Whole set of flaws leads to Wolves loss

Chuck Burton, Associated Press

Minnesota's Craig Smith, bottom, and Charlotte's Jared Dudley wrestle for control of a loose ball during the first half of Monday night's NBA game.

Mistakes on both ends and big numbers from two Bobcats led to a loss.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: December 2, 2008 - 7:38 AM

CHARLOTTE - The Timberwolves played on without Corey Brewer's energy Monday night in Charlotte.

But it wasn't so much what they lacked -- other than perhaps attention to detail -- as what they had too much of in a 100-90 loss to the Bobcats.

Too many turnovers and too many defensive mistakes.

Too much Jason Richardson and too much Emeka Okafor.

The Wolves committed 14 of their 18 turnovers by halftime, and by then Richardson, in his third game back from exploratory knee surgery, had 19 of his game-high 25 points and the Bobcats had a seven-point lead they would never relinquish.

By the third quarter, Wolves coach Randy Wittman made little-used veteran Brian Cardinal his first player off the bench and turned to Kevin Ollie, just back from six games away because of a calf injury, to run the offense for 10 minutes.

"I've got to find some guys -- and probably some veteran guys -- on this team who are going to follow the game plan and do what we want done," Wittman said. "You can't do it selectively."

That's why he played Cardinal nine second-half minutes and turned to Ollie at point guard and Randy Foye at shooting guard in a second half when Sebastian Telfair sat and Craig Smith played three minutes, starter Jason Collins four minutes and Rashad McCants nine minutes.

Star Al Jefferson didn't score in double figures for the first time this season, and he was pulled with four minutes remaining after Okafor scored on three consecutive possession and despite the fact that Jefferson set a career high with six blocked shots.

"Is that right?" Wittman said when asked about Jefferson's six blocks. "That's good. Congratulations, Al. ... You've got to stay with it. You can do other things. There will be nights you can't do things offensively, but if you don't do things on both ends of the floor, then you can't play. I've got to find people who can. They had guys who wanted it more down the stretch. Okafor came in and just dominated us."

When asked why he turned to Cardinal, Wittman said: "I knew he was going to go in there and do what we were supposed to do defensively. Same with Kevin."

Ollie disagreed.

"Our young guys can follow the game plan," he said. "We're trying to find a combination out there that works. We've got to follow the game plan a little bit better. That's collectively, that's not veterans over young guys. It's all of us together. We're in this together."

Jefferson attributed his eight points to a defensive tactic that Oklahoma City used Friday, Denver did some Saturday and Charlotte copied Monday: a stunting strategy in which defenders feigned a double-team and then didn't come sometimes and did other times.

"It messed me up," he said. "It was something I saw last year a little bit, and I attacked it. I've just got to attack it." He attributed the team's 14 first-half turnovers to "just dumb turnovers, dumb turnovers. In the second half, we didn't make the crazy turnovers. There's no excuse for that."

When asked about his six blocked shots, he shook his head and said, "Sometimes, that's just not good enough."

Notes

• So what is basketball boss Kevin McHale, usually an infrequent traveler on the team's road trips, doing accompanying the Wolves on their second consecutive trip?

"Uh, out with the guys," he said. "Right now, I just want to be around the team, spend a little more time with the guys on the road, a chance to work with some guys on some things."

He said he plans to be on the entire three-game trip that continues Wednesday in Orlando and ends Friday in New Jersey.

• All of Foye's three turnovers came in the first half, all of his four assists came in the second half. He scored 23 points.

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