Wolves record: 18-39
Size defeated speed on Friday night at the Target Center. With two teams looking to snap a losing skid, the Blazers found a spot in the win column after a dominant third quarter in the 102-82 victory.
“That was our worst game we’ve had in I don’t know how long,” head coach Kevin McHale said. “We couldn’t muster any energy, couldn’t get any offensive flow going.”
Only facing a five-point deficit in the early minutes of the third quarter, the Wolves offense was stuck in the mud for over four minutes as Portland jumped out to a 20-point lead.
Capping a 2-11 February in which they lost star center Al Jefferson to a season-ending knee injury, the Wolves went down to their fifth straight defeat and eighth in a row at home as the Portland Trail Blazers cruised to a 102-82 triumph at Target Center.
For the record, that makes it 10 losses in 11 games and 13 in the past 15 for the Wolves, who dropped to 1-7 without Jefferson.
He removed Mike Miller and inserted 7-footer Jason Collins for his first start since Randy Wittman was coach. Ryan Gomes moved down from power forward to small forward and Kevin Love moved over to power forward to make way for Collins, who played the game’s first nine minutes before Miller subbed for him.
Blazers All-Star Brandon Roy — anybody remember him? — sat the entire fourth quarter after delivering another efficient 19-point performance, and McHale used the lopsided occasion to play newly acquired Shelden Williams for the first time and give Bobby Brown an extensive second-half run (15 points, 17 minutes).
The Wolves’ reserves outscored the starters 50-32. The starting five combined to shoot 10-for-37, and Randy Foye was the only starter who made a basket after halftime.
From the Associated Press:
Despite playing better as of late, Randy Foye still went 5-for-15 from the floor and had 13 points, unable to drive the lane against Portland’s big front court. Minnesota’s point guard entered averaging about eight foul attempts, but got to the line just once against Portland – for a technical free throw.
After being outshot and outrebounded early, the Blazers got going from the field and outscored Minnesota 54-37 in the second and third quarters.
“That effort was unacceptable,” McHale said. “We had too much head hanging, too much feeling sorry for ourselves.”