Lifeless Wolves fall apart in second half vs. Bucks

David Joles, Star Tribune

Minnesota's Jonny Flynn, left, and Milwaukee's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute battled for a loose ball on Friday night at Target Center.

Milwaukee dismantled its halftime deficit in a third-quarter scoring spree, handing the Wolves their fifth consecutive loss.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: November 7, 2009 - 8:44 AM

Timberwolves coach Kurt Rambis needed a strong lozenge after Friday night's disjointed 87-72 loss to Milwaukee at Target Center.

His team simply needs a victory.

After a season-opening comeback over New Jersey, the Wolves today take a five-game losing streak out onto the road for a two-game trip to Portland and Golden State. Friday's streak-busting possibilities vanished when the Bucks outscored them 31-14 in the third quarter.

His voice raw from unsuccessfully urging his team to move the ball all night, Rambis watched a team that played with so much vigor in Wednesday's 92-90 home loss to Boston and Kevin Garnett play with so little on Friday, particularly in the third quarter.

That's when the Bucks -- after trailing by nine points in the first quarter and by five at halftime -- ratcheted their defense and the Wolves wilted, their verve and ball movement usurped by the Bucks' will and perhaps the personality of Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles.

"They definitely turned it up another notch, and I can believe Scott Skiles had something to with that in the locker room," Wolves rookie point guard Jonny Flynn said. "I would have loved to hear what he said to them at halftime to get them to come out and play like that. That's something we have to do. We have to have that urgency. We didn't have that."

On Wednesday, a large Target Center audience exited the building grumbling at the officials but encouraged by the hometown team after that two-point loss to the Celtics.

On Friday, far fewer fans turned their dissatisfaction toward the Wolves, showering down a smattering of a second-half boos on a team that had no answer for Bucks center Andrew Bogut's 17-point, 10-rebound, four-assist night, nor Hakim Warrick's spontaneity in a decisive third quarter when he scored all but one of his 12 points.

Afterward, Rambis lamented his team's "lack of overall effort" and said he "expected to see a much more energized group come out of the locker room" against a Bucks team playing without injured star guard Michael Redd.

Might they have expended their energy in Wednesday's game, won by Garnett when he made a defensive play that saved the game with 3.6 seconds left?

"You can't say that," Rambis said. "You play on average every other night in the NBA. That's their job, that's our job. That's their responsibility, that's our responsibility. That's what they do, that's what we do. You've got to bring it. I'll take a loss as long as they played hard. That energy and effort wasn't there collectively.

"Sometimes that's youth. Sometimes that's not helping and pulling for each other."

The Bucks denied Al Jefferson all night, and Rambis afterward said, "My throat is killing me from yelling, 'Just swing the ball' " on a night he contended his players spent too much time looking for Jefferson while their triangle offense stagnated. Jefferson made three of 12 shots and scored eight points.

Rambis was asked how much his players need a reward -- a victory -- for their effort.

"The last three games, I thought there were a lot of rewards," Rambis said of losses to the Suns, Clippers and Celtics. "We didn't win, but I was very pleased with the ballgames. I thought they did an exceptional job giving themselves an opportunity to win. We're a young team, an inexperienced team. We said this is going to be a process. This is going to take time."

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