Reusse: Wolves-76ers game messy from the very beginning

Cordarrelle Patterson returned the opening kickoff an NFL-record 109 yards for the Vikings against Green Bay on Oct. 27, 2013, in the Metrodome. That is no longer the perfect opening to a professional sporting event in Twin Cities history.

Patterson's record return was eclipsed on Wednesday night with the opening to an NBA game featuring the winless Philadelphia 76ers and the young, injured, undersized Timberwolves.

The arena was one-third full at best when the jump ball was tossed. The 76ers gained control, pushed the ball up court and center Henry Sims was fouled by Corey Brewer.

It was at this point, with 11:44 on the clock, that officials Zach Zarba, Karl Lane and Mark Lindsay discovered that the two teams had started the game headed in the wrong direction.

Brewer's foul was waved off, the clock was put back at 12:00 and the game was restarted. Brett Brown, the 76ers' coach, stood in front of his bench in a "you-gotta-be-kidding'' pose.

Slightly more than two hours later, the joke was on Flip Saunders, the opposing coach.

The Wolves shot feebly, threw the ball away indiscriminately, and faded away pathetically in the final two minutes. Those factors added up to an 85-77 loss, a result that could be seen coming from the team's five-basket, 13-point, eight-turnover first quarter that had started in the wrong direction.

The 76ers did this by having the best player on the floor by a large margin in point guard Michael-Carter Williams, by having the most relentless player on the floor in Luc Mbah a Moute (the short-term Timberwolf), and by having a couple of players of little notoriety with the audacity to throw in a handful of three-pointers at crucial times in the second half.

Those players were K.J. McDaniels, a second-round rookie, and Robert Covington, an undrafted second-year player.

McDaniels was 0-for-5 and the 76ers were 0-for-13 on threes when he hit a three to break a 42-all tie in the third quarter. That came on a night McDaniels had started by hoisting two airballs from behind the line.

"My arm was feeling numb and the ball seemed really light,'' McDaniels said. "It was strange. I knew something was wrong.''

McDaniels' solution wasn't to stop shooting. It was to change the stroke on his shot slightly. And to finally make one.

McDaniels was 2-for-9 on threes, yet the first one he made broke the third-quarter tie, and the second was bigger: It put the 76ers ahead 76-75 with 2:17 left.

Before that, Covington, a 6-foot-9 forward, made two threes … and then he hit the game-decider to make it 81-77 with 1:15 left.

K.J. McDaniels and Robert Covington — you can't stop' em, you can only hope to contain 'em.

"It's a great feeling to win, because we all put in the days, every day,'' McDaniels said.

Carter-Williams, the NBA's Rookie of the Year last season, took charge in the fourth quarter — getting five assists, one on Covington's last 25-footer.

The 76ers had chances to make plays down the stretch in 10 of their previous 17 games, according to their coach.

"We've been pretty close,'' Brown said. "It has been a five-point game in the fourth quarter of 11 of our 18 games. It's not like we're getting embarrassed regularly.

"We feel like this validates the work that they've put in. I have a tremendous amount of respect that they never once quit on themselves … and they were rewarded tonight.''

The 76ers deserve credit both for finally winning and for keeping the celebration very low-key. Even an 0-17 team can recognize a putrid effort from an opponent.