They’ve been close in nearly every single game, and if games only went three quarters, they may be above the .500 mark. Unfortunately for them, games are played with four quarters, and each time the fourth quarter starts, the Wolves seem to fall apart.

So far in eleven games, their average margin of defeat is nine points. But, even this number is a little deceiving.

Take the Lakers game for example. The Wolves were leading, or down by a few baskets up until the last four or five minutes in the game. Then, they went on a slump, the Lakers built a bigger lead, and the Wolves ultimately gave them about six more points on free throws to cap off the game.

This has been the story in more than a handful of games this season.

The Wolves leading, tied, or right in the game up until the final five minutes of the game. They go cold, and give the other team a run. They then finish the game by fouling, making the final score look worse than the game really was.

With experience, the Wolves should improve with their late game mishaps. The most recent game against the Hawks might have been one of the Wolves best and worst games of the season, and it really showed how being young, not bad is the reason for losing.

After one half of play, the Wolves lead the Hawks by 18 points, with a score of 63-45. Al Jefferson was perfect shooting, and had 18 points and 11 rebounds. It seemed as though there was no way they could blow the game, but inexperience helped them do just that.

They came out cold in the second half, and scored just 12 points in the third quarter. The Hawks scored just 19, so they still lead by 11 going into the final quarter.

In the final quarter of play, things just got worse. The Hawks outscored the Wolves 30-12, and the Wolves lost by a final score of 94-87. Effectively blowing an 18-point halftime lead.

The reason for the lost wasn’t because the Wolves are bad, but because they don’t have a lot of chemistry or experience. The Hawks effectively shutdown Jefferson with triple-teams in the second half, and the Wolves didn’t know how to handle it. They should have found other ways to score, but they just didn’t know how.

As they play more together, and get Foye back as a late-game weapon, the Wolves should improve. It might be easy to get upset with the team at times, but eventually they’ll play the second half like they do the first, and pick up some victories.

Walker was great with his comments after the trade, and it looked as if the Wolves had made the right move to get him to be a leader on the team. Walker didn’t really produce in the first four games in a limited amount of playing time, but he did get minutes, and didn‘t complain.

In the team’s fifth game, Walker never moved from the bench.

Since that time, the Wolves have had a few days off, and Walker has let it be known that he isn’t very happy.

No, he hasn’t come out and complained out his playing time, he hasn’t complained about the coaching, and he hasn’t complained about the team. But he has come out and said that he is “confused” about what he is in Minnesota for, and that to me is just as bad.

Walker doesn’t want to be here, and there really isn’t a reason to have him here. Whenever he is on the court, it seems as though he plays just for himself. He forces shots, and it looks as if he just wants the stats.

For me, it’s an easy choice, ship him out. But, will the Wolves consider this, and what should they do?

The Wolves from the start looked slow, and didn’t move with a lot of energy. Nonetheless, they managed to stick with the Kings, but could never take over. The Kings in the fourth, game out strong, and put the game away. One of the main reasons for the loss, and the fourth quarter collapse, was that the Wolves got away from their gameplan.

Throughout the game, Jefferson seemed to get involved. But in the fourth, he seemed nonexistent, and they never really even attempted to get the ball inside to him. Jefferson did finish with 17 points and 12 rebounds, but early in the game, he seemed to score at will, and if the Wolves would have stuck with that gameplan, they might have won.

Another reason for the loss might have been the injury to Craig Smith. Before leaving with a sprained ankle, Smith had scored 10 points and collected 5 rebounds in just 18 minutes of play. His status for the next game is unknown, but lets hope he is okay.

The lineup remained the same as it was against the Lakers. Jaric started at the point, and did virtually nothing. He seemed to slow down the game even more, and finished with seven points. If the Wolves want to get Jaric playing time, it needs to be off the ball, because with his speed and ball handling, he isn’t meant to be a point guard.

Other than Jefferson and Smith, the key players where Theo Ratliff, who scored 14 points to go along with 7 boards, Corey Brewer, who scored 15 points to go along with 8 rebounds, and Rashad McCants, who off the bench scored 16 points.

