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.

Unfortunately for Wolves radio play-by-play analyst Alan Horton and fortunately for us, the flu bug took down the radio broadcast for a night and the increasingly-homerish TV crew of Jim Peterson and Tom Hanneman were complimented by the always-entertaining and informative Billy McKinnie. While Jim Pete obviously wasn't too sure about sharing the color-analyst spotlight with another man who probably knows just as much as (if not more than) he, it unfortunately didn't have as big of an effect as I hoped as the J-Pete/Hanny Homer Circus continued on its merry way for the better part of the broadcast.

If there is one team in the NBA that is absolutely, 100%, totally geared to beat our Beloved Puppies, it is the Toronto Raptors. We’ve all heard the sound bite about how no Wolves team has ever beat a Sam Mitchell-led squad and there are many reasons for this fact: what they lack for in rebounding, the Raptors make it up in FG% (46.5), 3FG% (42.2), and a defense that is capable of holding opponents below 80 points. They are long, athletic, pass well, and they can make the outside shot.

Not only were the Wolves going up against their NBA anti-matter, but also they were on the road in the Eastern Conference, where they have gone 1-9 over the first 50+ games of the season.

Despite all of these things working against them, the Wolves opened the game on a tear, shooting over 60% from the field in the 1st quarter while moving the ball with efficiency and crispness. They played about as well as they could in the 1st and they went to the 1st break leading by only 2 points. The Wolves held out a bit more in the 2nd, entering the 1/2 shooting 59% from the floor but trailing by an even larger margin. Things continued to spiral in the 3rd, with the Wolves finding themselves down 82-64 with a minute to go in the quarter. Granted, they didn’t move the ball well after the half and their shots stopped finding the bottom of the net, but the Wolves gave it their best shot in the 1st, a decent shot in the 2nd, but they still found themselves getting run out of the gym in the 3rd by a team that may as well been hand-crafted with beating the Wovles in mind.

Without getting too hung up on the Wolves, let me take a moment to sing the praises of the Toronto Raptors. With TJ Ford back in action, the Raptors have 2 legit top-10 points; both of whom shoot well, are able to penetrate, and don’t turn the ball over. Despite getting wrongly dissed by Gilbert Arenas, Jose Calderon is averaging 16 pts/40 minutes with a 22.63 PER while posting a league leading 13.0 PPR. His point-buddy Ford is 4th in the league in PPR (9.8) while averaging 20.5 pts/40 minutes with a 21.40 PER. As if two All Star caliber guards wasn’t enough, the Raptors also have a legit top-10 player in Chris Bosh, a sweet-shooting big man who can work inside-out while shooting an eFG% of 50%, scoring 25.1 pts/40 minutes with a whopping 25.30 PER. They round out their main rotation with struggling but talented sophomore Andrea Bargnani, sharp shooting Jason Kapono, former Wolves big Rasho Nesterovic and…well, let’s just say they have a few guys who know their role and can play well around the big stars on the squad. Former Gopher Kris Humphries is noticeably absent from the action. In fact, the original Gopher (black) Hole is averaging about 10 minutes/game over his last 10. Just for curiosity’s sake, I’d like to see the passing skills of a Big Al, Rhino, Humphries front line in action.

As for the home team, the Wolves started the game on a shooting tear. They had good ball movement from the get go, starting the game on a nice rotation with Corey Brewer dishing to Ryan Gomes for the bucket. Even poor-shooting Randy Foye got in on the action; putting up a perfect shooting line in the 1st 1/2 of the game.

Speaking of Foye, the form on his catch-and-shoot is superior to the number his low shooting percentage indicates. He is jumping straight up and down with a high release point and a perfect grip on the ball. He’s also beginning to pick up some speed as well as showing some ability to operate above and beyond a simple “drive right, drive right, drive right” mentality. He’s still showing some awkwardness on the pick and roll and it’s quite clear that he’s never going to be the lead guard in an NBA offense, but he’s showing improvement over the past 2 games and that is a good thing. As much as I dislike his selection in the 2006 draft, this has nothing to do with him personally and I hope he succeeds in a Wolves uniform, as we obviously can’t go back in time anymore than will the front office deal the guy who was selected in place of Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay. I think he can be a solid player in the NBA and my distaste for what he brings to the table has more to do with my distaste for the front office picking him instead of a big 2 or a legit 3.

