Wolves Can't Stop Ray Allen and Lose to Sonics

Check back tomorrow for Checking In With Coach Ociepka-Seattle

for his thoughts on this game.

Minnesota has hung their hats on being a defensive team so far this season, but on this road trip the Wolves have really struggled to shut down the other team. Tonight against Seattle, the obvious key matchup was Trenton Hassell on Ray Allen.

Whenever you play a player of that caliber, you must decide if you will let the star go off while shutting down his teammates or to constantly take the ball out of the star’s hands, making the “other guys” beat you. Tonight, the Wolves did neither. With Allen scoring at will throughout the game, Minnesota needed to buckle down and not allow guys like Chris Wilcox, Nick Collison and certainly not someone like Mickael Gelabale get hot.

On the few nights that Hassell struggles defensively like this, it would be beneficial to switch Marko Jaric onto him. Jaric certainly has had his struggles this season, but think back to how he and Hassell combined to shut down Tracy McGrady earlier in the season in the fourth quarter. He was remarkable. Coach Wittman could slowly build Jaric’s confidence back up by giving him responsibilities like this.

Although, it is hard to criticize Hassell too much as he did nearly have a triple double.

The one confusion in the rotation right now is when Mark Madsen and Craig Smith are on the court at the same time. They did luck out and play well tonight, but it is hard to believe that a combo of those two will consistently produce.

Another point of interest is in the bench play. Minnesota has not been able to trust its bench throughout the season, but it is nights like this that make one wonder what if. What if the bench could give a consistent effort? Where would the Wolves be then?

With tonight’s loss, the Wolves fall to two games below the 0.500 mark. With a matchup with Sam Cassell and the LA Clippers looms tomorrow night, Minnesota potentially could be looking at an 0-5 trip. This will be a tough game for Minnesota, especially being the second game of a back to back. Looking at the schedule before they left on this trip, a 2-3 trip was hoped for. With an improbable win tomorrow against LA, the Wolves would finish 1-4.