Missing, losing by a mile

The Wolves were dismal offensively from the start against the Mavericks. But they kept shooting, and their numbers only got uglier en route to a lopsided home loss.

By Steve Aschburner, Star Tribune

Last update: February 28, 2007 - 4:44 AM

There were stretches in the Timberwolves' dismal 91-65 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night when they were shooting the basketball so badly, a turnover seemed like the better alternative.

Not that they didn't try, coughing up five before the game was three minutes old. Later, the Wolves missed 19 of 22 shots in the second quarter. They scored eight points in that period and 27 points in the first half, within one of their season worst through 57 games.

They shot 29.6 percent overall, their franchise worst through, uh, 1,419 games.

There were more ugly numbers on the Wolves' side of the ledger Tuesday than on Wall Street, such as fewest points scored in a home game ever.

It's on nights like this when one understands why the "tunnels" leading into and out of arena stands are technically called vomitoriums.

"It just kind of spiraled," coach Randy Wittman said. "We missed some easy shots. We just turned it over ... and again, it's not turnovers [where] they're stealing passes. Travels, three-seconds, charges, illegal screens, those were our turnovers."

Offensively, the Wolves (26-31) -- losers in 15 of their past 21, 6-11 under Wittman, 0-3 this season against Dallas -- were a wreck. Either they would launch shots after one pass or no passes or they would bull their way through plays without heeding the defense.

Wittman called that "exhausting the play to the very end, instead of 'Oh, the big [man] jumped out, I'm going to throw the ball back and see how they react to that.' "

Dallas' Big Three of Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry did the heavy lifting for the league's winningest team, a 48-9 club that, with 13 consecutive victories, has its third distinct winning streak this season of 12 or more (an NBA first). Eleven franchises -- Minnesota included -- never have had even one streak that long.

Nowitzki scored 15 of his game-high 23 points after halftime, Howard scored 15 of his 17 before halftime, and Terry split his 18 right down the middle. But who and when mattered less than what, which was the Wolves playing with no flow, no smarts and no resourcefulness (they never forced action inside to earn trips to the foul line, a cure for sickly shooting).

"It felt like we was running in sand," said Kevin Garnett, who shot 5-for-16 and sat down with 3:41 left with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks -- a staggering 11-0 when playing on the second night of back-to-back games -- stuck the Wolves with the lowest scoring total of any opponent ever. The previous low was 68, and that spans 2,157 games in Dallas history.

"Obviously, it's not all defense," said coach Avery Johnson, whose team dominated the boards, too. "We won't flatter ourselves. But give our defense some credit. DeSagana Diop had one of his better games, closing down the middle, trying to play Garnett as best we can. Our rotations were sound."

By the end, the difference on the scoreboard was 26. The games-behind in the standings is 22. But the gap between the teams overall is more vast than that.

In one locker room, Wolves guard Marko Jaric talked of his team's lack of chemistry or character. "It's about pride and that we don't have it right now, and we need to find it," he said.

Simultaneously, the Mavericks' Jerry Stackhouse already had moved on.

"We will be more impressed in June," he said.

One question: What's June?

Steve Aschburner • saschburner@startribune.com

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