Wolves drop 10th in a row

Associated Press

Corey Brewer, left, defends Memphis Grizzlies forward DeMarre Carroll, right, in the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday.

Memphis has had an equally bleak start to the season, but outfought Minnesota's depleted roster.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: November 15, 2009 - 12:41 AM

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MEMPHIS 97, MINNESOTA 87

Up next: vs. Houston • 7 p.m. Wednesday • Target Center • TV: FSN (1130-AM)

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MEMPHIS - So where will it end?

The Timberwolves lost their 10th consecutive game Saturday night, a 97-87 decision to a Memphis team that, much like them, had only won once in its first nine games.

Playing without Al Jefferson and Kevin Love for the second consecutive night, the Wolves now are three more consecutive losses away from the franchise's all-time worst start, a 1-13 beginning to the 1994-95 season that delivered a fifth overall pick named Kevin Garnett the next summer.

Two seasons ago, the Wolves also started 1-10, in their first month without Garnett.

This time, they trailed by as many as 14 points and lost by 10 to a Memphis team with only one previous victory, over Toronto in the season's second game.

Perhaps the evening's most telling moment came in the final 40 seconds, when the Wolves still envisioned erasing a double-digit lead. Rookie point guard Jonny Flynn, attempting to create some magic, zipped a cross-court pass to Corey Brewer, who stumbled as he cut for the basket.

The ball sailed over Brewer's head and into the front row of an extremely sparse audience at FedEx Forum on a night when Flynn made five of 14 shots, scored 10 points and had twice as many turnovers (six) as assists (three).

Wolves coach Kurt Rambis turned away from the play and with great deliberation walked down the sideline, his hands in his trouser pockets, his head down.

Was he counting to 10?

"No, but that's what you get with youth," he said. "Trying to make the right play, trying to do the right thing, just not executing it well. Again, it was a poor decision, but hopefully these are things that he, and us, learn from. That's the nature of being young: You make mistakes. The determining factor is, us as human beings, that you learn from it."

The Wolves led 15-7 early and were tied 45-45 at halftime but then surrendered a 21-10 run that ended the third quarter and began the fourth.

"We're still playing hard, but that third quarter is just killing us," Brewer said. "Has been all year. You've just got to keep playing. Hopefully, when we get Big Al back -- and Kevin comes back soon -- we can change this thing around."

Without Jefferson and Love, the Wolves succumbed to a Memphis team that leads the league in dysfunction. This time last season, they had a promising young nucleus of Rudy Gay, O.J. Mayo and Marc Gasol. They still do, but in the meantime they squandered salary-cap space by acquiring Zach Randolph and signing Allen Iverson in what already is a failed experiment, and on Saturday they signed guard Jamaal Tinsley, whom Indiana had exiled for the past 18 months.

Still, the Grizzlies won with relative ease Saturday.

"Never," Flynn said when asked if he had ever lost 10 in a row at anything. "I can never think of anything, never in life. This is definitely a new experience for me. A lot of us have never been through anything like this. It's hard, but, like they say, you look for some bright spots.

"You just have to search, even if you have to dig deep for some bright thing you do well. You always have to keep in mind it's a long season."

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