As for the rest of the game, Tom Hanneman and Jim Peterson have been damn-near unlistenable in the past 2-3 games. From the Big Al-is-on-his-way-to-the-Hall-of-Fame inferences to the developing Randy-Foye-equals-Chauncey-Billups meme, J-Pete and Hanny have been especially homerish of late. Perhaps it has to do with the commercial free 1/2 time, post game shows and a lack of good material, but it is becoming more and more annoying and noticeable. At various points of tonight’s game, I turned on the radio to hear Billy McKinney and Alan Horton…both of whom are proving to be vastly superior to the TV crew…and this is coming from a guy who used to really like the TV guys.

Since when did Craig Smith start thinking he could dribble like the Professor? Someone needs to tell him to take a few moments to calm down and leave the handles for the guards.

Finally, getting down to brass tacks, the Wolves lost tonight because they played a team that is 100% built to beat them. While they had a higher FG% than the Raptors, they were outdone at the line (24-29) to (13-16), they were outrebounded, and they were massively out-turnovered (7-20). While it is encouraging that the team had another 50% game at the line, they continue to get absolutely annihilated at the charity stripe. The Wolves continue to be the worst free-throw shooting team in the league, losing 6.5 points/game without putting up a fight.

Well folks, that’s about it. The Wolves are just about done with a tough February before entering an even tougher March. Until later.

What a day for the home team.

First off, the Wolves pulled a Darryl Dawkins and sent Gerald Green's shoes a'packin' to Houston for the slightly larger expiring contract of Kirk Snyder and a 2nd round pick in 2010. Ho-um. Secondly, The Wolves held on to the expiring contract of Theo Ratliff, apparently in an attempt to see how Al Jefferson would play with a shot-blocker:

"If you say it fits beautifully, then it becomes a major, major priority," said Kevin McHale, Wolves vice president of basketball operations. "If you decide it's not a monumental change, then you say, 'OK, there are a lot of teams who are very successful who don't have that shot-blocker in the middle.' It's going to be a chance for us to see what impact that particular type of player has on our team."

Ah yes, because when it comes down to it, most teams don't really know if it's a major priority to have a big guy who can play defense opposite of a defensively-challenged power forward. Your Minnesota Timberwolves front office, ladies and gentlemen: where nonsense happens.

Compounding the day's lack of $11 million expiring contracts being moved, the Bulls made one of the most curious trades in recent memory: sending Ben Wallace and Joe Smith to the Cavs for Larry Hugues and Drew Gooden (and filler). Really? That was the price for Big Ben? The worst contract in the league for the second worst one and Drew frickin' Gooden? Wow. Did the Bulls get as much back from the Cavs as they could have received from the Wolves for Theo Ratliff, Rashad McCants, Craig Smith, and a 2009 1st rounder for Big Ben and Joakim Noah? Did the Wolves even attempt to make a call to work out a deal that could have included anyone from Andres Nocioni to Chris Duhon? Who knows? What I do know is that Chicago handed away Wallace for absolute garbage. They hated the guy and wanted him gone. The Wolves could have offered a better package in an attempt to get exactly the type of player they need on the squad: a hustling, rebounding, interior passing big man who doesn't need to have plays run for him to be effective. You know, Joakim Noah.

Back to the action.

The Wolves have played 2 solid, entertaining, and worthwhile games in a row by passing (51 assists), rebounding (79), not turning the ball over a ton (27), and shooting 50% (81-162) from the floor. What did our Beloved Puppies in with San Antonio? (22-26) vs. (12-17) from the line. That's it. The Wolves outshot the Spurs, tied them in turnovers, were slightly out-rebounded, and absolutely destroyed at the line. Outside of Big Al and Shaddy, this team has nobody who can get to the line on a regular basis. Earlier in the year I wrote about the possibility of Randy Foye getting 3-4 additional FTA/game but he hasn't yet shown the ability to get to the stripe like he did in his rookie season. Free throws, free throws, free throws. It's killed them all year long.

Speaking of Foye, it's officially time to retire the Fourth Quarter Foye nonsense. When it comes to getting r' done in the last period, Randy is not the droid you are looking for. I realize that this little moniker came about in the era of KG's 4th quarter struggles, but it's time to hand over the big-time shots and expectations to Big Al. Foye spent the 4th quarter against the Spurs getting torched by a real 4th quarter threat: Manu Ginobili. Take a look at Manu's clutch stats at 82Games. Now take a look at Foye's 2006-07 clutch numbers. No. Comparison.

On last 2 Wolves possessions, instead of having Sebastian Telfair bring the ball up the court and enter it into Big Al (which had been a solid combo all night long), 4th Quarter Foye dribbled into impossible shots and either missed a wide-open pass on the pick-and-roll or was forced to kick it out to the poor-shooting Bassy. Had the right player had the ball in his hands, I feel quite confident in saying that Bassy would have either converted the pick-and-roll or...get this...kicked it back out to Foye for the potential game winning three pointer. Instead, Randy Wittman allowed the team's final 2 offensive possession to be dictated more by the marketing department than by actual conditions on the court.

