[外電] Wittman: 'We lost our focus'
http://www.twincities.com/timberwolves/ci_5491707
Coach Randy Wittman mentioned the term finger-pointing when he described the
Timberwolves' loss Tuesday night at Phoenix. All-star Kevin Garnett said the
team separated.
Those are pretty heavy thoughts. But they feel there's truth in them.
Asked to clarify what he meant, Wittman said before Wednesday night's game:
"We don't stick together when a tough moment comes up all the time. (The
Suns) would go on a 7-0 run, and instead of pulling in together and saying,
'Hey, that's their run they made,' we kind of filter apart a little bit. Then
you do that against a team like that, and they can really put a string
together."
The Wolves clearly are capable of pulling together, at least in stretches.
They did it when they closed Tuesday's first half on a 16-4 run, trimming a
16-point deficit to four at the half. And they did it when they tied the
score 58-58 in the third quarter. But Wittman said it's not consistent, and
he's right.
He didn't like what he saw Tuesday night when the game got out of control in
the third quarter. The Wolves made mistakes, and Wittman thought players
started harping on each other's mistakes.
"There's not a guy that plays a perfect game," Wittman said. "Guys make
mistakes. We've got to lift those guys up when those situations happen
instead of being on them for making mistakes."
Asked for specific examples, Wittman continued: "It's the whole team. We lost
our focus instead of refocusing. (We're thinking) 'Uh, here comes their run,' instead of 'we stopped it here, we're down seven in
the middle of the third quarter, we're still in the game.' "
Wittman said teams will make runs and the Wolves must survive them. They've
done at times, but that's not good enough.
"It's just a matter of doing it through the whole game," Wittman said.
Hassell starts: Trenton Hassell was back in the starting lineup Wednesday
night, replacing Marko Jaric, to match up against Sacramento's Ron Artest. It
was Hassell's first start since spraining his left ankle on March 4. He
missed four games and then was a reserve in the past three games.
Wittman said Hassell had more experience guarding Artest than Jaric, and
that's why he made the decision. He wanted a defense-oriented team on the
floor to start the game.
Briefly: Jaric averaged 32.7 minutes, six points and 4.6 assists in the past
seven games, and had a season-high seven assists at Phoenix. He has struggled
offensively, shooting just 33.8 percent since the all-star break heading into
Wednesday's game.
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