Wolves record: 4-16
Jonah Ballow/Timberwolves site has postgame audio from Kevin McHale, Kevin Love, Kevin Ollie, and Ryan Gomes.
On this one night, the Timberwolves played as most expected coming into the year. A young team, full of mismatch talent, giving 100% effort and, in the end, coming up short. Although it’s another notch in the loss column, it is the first step of building a product of which we can be proud of supporting. As long as the effort remains the same and progression continues, there can be a small glimmer of hope for the future of a franchise that has given very little of that to their fans for years.
The Timberwolves’ starting lineup had a different look Tuesday night against Utah in the first game of Kevin McHale’s second stint as head coach.
Randy Foye was back at point guard after three games at shooting guard, and Craig Smith got his first start of the season at power forward.
Playing their first game under Kevin McHale, the Timberwolves looked like a different team Tuesday night for nearly 48 minutes than they were under the fired Randy Wittman…
Wolves rookie Kevin Love missed four free throws in the final three minutes, and Rashad McCants threw away the Wolves’ last chance as they lost a game they had led 89-80 with less than six minutes to play.
Al Jefferson had 21 points and Randy Foye added 17 in his return to the starting point guard role for the Wolves (4-16), who will take a six-game losing streak into tonight’s game at Denver.
16 Missed free throws by the Wolves, including rookie forward Kevin Love’s 2-for-9 night.
Ultimately, though, the Wolves again couldn’t score, and couldn’t stop the opponent from scoring, when it mattered most. Okur’s fallaway winning jumper wiped away the lead created by Randy Foye’s free throws with 7.8 seconds left. The Wolves never got a chance to answer Okur, not after McCants’ forced in-bounds pass intended for Jefferson was tipped away in a broken play McHale called “nobody’s fault” and attributed partly to his unfamiliarity with the team’s end-of-game play options.
Afterward, Love sniffed back tears and McHale approached him from behind in the locker room and rubbed his neck.
“I may have cost us the game,” Love said after an eight-point, 15-rebound night that included eight offensive rebounds. “I’m a man. I’ll take the blame. I’ve never, ever had a night like that [from the free-throw line]. Somebody’s got to talk me off a bridge.”
Then new coach Kevin McHale came up and gave him a hearty pat on the back and a nurturing squeeze of the neck, letting the 20-year-old know that all was not lost. Just one game.
“I told him we’re going to be in a lot of battles and I’ll go to battle with him any day of the week,” McHale said after the Wolves lost 99-96 to the Jazz in his debut as coach.
And that appears to be the difference between the team’s new coach and the fired Randy Wittman…
For one game, at least, McHale seemed to inject some energy and heart into a team that has lacked both since a six-game losing streak started nine days ago.
“When I turned the ball over, I’m so used to coming out of the game,” guard Rashad McCants said. “Then I looked over and saw him clapping and saying, ‘Come on, get the next one.’ It gives you confidence.”
Wolves shooting guard Mike Miller, who said after the morning shootaround that he would return for tonight’s game against the Utah Jazz, just said that he would be held out for a third straight game because of a sprained right ankle.
Kevin McHale returns to the sidelines tonight at Target Center, ironically enough on the 20th anniversary of Utah coach Jerry Sloan’s hiring. Sloan has been the Jazz coach longer than the Wolves have existed, and he is the longest current tenured coach in pro sports.
