Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 10:36 am  |  5 responses

A Week of Wolves

It’s gonna be a long week.

by Stephen Litel / @stephenlitel

 

Every team in the NBA has a string of home games in a row at different times throughout the year, obviously. The Minnesota Timberwolves are about to host the Houston Rockets on Saturday, the Dallas Mavericks on Monday,  the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday and the San Antonio Spurs next Friday. Of course, the first game in this stretch against Houston, Minnesota will play without Al Jefferson, who will serve the second game of his two-game suspension.

 

Corey BrewerThree of the teams about to come through Minneapolis—Dallas, Denver and San Antonio—would be in the playoffs if they started today. Houston is on the outside looking in at a playoff berth, but if the chips fell right for them, they could still grab one of the final spots. So, all four teams still have quite a lot to play for as they try to secure the playoff seeding they desire or the playoff berth they hope to achieve.

 

Entering this weekend, the Timberwolves are a Western Conference worst 14-48. It would seem that the best thing to do would lose as many games as possible to secure as many ping pong balls in the Draft Lottery as possible. However, Kurt Rambis and his coaching staff have achieved one of their goals for this season…the team is “hanging in there.” Everyone knew it was going to be a long season—and, wow, it has been—but the players know the evaluation will go down to the final game of the year and are playing as such.

 Jonny Flynn

This will be the one week in the season where I will be exhausted as if I’m playing in the games. Between a “normal” 40-hour a week job, my children and covering these four games, sleep will become a rarity in the next week. Trust me, I’m not complaining in the slightest, as I always remember the great opportunity it is to cover the games and speak with players throughout the league.

 

This week is important to the Timberwolves since they just kicked off a huge season ticket push for next season, asking fans to help create one of the best home court advantages in the league. Well, the opportunity to see Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and the other stars throughout the league a couple times a year is not enough anymore. Fans want to see there is something—anything—for them to cheer for on the home team in the future. This year was a start with Kevin Love continuing to do his rebounding thing, the development of Jonny Flynn and Corey Brewer, the quiet and under-valued play of Ryan Gomes and the offensive abilities of Al Jefferson…but, obviously, that is not enough.

 

So, as I embark on this challenging week, I decided to create this Week of Wolves series to document what it is like in Minnesota during the NBA season. It will be part game notes, part interviews and part ramblings of a sleep-deprived man. Check back often, spread the word and pray for me. It’s going to be a long week.

  • Add a Comment
  • Share
  • RSS

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

  • WB30

    first

  • http://www.laumol.nl/weblog Laumol

    I can understand you don’t want to do a week of Nets. Or a weak of Nets that would be.

  • Logues

    its hard being a twolves fan

  • MikeC.

    @Logues – I think it’s harder being a Knicks fan. At least the Wolves were undone by one crappy GM. I’ve lived through Layden and Isiah. However, wasting KG’s prime should be a crime punishable by electric chair. It’s gotta be tough seeing KG win a ring the first season he has some offensive closers and some guys who actually listen to his instructions on D. Hmm. Maybe it is tougher to be a Wolves fan. Both teams are equally crappy, but at least the Knicks have a tiny, miniature chance that free agents will take their money. And your GM doesn’t look like a chain-smoking crypt keeper.

  • Logues

    @MikeC: ya im sure it sucks being a knicks fan too, but hey atleast you have some good history and the knicks teams of the 90s were fun to watch, although jordan kinda screwed them over. and as far as KG, i was actually happy as hell when the c’s won it cuz kg deserved it real bad and i was really happy for him. alot of ppl dont realize just how good kg was in his prime with the wolves, he just never had any good help. the best supporting cast he ever had was a washed up sprewell and an aging sam cassell. and ya our draft decisions are maybe the worst in the league, and now were so desperate that we signed darko.

Advertisement