Wolves crumple in second half

The fire Minnesota had Friday against Boston was missing against the Raptors, resulting in a three-game losing streak.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: February 12, 2008 - 1:49 AM

When Kevin Garnett, his joyous Boston teammates and a deflated sellout crowd left Target Center on Friday after such an emotional evening, they apparently took all the energy with them.

Two nights later, the Timberwolves couldn't get it back.

Their 105-82 loss to Toronto on Sunday was decided by a lopsided second half in which the three-point-loving Raptors outscored the Wolves by 19 points, including a 26-14 third-quarter advantage.

But the home team, so energized since they transformed a 5-34 season start by winning five of their next seven games, seemed lifeless from the start, and lost their third consecutive game before a home audience announced at 13,785 fans.

"I hope that's what it was," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said when asked if his team suffered an emotional letdown.

Friday's game featured a capacity crowd's loving greeting to Garnett that opened the evening and Boston's last-second, buzzer-beating lay-in that ended it.

Before Sunday's game, Wittman said his team had proved itself mature enough to recover quickly from tough losses -- pointing to a victory in Golden State that followed a late loss in Denver and a comeback victory over New Jersey after the Wolves had lost in the final seconds at Boston as proof. He was confident they would respond again.

On Sunday, they trailed by 12 points four minutes into the second quarter, got back to even with 78 seconds remaining before halftime and then allowed Jose Calderon's consecutive three-pointers that sent the Raptors into the intermission with a 51-47 lead.

"We were right there at halftime," Wolves forward Ryan Gomes said.

Gomes dismissed the notion that the Wolves left all their passion when they walked out of Target Center on Friday night. Teammate Al Jefferson disagreed.

"I don't know what it was, but we didn't have any energy from the beginning [Sunday]," Jefferson said.

Wittman attributed the performance to a Wolves roster that obsessed over its offense and ignored its defense against the league's best three-point shooting team. The Raptors made six of 16 three-point attempts -- double the Wolves' number of threes made -- and shot 50 percent from the field against a Wolves team that outscored Toronto in the paint and on second-chance attempts.

"This is not what this team has been about," Wittman said. "This is as selfish of a game as we've played. We were worried about what
we were getting at the offensive end rather than what we were doing at the defensive end."

Wittman called the game his team's first step back since they started their winning ways at Golden State on Jan. 21. It looked like their biggest letdown since they lost to San Antonio after leading by 14 points late in the third quarter in late November, and then were beaten badly by Memphis and the Los Angeles Lakers the next two times out.

Incidentally, the Wolves will follow Tuesday's game at New Jersey by playing the Lakers at home Wednesday, their last game before the NBA All-Star break.

"We don't want to have another game like this one," Jefferson said. "We have to find some answer."