest I started to prepare myself for a 4th quarter full of an unkempt Madsen making his way off the bench for 30 second increments, possibly jacking up a few 3s in the process.

Last night's game was the 3rd statistical oddity in a row. Here's how the 2 teams stacked up in the 4 Factors:

The Wolves::

• FG% (eFG): 51%
• TO: 13
• Offensive (and total) rebounds: 24-62
• FT: 11-16

The Grizz:

• FG% (eFG): 44%
• TO: 7
• Offensive (and total) rebounds: 17-45
• FT: 26-43

While I'm clearly not part of the "tank it" crowd, and I love to see the team do well and win, if anything is to be taken from last night's victory in Orlando, it is that we may have to change the name of the team to the Blind Minnesota Timberquirrels.

Last night, the team with the worst free throw shooting discrepancy, fewest FTMs, 2nd worst FTAs, 8th worst 3pFG%, 6th worst 3pFGM, and 6th worst 3pFGA went 17-20 (85%) from the line and 9-16 (56.3%) from beyond the arc.

Actually, I shouldn't get too caught up on the attempt side of things. The Wolves pretty much hit their attempt averages for both FTs and 3pFGs. What they did do was increase their makes by nearly 4 beyond the arc and by nearly 2 at the line. All in all, good shooting brought about 14 additional points with essentially the same number of total shots.

Since I just can't get over the anomaly that was last night's Bobcats game, here's some more food for thought:

Charlotte beat the Wolves despite attempting nearly 30 fewer shots than Minnesota. They also had 3 players with at least 8 shots shoot over 70% from the floor (unadjusted for TS or eFG). Their worst shooters were Raymond Felton and Earl Boykins...who each had an eFG of 50%. Their highest volume shooter (Jason Richardson) had an eFG of 64% on 21 shots. If you add in his free throws (9-12) he had a TS% of just over 68%.

Insanity.

That is all.

We here at Canis Hoopus almost had to create a new word for last night's game:

Main Entry: Bucknered

Function:
verb
Date:
2008
transitive verb

1 a: to lose a game due to the performance of a little-used bench player. Example: the Wolves moved down the ping pong ball scale when they were bucknered

Thankfully, Greg Buckner's +17 in 21 minutes, 13 points, 4 rebounds, and amazing 72% eFG weren't up to Antoine Walker's 28 minutes, 19.6ppg, and 52% 3FG stat line that pushed the Wolves to 3 of their 4 pre-2008 victories. Say what you will about playing hard and making this thing work for the future, but it would have been a headache-and-a-half had a guy who has been a healthy scratch since March 4th done anything on the court to lessen the team's chances in the upcomming lottery.

It wasn't the free throws that did them in folks. Kansas shot 52.7% from the field compared to Memphis' 40.3. They also outrebounded the Tigers by a margin of 37-27. Memphis made 12-19 free throws compared to Kansas' 14-15. Memphis lost because they were outgunned by 12.4% from the field and they were outrebounded by a wide margin.