The few positive signs were the free throws. While the Wolves were still outdone by a large margin, they shot most of their 24 free throws late in the second half when McCants and Brewer began to drive to the hoop (and Theo drawing contact inside).

Speaking of Brewer, he really came alive all-around. He drove to the hoop, and shot seven free throws. He also made a few nice shots close to the hoop. On defense he was just as good, and collected five rebounds plus his three hustle ones on offense.

Overall, it was somewhat of a step back for the Wolves. With most of their losses, there has been something that they have gained, but in this one they looked slow, and other than Brewer and the late-game free throws, we didn’t learn a lot more about this team.

Marko Jaric got the start at point over Sebastian Telfair, and the move made coach Randy Wittman look like an idiot. Telfair came off the bench for the Wolves and scored 15 points to go along with 3 assists.

With McCants out, Greg Buckner got the start, and put together a pretty nice game with 9 points and 3 assists. He also played pretty good defense.

The star for the Wolves was again Al Jefferson. In 35 minutes, Jefferson scored 24 points, and also collected a season high 15 rebounds. His close teammate Ryan Gomes scored 17 points.

More key points to come later…

The worried part was because I was hoping that he wouldn’t miss an extended period of time like other Wolves. And, today we got some good news.

First off, Rashad McCants will travel with the team on the West Coast trip. This means that he is healthy enough to have a chance to play. The better news however is that McCants said that he hopes to play against the Lakers, but if not, he will for sure play against the Kings.

Aside from McCants, Randy Foye said that he feels good, but it looks like he will still wait until the three-week checkup before returning to the lineup. Foye has been doing activities to keep his body in shape, and should miss just six more games if he returns on time.

*Jefferson is the go-to guy – Kevin Garnett was never thought of as a clutch guy in Minnesota, and since the season started, people have wondered who gets the ball in the fourth. Well, I can tell you that the guy is Al Jefferson. With the Wolves down double-digits, Jefferson scored 12 points in the fourth to get the Wolves back into the game.

*Jefferson is still a beast – Aside from being awesome in the fourth quarter, Jefferson had a nice overall game. He did get into a little foul trouble that limited him to 35 minutes, but played well nonetheless. In his 35 minutes, Jefferson scored 25 points and collected 10 rebounds to give him his third double-double in as many games.

*Greg Who? – When we traded Hassel for Buck, he was thought to be the main buy-out candidate. Well, he has proven that he is just as good if not better than Hassel so far. Aside from his defense (7th in the league in steals), Buck has averaged double-digits and scored 18 in this game.

*Jaric fun to watch? – Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed watching Marko Jaric. If he could play like this all the time, I’d love to keep him on the team. He finished the game with 10 points and 10 assists, and handled the game well. Plus, he even hit some clutch shots.

*Brewer good and bad – Corey Brewer made some nice shots, and played pretty well on defense. The one negative was him forcing shots. There were three that I can think of that looked terrible. Mainly because he wasn’t open…

*No Theo – Theo Ratliff was expected to play, and could have helped guard Howard. But, he missed the game with the flu, and Jefferson had to guard Howard most of the time. Plus, when he didn’t we were overmatched with Gomes on him. Howard had pretty similar numbers to Jefferson anyways.

*Bad perimeter D – The main negative so far this season on defense is the perimeter defense. This continued against the Magic, and Lewis made seven three-pointers. There are far to many open shots, and I’m not even sure how to fix it.

*Rashad Hurt – McCants twisted his ankle in the first. This recap is a day late, so I can now say that he is day-to-day, and should play Saturday if everything goes well. The bad thing was that he already had 8 points after a quarter…

*Good crowd – I loved to hear the crowd get loud in the fourth, and boo loudly on a few terrible calls. I hope they stick around all season.

*Played Hard – Finally, one thing I’ve loved about this team is that they play hard and play until the finish. We were down by double-digits with five minutes left, and went on a 14-0 run to get back into the game. It was fun to watch even with the loss.