Oh well, at least he didn't run out a Brewer, Gomes, Bassy, Jaric, Big Al lineup when a 3 pointer was needed.

All-in-all, it was a frustrating day for being a Wolves fan. They had San Antonio beat and they lost because they stopped doing what kept them in the game in the first place: good ball movement combined with Big Al's offense. They got rid of Gerald Green but failed to move their biggest asset while teams like Chicago clearly showed that Theo's contract had some return value. All I can hope for is that the team starts to learn from their mistakes. Bassy should be the point from start to finish and Foye should be the one waiting out on the 3 point line for the kickout. The front office should...well, I'll start taking Finewein's advice: I'm not going to get worked up about that anymore as it's never, ever going to make any sense.

Ouch.

This one pretty much laid bare the two gigantic problems the Wolves have (above and beyond the little ones): free throw disparity and perimeter shooting. The Lakers went 20-25 from the charity stripe, led by Kobe Bryant's 13-13 effort. The Wolves...well, they went 10-13. The Wolves also went 6-19 from distance while clanking all sorts of 12-15 foot jumpers off every square inch of the rim. You simply cannot shoot 40% from the floor and get out free-throwed by 10 and expect to be competitive.

Getting to the remaining four factors, the Wolves were beat as soundly as they have been all year by a Laker squad on the last game of a 9-game road trip. They were out rebounded, had more turnovers, and, as mentioned before, were outshot from the field and the line. While there is some room to complain about the preferential treatment given to a Mr. Bryant by the men in stripes, it isn't enough to remove one's focus from the fact that our beloved Puppies were beat. the. hell. down.

I'll say it again: poor shooting from the field (especially the perimeter) and the line are absolutely killing this squad. Forget point play. Forget Al Jefferson playing at the 5. This team is done in time and time again by a failure to be able to hit from outside and by an overwhelming negative disparity at the free throw line.

Moving on...It's official, this Randy Foye business at the point is getting frustrating. The second Sebastian Telfair left the court, the Lakers put on the full-court press and the Wolves were unable to swiftly move the ball up court, they had no flow to the offense, no threat of penetration, they threw clueless fast-break passes, and they were repeatedly burned on high screens that opened up countless three point attempts. Also, the next time Foye dribbles into a contested jumper 6 inches inside the three point arc, I’m going to throw my TV out the window.

Randy ended the night shooting 6-16 from the field. He went 4-7 from distance, leaving him 2-9 inside the arc. Granted, this gives him an eFG of 50%, but considering the amount of garbage time and the shot selection exhibited by the point-in-waiting, it was yet another disappointing effort.

Misc:

Sometime during the 3rd quarter, I believe I heard Jim Peterson say that Antoine Walker used to be a high riser? I'm a strong believer in multiple dimensions but I doubt J Pete has the insight to bridge the space-time continuum. In what universe did this Flying Toine exist? J-Petedinger's Cat I suppose.

Do the Wolves still need to hawk $40 2 game packs with the Celtics and Mavs? As much as I may fancy a Big Al T-Shirt, I don’t think I want a ticket to a game that already happened. Perhaps J Pete's knowledge concerning alternate realities can be parlayed into some sort of time traveling promotional package.

J-Pete also said that it was very important for Randy Foye to get some experience on the court down the stretch. Seriously. This was with Kobe Karl on the court…as big an F-U if there ever was one. Mr. Karl has attempted all of 10 shots this year and judging by his mechanics, that’s probably not by mistake. At least Foye got some experience against Mr. Karl. Whoah!!! There goes an alley-oop by young Mr. Karl!!! The F-U continues to grow.

Perhaps the biggest downer of the night (as if Kobe Frickin’ Karl wasn’t enough) was watching the commercial-free post game on-court demonstration of Jim Pete and the triple threat position. According to Jim Pete, Wolves players may be unfamiliar with the most basic fundamental in offensive basketball. Yes, it’s almost enough to make your eyes bleed.

Speaking of eye-bleeding, Dallas Mavs fans were saved from bloody oculitis by the swift moving personnel defense of Devean George, who made the biggest block of his career—scuttling a lopsided deal that would have sent a tremendous young point, $11 million in expiring contracts, and 2 draft picks to the Nets for a 35 year old guard who can’t shoot and who hasn’t been able to efficiently run New Jersey’s lagging offense. Mr. George, Maverick Nation salutes you. You may have pissed off a dancing computer geek billionaire, but the rest of us thank you from the bottom of our little hearts.

Until later...