Wittman wants Wolves to shake off embarrassment

By Steve Aschburner, Star Tribune

Last update: March 28, 2007 - 9:13 PM

SALT LAKE CITY - You get pasted and embarrassed in front of your home fans in the biggest collapse in franchise history. You turn a 25-point lead into an eight-point disaster, then you trudge onto a plane, fly 900 miles and step onto one of the most hostile courts in the NBA against a team peaking for the playoffs.

So what do you do: Shake off the nightmare from 24 hours earlier, or absorb and learn from it?

"Both," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said, still stinging from the momentous 114-106 flopperoo against Seattle at Target Center on Tuesday. Leading by 19 points at halftime and 25 midway through the third quarter, his team went belly-up against a foe it has seen and scouted out just four days earlier.

"You learn from things but you can't dwell on them," Wittman said Wednesday before the Wolves' game against the Utah Jazz. "You've got to shake it off, No. 1. Especially coming out and playing back-to-back games.

"We can't have any lingering effects of feeling sorry for ourselves."

The healthiest thing, he said, was focusing on the positives that built the fat lead, such as offensive flow and staying aggressive. Then the Wolves started to lean on the clock, hoping it would run out before the Sonics ran them down.

"Everybody was on their heels and hoping that somebody would make a shot, would stop the avalanche."

Forward Mark Madsen also favored the "both" approach.

"You need to have a short-term memory, playing another game [Wednesday]," Madsen said. "But you also have to absorb it, remember what happened and how upset you were. We're still upset about it."

Still playing to win

Wittman said that, despite the Wolves' dwindling hopes of earning a playoff spot, he isn't ready to go into play-for-next-season mode.

"That's my goal every night: Win every game," he said. So he wasn't ready to commit more time to youngsters such as Randy Foye or Rashad McCants, at least not in a pure preparatory mode.

Foye like Williams?

Jazz guard Deron Williams is one of the league's most improved players and earned some consideration from Western Conference coaches for All-Star status. He is averaging 16.7 points and 9.4 assists. But last season, as a rookie and the third pick in the 2005 draft, Williams averaged 10.8 points and 4.5 assists in 28.9 minutes, while shooting 42.1 percent from the floor.

Foye, the No. 6 pick last June, is at 9.3 points and 2.7 assists in 21.8 minutes, shooting 42.3 percent.

"You get confidence you can play [in that first season]," Wittman said. "You learn so much. So much is being thrown at you in your first year ... that alone creates a better player."

Ageless wonders

Wittman unfortunately had a couple of lines at the ready, thanks to the Tuesday night trauma, when discussing some NBA greybeards.

On the fact that Utah coach Jerry Sloan, in his 19th season as the Jazz bench boss, turned 65 Wednesday: "I feel 65 today," Wittman said.

On the report that his old Atlanta teammate, 44-year-old Kevin Willis, would try out with Dallas today in hopes of resuming a playing career that had stretched 20 seasons when he retired in 2005, Wittman, 47, said: "I felt like I played last night."

Steve Aschburner • saschburner@startribune.com

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