MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Timberwolves were about the closest thing there was to a sure victory for opponents in 2008.
Disorganized on offense and lazy on defense, they spent most of the first two months of the season challenging Oklahoma City for the title of the NBA’s worst team. Heck, the Thunder even beat Minnesota in November.
That was SO last year.
The team that couldn’t have looked much worse during a 4-23 start in 2008 couldn’t look much better during a perfect 5-0 start to 2009.
“I just feel as though the way we are playing now, everybody’s confidence is sky high,” said guard Randy Foye, who is starting to fulfill some of the promise he had when the Wolves traded future All-Star Brandon Roy to Portland for Foye on draft night three years ago.
“When we step on the court now, we know teams aren’t coming to Minnesota checking it off with a ‘W.’ They come in here saying, ‘We’ve got to bring our ‘A’ game or this team is going to jump on us. That’s how we want teams to be when they come here.”
Before anyone starts saying that this team has finally come together in the post-Kevin Garnett Era, a look at the standings is in order.
The five victories this year have come against Golden State, Chicago, Memphis, Oklahoma City and Milwaukee. The combined record of those teams on Monday afternoon was 62-128 (.326) and not one of those teams was over .500.
But for a young, rebuilding roster still trying to find its legs after the Garnett trade in July 2007 and the firing of coach Randy Wittman in December, the last thing they are going to do is apologize for winning.
No matter the opposing records, progress has been seen since Kevin McHale was stripped of his executive status and given the coaching job. The Timberwolves pounded the Thunder by 42 points and then rallied from 13 down in the third quarter to edge the Bucks in a thrilling finish last week.
The team has scored at least 100 points six times in the past eight games and is playing with a confidence and free-wheeling attitude that wasn’t there under Wittman.
“For me, seeing them smile, seeing them high-fiving and belly-bumping, that’s why you play,” McHale said. “If you were a kid and you were 13 and you played the way we make them play in the NBA sometimes, every kid would play soccer. They’d go, ‘I’m not doing this.”’
That appeared to be the case under the taskmaster Wittman, the former Hoosier who graduated from the Bobby Knight school of coaching. This young team just never really responded to Wittman’s hard-line style.
“I just think people were beaten up a little bit, beaten down and just was tired of the situation,” Foye said. “When he came and took over, we knew things were going to change. We didn’t know how fast. We thought it would probably take longer.”
McHale took the reins after a 107-84 home loss to the lowly Clippers on Dec. 6. The Wolves lost his first eight games as coach for a demoralizing 13-game skid, and Foye said he thought the franchise record of 16 straight losses was an inevitability.
But Minnesota won at New York to snap the streak, and the Wolves have won seven of nine since then.
“We just had to believe that what we were being taught by the coaches would work eventually,” Ryan Gomes said. “That’s what led to us being on this roll right now.”
One of McHale’s favorite sayings, a phrase he utters often, is “belief is an unbelievable thing.”
“Anything in life worth having takes faith and the guys are all having faith in each other and that’s a big thing with what’s going on,” McHale said.
The competition picks up in the next 10 days, with games against Miami (19-17), at Phoenix (21-13), at Utah (22-15) and against New Orleans (22-11) to serve as a barometer for just how far this team has come.
“With us playing well and on a five-game winning streak, I’m anxious to see how we come out,” point guard Sebastian Telfair said. “I think there definitely will be a lot of energy. I think we’ll be excited.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