There are more things I could talk about, but these are the keys. What are your thoughts on the season so far, and this game in particular?

The Timberwolves have played well in their first two games, but both have resulted in losses for one main reason — fouls. The Timberwolves have been killed by foul trouble for two obvious reasons. One is that the Nuggets and Knicks both shot at least twice as many free throws as them. And, the second reason is that it has forced them to take out McCants and other key players.

Tonight, they’ll return home, and look to win their first game of the new era.

The Wolves lost their season opener, but throughout the game, played much more as a team than last season, and also outplayed the Nuggets much of the way before falling apart in the fourth quarter.

Tonight, the Wolves will look to rebounds against another 0-1 team, the New York Knicks. The game will mark the return to New York for Wolves point guard Sebastian Telfair, and he’ll also be playing against his cousin Stephon Marbury.

The main task for the Wolves tonight will be to limit the fouls, and limit long scoring droughts. Against Denver, some key players including McCants played just 29 minutes because of foul trouble. Plus, Denver capitalized at the line.

Watch For…

…Big Al. In his first game, he scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. That was against one of the best defenders in the league. How will he fare against Zach Randolph?

…Telfair vs. Marbury. Not only will Telfair be returning to New York, but he’ll also be playing against his cousin. Will he break out? Who will win the family battle?

…fouls. The reason for the loss to the Nuggets was fouls. The Nuggets reached the line twice and many times and the Wolves, and oddly enough, knocked down twice as many free throws (28). Can the Wolves stay out of foul trouble?

…Gerald Green. In the opener, Green did not play. Will he get his first shot as a Wolf?

In fact, the Wolves really played better than the Nuggets much of the way, and controlled the game as well. But, as they did multiple times in the preseason, the Wolves seemed to fall apart towards the end of the game, and scored just 14 in the fourth to give the Nuggets the lead and the game by a final score of 99-91.

The loss may be a little upsetting, because the Wolves did play very well. But nonetheless, there were a number of positives going forward.

Al Jefferson scored 16 points, and collected 13 rebounds all while being double teamed. Rashad McCants had the hot hand, and scored 23 points for the Wolves in just 29 minutes of play. The other keys for the Wolves were Theo Ratliff, who scored 14 points, and Greg Buckner, who scored 10 points.

The main problem for the Wolves were the fouls. The Nuggets shot two times the number of free throws that the Wolves did, and the officiating was terrible all night long. Had McCants not gotten into foul trouble, he may have scored a lot more than 23 points.

With Randy Foye out for a while, Telfair stepped up. He scored 9 points and collected 5 assists on the game. He did make a few mistakes, but his speed should be a big help to the Wolves this season.

The Wolves will get back on the court on Sunday, when they look to get their first win of the season against the Knicks. There will be more key points on the game tomorrow.

A new era in Timberwolves basketball begins tonight as the Wolves take the court at home against the 1-0 Denver Nuggets. With Garnett long gone, Jefferson locked up for the future, and the rest of the team ready to prove the world wrong, the Wolves will kick off the regular season.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets have already gotten underway, beating the Seattle Sonics 120-103 on Wednesday. The Nuggets look to be one of the playoff teams in the West this season, but don’t expect the Wolves to lay down.

This will be the first time for all of the new players (which is a lot) to show the fans what they have to offer. Expect the Wolves to come out strong, and play hard until the end.

Watch For…

…the starting point guard. With Randy Foye out at least three weeks, the Wolves will look to someone else to run the team. Will Wittman go with Telfair or Jaric on opening day?

…Al Jefferson. With the contract extension behind him, will Jefferson take his nice preseason and continue the trend?

…McCants. With the Ricky Davis trade, and a very nice preseason, Rashad McCants earned the starting SG role. Will the lights out shooting continue for the now healthy McCants?

…the rotation. The Wolves still have not established a very steady rotation off the bench. Look for Smith to be one of the first people into the game, but after that it’s all up in the air.

You Decide…

…what the final score will be.

…the key stats.

Place to Talk…

MNSportsFans.com

TWolvesBlog.com

HERE!!