Wolves Insider: What's wrong with these teams?

The Wolves' start isn't surprising, but expected playoff contenders Miami, Chicago, Washington and Golden State have struggled mightily as well.

By Jerry Zgoda, Star Tribune

Last update: November 11, 2007 - 11:38 PM

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WOLVES WEEK IN REVIEW Record: 0-4 • Losses at New York on Sunday, at home to Orlando on Tuesday and at the L.A. Lakers on Friday mirrored the season opener: an opening flourish followed by a second-half fall. A free-throw disparity continued to vex a young team that both shot too much from the perimeter and reached too often on defense. STAR TRIBUNE'S STAR OF THE WEEK Greg Buckner, guard/forward: It says something about the current state of the youthful Wolves that the week's MVP is a 31-year-old veteran who was little more than an afterthought when he was acquired the night before training camp opened. The team's most reliable reserve in the opening two games, he became a starter and played 39 minutes in a small lineup when Theo Ratliff fell ill Tuesday and will stay there as long as Rashad McCants' ankle stays sprained. THIS WEEK: Three games Wednesday: vs. Sacramento, 7 p.m. Friday: vs. Washington, 7 p.m. Saturday: vs. New Orleans, 7 p.m. • The season's second full week brings the Wolves back home from the West Coast for the start of a four-game homestand that included back-to-back home games on the weekend, the only time that occurs this season. Those weekend games feature star guards Gilbert Arenas for the Wizards, dazzling Chris Paul for the Hornets. THE QUOTE "Uncle Buck, he's a veteran and a great defensive player. He knows what to do." — Wolves youngster Al Jefferson showing the proper deference in title to veteran teammate Greg Buckner.

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The Timberwolves' 0-5 start entering Saturday's game at Sacramento is understandable and explainable.

But not so with Miami, Chicago, Washington and Golden State.

Expected playoff contenders all, 50-plus-victory candidates some, those four franchises opened the season a combined 0-17 until the Bulls' home victory over Detroit on Thursday night.

The Heat, playing without star Dwyane Wade, can't score. The Bulls possibly have been fretting about all that Kobe Bryant trade speculation. The Warriors, fresh from dumping Dallas in the playoffs' first round last spring, are waiting for Stephen Jackson's seven-game suspension for a felony gun violation to end. The Wizards, despite all the rosy preseason prognostications to the contrary, still look like the good, old Wizards.

More than a week after being cleared for contact practices, Wade said he feels his surgically repaired shoulder is healed, but he still is waiting for his surgically repaired knee to recover fully. Meanwhile, the 0-5 Heat, even after the nationally praised trade that brought Timberwolves Ricky Davis and Mark Blount to Miami, hadn't scored more than 88 points in a game until Friday's 106-101 home loss to up-tempo Phoenix.

"Everybody's just ragging on us," said Heat coach Pat Riley, who says it's too soon to judge a team without Wade and still trying to integrate Davis and Blount. "Everybody says we're done. They think we're too old or Shaq's too old and he's ready to break again. It just goes on and on."

The Bulls were a trendy preseason pick to easily surpass 50 victories and possibly reach the NBA Finals, and yet they started 0-4 before Thursday's victory over Detroit. They depart after Saturday's home game against Toronto on a six-game trip that takes them from Los Angeles to New York because the circus is at United Center.

"I'm not much of a panic guy," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "We'll try to figure out why we're playing the way we are, why when the game is on the line we're not able to step up."

Washington fell to 0-5 -- the franchise's worst start since 1966, when it was in Baltimore -- after losing at New Jersey on Thursday and at home to Denver on Friday.

"It's embarrassing to start off 0-4," Wizards star Gilbert Arenas, who had fluid drained from his knee Wednesday for the second time in three weeks following offseason surgery, said after Thursday's loss. "Last year, we started off 4-0. ... We'll get better."

The Warriors' home loss to Dallas on Thursday -- seven months too late for the Mavs -- left them 0-5 and desperately waiting for Jackson, suspended twice by the NBA in the past four seasons and named a team tri-captain this season, to rescue them.

"I'm not Jordan, I'm not God," he said. "I'm a basketball player, and I can't do it by myself. I need my teammates. Just like all the success we had last year, we did it as a team."

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