Scaled-down Wolves playbook takes pressure off Foye

Simply by minimizing the X's and O's, Wolves guard Randy Foye enjoyed a breakout game against the powerful Pistons.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: November 26, 2008 - 6:59 AM

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WOLVES VS. PHOENIX

7 tonight • Target Center • TV: FSN (1130-AM)

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After nearly four weeks, 11 games and nine defeats, Timberwolves guard Randy Foye finally provided so much more by trying to do so much less in Sunday's stunning victory at Detroit.

Brain-bound and unable to consistently make a shot until Sunday, Foye rediscovered his game and his smile on a night when coach Randy Wittman pared his thick playbook to just a portion.

The man in whose hands the franchise has placed the basketball and its future provided 23 points (a season high), 14 assists (a career high by four) and the pulse for a 106-80 victory in an arena where Wolves star Al Jefferson never had won in four pro seasons before.

"To me, I just felt free," Foye said.

Wittman reduced the playbook after Foye went 2-for-12 and the Wolves made only two baskets in the third quarter of Friday's ugly home loss to Boston. He called the offense "pared down; the numbers don't matter" for Sunday's game. Rookie Kevin Love estimated the Wolves ran a dozen or fewer plays in an offense that contains as many as 75 different ones.

"It helped a lot," Love said. "Most of us were worrying more about what play was called rather than just playing."

The difference was obvious both in Foye's performance and the game's outcome, a 26-point victory over an opponent that has reached the Eastern Conference finals the past six seasons.

"You could tell he wasn't thinking too much," Jefferson said. "He was just playing so easy. You look at the numbers: 23 points, 14 assists. When he's doing stuff like that, it's going to be tough to beat us."

Foye started at point guard, a job to which he returned two games earlier after Wittman sent him to the bench in an attempt to boost his play. He also played considerable minutes off the ball when Wittman sent in Sebastian Telfair to play point guard.

Either way, Foye found his teammates and found himself. He also rediscovered after probably trying too hard for too long a truism about the game he so loves.

"It's a simple game," he said. "When Coach was like, 'Just go and play.' "

On Sunday, Foye chased after Pistons star Allen Iverson, who made only three of 11 shots. Foye shot 9-for-12 and still learned a valuable lesson from Iverson, the first player chosen in the 1996 NBA draft.

"Every time Allen Iverson comes off a screen, he's looking to score," Foye said. "And if you stop him, he's going to find someone who's open. That's what Witt wants me to do. If I have an open layup, take it. If not, dish it off to Al or Jason Collins or Craig [Smith] just standing there."

Tonight, Foye draws Steve Nash, a two-time league MVP, and the Phoenix Suns.

The playbook? Well, you can guess at its new size now.

"Maybe that helped," Wittman said. "We're going to continue with that, obviously."

Foye called Sunday's game and its playcalling "so simple" in a sport he and his teammates have played since they were children.

"No, it's not: Put the ball in the hole and stop them from doing it," Wolves veteran Mike Miller said when asked if his game is a complex one. "When you're a point guard and you have a lot of thinking going on in your head, it makes everything a lot harder. [Sunday's game] gave Randy an opportunity to just go out and play ball."