Wolves Defeat Celtics

***Lost in Ricy Davis' last second shot was Randy Foye start, rather than Mike James. Let me just say James was not a happy individual after the game.***

Dear Mike James,

I understand that rookie Randy Foye being given the starting point guard spot last night against the Boston Celtics could certainly be an ego hit for you. You came to the Timberwolves with the expectation that you would be the starter, the sidekick to KG and the fourth quarter answer. Now, that spot has been handed over to a rookie.

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Wolves Look To Win On The Road In Memphis

***Be sure to come back to Wolves Hoops Blog after the game for thoughts/analysis.***

Coming off an all-around great effort Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors, the Timberwolves travel to Memphis to face the Grizzlies tonight. Although Memphis holds a 12-38 record coming into the game, they have enough talent on the team, sparked by Pau Gasol, to win at any time.

Coach Randy Wittman, who was mostly pleased after Wednesday’s win, has been quoted as saying, "We need to get a win on the road, to get our confidence on the road back."

"I'm anticipating what I saw (Wednesday) night," Wittman said. "They came out (in Thursday's practice) with good intensity and good focus. I'd be a little concerned if we went through the motions. I anticipate we'll get after them."

Hopefully, Coach Wittman is right. This Minnesota team has lost too often against teams with sub-0.500 records and to have any shot at a playoff berth those losses must stop immediately. Throughout all the inconsistent play the Wolves have shown, what is most frustrating is that they either play up to the level of their competition (such as wins against San Antonio, Detroit and Phoenix), yet lose games they should win (such as losses against Portland, Milwaukee, Atlanta and New Orleans.)

Memphis is a team with just as many off the court sideshows as the Wolves, with constant trade speculation hovering over the team involving their star player Pau Gasol. Yet, through all of the drama, Gasol is healthy again and has been playing great basketball recently and will certainly be a handful for Minnesota tonight.

Wolves Handle Warriors

I apologize for those checking in with Wolves Hoops Blog, but there will be no SPM article on last night's nice win. Although I was at the Target Center for the contest, I did not see much of the game as I was in the suite with the Lynx new coaching staff and a couple of the players. For those interested, there will be an SPM article on the opportunity coming shortly.

Yet Another Must Win For Minnesota

***Be sure to come back to Wolves Hoops Blog on Thursday for my SPM article on this game, along with any locker room quotes and notes I may obtain from both teams.***

Holding the tiebreaker for a playoff spot with the Los Angeles Clippers already, the Timberwolves must win their three-game season series with the Golden State Warriors in order to have any realistic chance at squeaking into the playoffs. That is, at least, if securing the eighth playoff spot and a first round exit at the hands of either Dallas or Phoenix is a season goal for this team.

These three teams will be battling for one playoff spot for the remainder of the season. Most believe that the Clippers will eventually stake their claim to the spot, so things need to change quickly for Minnesota.

Golden State is no longer a team that should be overlooked. With Baron Davis leading the charge with new teammates Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington, who joined the Warriors recently after being traded from Indiana, Golden State has a number of nice pieces to their attack. All three of the mentioned players will be match up nightmares for the Wolves, so Coach Randy Wittman has a lot of work to do before tip off tomorrow night.

Losing their past four games, Minnesota is obviously struggling at the moment. With the next three games against this Golden State team, the Memphis Grizzlies and the Boston Celtics, two of the three games in the Target Center, the Wolves hopefully can find some consistency and go into the All-Star break on the highest possible note for a non-playoff team.

This stretch of games sandwiching the All-Star weekend will determine the season for Minnesota. With eight of the next ten games in Minnesota, they can, in theory at least, make up for a rough past two weeks. After this nice stretch of home games, Minnesota will then hit the road for nine of the next fourteen games.

That is why every game is important and Minnesota can no longer afford to lose to teams under the 0.500 mark, as they have consistently throughout this season. It is expected that the Wolves coaching staff will make shake things up soon and that needs to start Wednesday against Golden State.

The Bottom Has Fallen Out

***Nearly everyone who follows this team will surely give their ideas on how to fix this team. I throw my ideas into the hat and see if Coach Wittman pulls any of them out. ***

One thing is clear after the Timberwolves complete bottoming out last night against the Houston Rockets. Head coach Randy Wittman needs to shake things up. With his benching of both Mike James and Ricky Davis in favor of Marko Jaric and Troy Hudson to start the second half, he might just be on his way to the big shakeup.

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