Wednesday night the Minnesota Timberwolves took on the Houston Rockets at home in the Target Center. The game ended almost identically to the all of the games Jonny Flynn and the Wolves have been playing recently. They lost 97-84.
As a whole, the Wolves roster were sloppy and inconsistent. Flynn mirrored this, in 23 minutes of game time he scored just 9 points, one rebound and 3 turnovers. Not only could Flynn not find the hoop himself, he did not help the rest of the Timberwolves get there either, as evidenced by his 2 assists for the whole night. Al Jefferson came back to the roster after taking time off to be with his family following the death of his grandmother. Jefferson scored 20 points, posted 10 rebounds and had 4 assists with only 10 more minutes of playing time than Flynn received, an indication the rookie has a lot of learning to do.
Why does it matter? If Jefferson is able to score with the triangle offense that Timberwolves Head Coach Kurt Rambis is playing, Flynn should be able to as well. Flynn seems to be resisting this new style of play and sticking to what he knows. While ultimately the Timberwolves need to rally behind one offensive strategy, currently the triangle doesn’t seem to be it. What isn’t working with Rambis’ movement strategy is the Wolves turn-over rate. At half-time the Timberwolves had 14 turn-overs, a number they were averaging for an entire game until recently. If Rambis wants the Wolves to pass the ball and use movement to his advantage, he may want to spend some time in practice teaching his players to pass to each other and not the other team.
The Minnesota Timberwolves and Jonny Flynn play again Saturday, November 21st in Portland.
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