Straight talk: Adelman calls 97-94 loss to Warriors "inexcusable"

Rick Adelman had plenty to say after Wednesday's 97-94 loss to Golden State, the Wolves' fourth consecutive losses and their 12th in 16 games since Ricky Rubio went down.

And of course none of it was good after his team blew a 20-point lead late in the second quarter. The Wolves allowed 39 points in the first half and 38 in the third quarter alone as they gave that lead all back.

Here's some of his postgame address:

"It was probably the worst loss we had all year. It started late in the second quarter, and it snowballed all through the third quarter. I don't know what was going through our minds, but we went into relaxation mode and they scored and cut it to 12, and in the third quarter they came out and had 38 points in the third quarter. They had 39 in the first half. It's inexcusable. I just don't know what was going through our minds, especially in the situation we're in. If we're not tougher mentally than that, we're going to have a hard time."

And if they're not better defensively than they were in the second quarter's final three minutes right into the second half...

"It's effort," he said. "They beat us to every loose ball, they beat us to every play. They beat us off the dribble. They beat us to everything. If things are turning a little bit south on you and you're just going to quit, you're never going to win. That's what happened tonight. They did everything they wanted to. That's a hard one for me to figure out."
I asked him if perhaps his players thought it was game over when they led by 20 with three minutes left before halftime, before the Warriors end the first half on a 10-2 run that they kept up right into the third quarter.

"I don't know how you could think that. It's a 48 minute game, we haven't been winning lately. If you're going to relax that quickly in the situation we're in, then there is something wrong with our approach to the game.
"We started with 3 minutes to go in the second quarter. We talked about it at halftime. The last time we played these guys we were kind of up the same way at their place and they came out and dominated the third quarter on us. The first five minutes has to be ours. There was no intention of taking that game over. I don't even think they were even that aggressive at doing anything. We just opened the door and they just walked on through. We've got to come back on Saturday. We've got to learn a lesson and we've got to play 48 minutes."

"I don't' want to even go there. You might give JJ a pass there. You might give, Pek was struggling. But they played last night. Where's their fatigue? I don't buy that."

Barea played 37 minutes in his first game back after missing six because of that bruised thigh but threw the ball all over as much as he passed to teammates.

He scored 15 points, had eight assists, seven turnovers and got whistled for a technical foul.

He also was powerless most of the night to stop Warriors rookie point Charles Jenkins from getting to the basket at will, particularly when it mattered most.

Jenkins scored seven of the Warriors' final nine points, including the go-ahead basket with 20.4 seconds left, on a night when Barea played for the first time since March 23 at Oklahoma City.

Of course, as I wrote in the game story that you can find here, the Wolves had Ricky Rubio and Ridnour and a healthy Pekovic and sometimes even Barea and Michael Beasley and a present Darko Milicic some of the time back when they were doing that before.

Here's one last quote before I go, from Barea about his return.

"I felt all right, my leg felt a little heavy but better than I thought," he said. "I'll work on it tomorrow and Friday. I'll be better Saturday. It's a good start. I did a little bit of everything to get the rust off: Technical foul, 20 turnovers, I missed two free throws in a row. So I got it all out of the way."

That's all from Target Center tonight.

Sounds like the Wolves might not practice tomorrow. If they do, Kent Youngblood will chime in here.