SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - One day after coach Randy Wittman raised a question about Kevin Garnett's leadership ability within this group of Timberwolves players, Garnett did the same thing.
Asked late Tuesday after a 108-90 loss at Phoenix about the team's dwindling chances of making the playoffs, Garnett said: "Each one of us is motivated differently. I'm motivated right now for the playoffs and that's my goal, personally. Sometimes you find yourself only controlling yourself. So if I lead, hopefully they'll follow. Half the time they will."
Half the time?
Wittman had bemoaned the lack of locker-room leadership on Monday when discussing the need for players to take responsibility for the mounting losses. "That's a question I don't think happens all the time," the coach said. "Whether it's yourself as an individual or me, as your teammate, also holding you accountable when things go south. We don't have a quote-unquote leader that is going to control the locker room. When [stuff] is going on that shouldn't be going on and somebody stands there and says, 'Hey, enough. Enough of this.' I don't think we have that.' "
Garnett has talked in the past about his desire to have another veteran or two on the roster to help lead, in words and deeds, the Wolves' younger or less-committed players. Wittman said that former Wolves center Ervin Johnson helped in that way, and forward Vin Baker was sized up for that role until his game declined too far.
But Wittman made it clear what type of leadership wasn't being exerted within the ranks. Garnett's comment showed that he doesn't have the impact on others, at least with this group, that a franchise player and future Hall of Famer ought to.
The way in which the Wolves splintered in the third quarter against the Suns, turning a 7-0 Phoenix spurt into a 24-5 run by failing to pull together, has been part of their undoing all season.
Said guard Mike James: "Instead of circling the wagons and being there for one another, we find ourselves at times a little more individual than a team effort, and it gets us in trouble."
Chasing themselves
The last team to qualify for the playoffs in the West with a record no better than .500 was the Wolves in 1999, when they finished the post-lockout season at 25-25.
Eat like a Wolf
The team's foundation will hold its annual Taste of the Timberwolves event on April 4 at Target Center. Tickets are priced at $350 each or $3,000 for a table of eight. For more information, e-mail fastbreakfoundation@timberwolves.com or visit www.timberwolves.com.
Steve Aschburner • saschburner@startribune.com
wolves/nba
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