More Like Failblazers

Trail, Jail, or Fail?

With a 10 point lead at the end of the third quarter, the Blazers looked like they had the game in hand. The Wolves had no life and Joel P was owning the paint. Then Wally made a shot. Then KG made a shot. Then Wally went to the basket and drew the 6th foul on Przybilla. Then Marko hit a three and the Wolves had erased what had been a 14 point lead. The Blazers just collapsed. As soon as Minnesota had cut their lead to 7, they gave up. They totally quit. Sure, the Wolves got hot, removed Joel - who was reeking havoc in the paint all night, but man they just mailed in the last 6 minutes. They got outscored 33-13 and they looked worse than the score suggests. Give some to the Wolves for playing well in the final stanza and coming up with the energy in the 4th in the last game of a long road trip, but really, the Blazers gave this game away.

Hey Ref!

Boy was the officiating bad last night. There were a rediculous amount of missed calls and make up calls. Both ways. Reuben Patterson had two hands on KG almost every second he was guarding him. No calls. Jarret Jack is flying on the fast break, takes 4 steps - no call - then gets fouled hard by Anthony Carter and AC wasn't going for the ball either. Yet, they didn't call the flagrant. So to make up for the missed travel call, they skip the flagrant call. The next time down the floor Jarrett Jack drives the lane, runs into Wally - who's standing still - shoulder to the chest, bucket - and 1! What? Wally was outside the circle and standing still. Of course, down the stretch, when the Wolves were making their run, Jack went into the lane again, where he got Hassell up in the air. Hassell blocked the shot, but fouled him in the process - no call. I didn't see who was officiating, but they just had a really bad night.

Yo Webster! Pass The Kool-Aid

Martell Webster is going to be a player. He looked pretty damn good lastnight, especially for a 19 year old. He hit a couple threes, played under control, and most importantly, played within his teams offense. Hassell was guarding him most of the night and he still scored 13 points. Playing in Portland is probably the best thing for this kid right now since he's starting. Sure, he's not going to win many games, but he'll get a lot of minutes and a lot of time to work himself into the NBA game. He may not end up a superstar, but he'll be around awhile. As long as he doesn't hang out with J.R. Rider.

Aw Man, The Bus Is Outta Gas

The longest road winning streak for the Minnesota Timberwolves is 6 and they've done it twice - once in 2000 and again in 2003. They've won 4 in a row, with the next road games being Philly, Dallas, and Orlando. They swept the road trip they just finished, making it only the second time in franchise history they've gone 4-0 on a road trip. Speaking of 4. Last night marked the 4th double digit comeback this season for the Wolves. They were down 14 last night making that the second largest comeback of the season - the first being the 18 point deficit they erased against the Lakers on Friday.

A Game In The Life

So, before last nights game against the Blazers, I decided I was going to focus on Michael Olowokandi for the entire game. I felt I may have been unfair in judging the horrificness of his game and since I hadn't had the opportunity to watch an entire game, I felt I needed to. I made a note every time he did something good as well as any time he did something bad. Red is bad, Green is good.

1st Quarter - 10 minutes
1. no boxout (2pts)
2. got shot blocked
3. bad switch (2pts)
4. def rebound
5. no boxout
6. bad switch (bailed out by bad pass)
7. bad movement on offense (KG dumped it to Marko and Kandi was bringing his defender to him)
8. loose ball foul
9. off reb
10. made basket
11. no box out (2pts)
12. airball (6ft)
13. blocked shot
14. travel
15. got shot blocked (dunk)

2nd Quarter - 4 minutes
1. bad switch (bailed out by missed dunk)
2. bad recovery (bailed out by Eddie G block)
3. bad help (2pts)
4. made basket
5. missed shot (5ft)
6. lost rebound (2pts)
7. made basket
8. bad help (bailed out by Eddie G block)
9. no box out (bailed out by Eddie G reb)
10. bad recovery

3rd Quarter - 6 minutes

1. no boxout (2pts)
2. offensive foul
3. lost rebound
4. made basket
5. switched out to guard PG
6. was guarding Hassell
7. awful shot missed (10ft)
8. foul and 1 (3pts)

4th Quarter - 5 minutes
1. double foul
2. missed shot (3ft)
3. bad switch out
4. foul (unecessary)
5. good defense
6. awful defense (bailed out by turn over)

So, of the 39 times he impacted the game, only 7 of those times did he impact the game in a possitive manner. He spent the whole first quarter disrupting the offense and letting Joel Przybilla do whatever he wanted (6pts 6rebs 2blks). Kandi would get the ball in the post and Portland would double team him because they knew he was going to pass the ball. Fortunately Casey decided not to play him much the rest of the game.

After watching this game I feel pretty comfortable with my assessment of Michael. He's awful and he doesn't deserve to wear any teams jersey. If there was a way for use to send him to Portland, I'd be willing to eat Theo Ratliff's contract for a couple years($13 m).