Wolves Taken Down by Rockets
Jonah BallowWolves Editor/Writer
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"I didn’t feel like they were ready to play. They should have brought more energy. They played a team that played last night. They did in small pockets and short periods of time but they didn’t sustain it," head coach Kurt Rambis said.
An undersized Rockets squad was resilient after suffering a loss to Phoenix on Tuesday night by defeating the Wolves 97-84 at the Target Center. While improving to 7-5 on the season, Houston gained separation in the fourth quarter as Luis Scola recorded eight of his 20 points in the final stanza. The Rockets determined approach led to 44 points in the paint and they pounded the glass for a 46-36 rebounding advantage.
"To me, learning how to play hard, learning how to be ready, those are all acquired skills. They have to learn how to do that. Some guys have it growing up; some guys have it right from the beginning. I've always felt that even though they get paid, and are technically professionals, the true professionals are the ones that can bring it every night," Rambis said. Minnesota's second unit propelled the team to a 9-3 run and a one-point lead with less than one minute remaining in the third quarter. Rambis utilized the combination of Ramon Sessions, Sasha Pavlovic, Damien Wilkins, Oleksiy Pecherov, and Nathan Jawai to equalize the intensity from the Rockets.
"Ramon [Sessions] did some good things good things out there. I though [Oleksiy] Pecherov did some good things out there for a while," Rambis said.
Sessions eclipsed his season-high with 16 points off the bench on 7-for-11 shooting. The former Bucks guard directed the offense, dishing out five assists. Most of the offense generated from Sessions was a direct result of lively hands in the passing lanes and he finished with three steals on the night.
Pecherov seemed to gain the confident swagger back by scoring 12 points in 21 minutes of court action, the best performance since his 24-point outburst against Boston two weeks ago. Showing his proclivity to shoot the 3-ball, Pecherov shot 50 percent behind the arc.
"It is all of the little things," Rambis said. "These little grains of sand, that turns into mountains for us. Again, that is the mark of youth and inexperience. Good teams don’t allow themselves to make mistakes."
On the positive side for the Wolves, Big Al looked to have a bounce in his step after missing two games due the death of his grandmother. Jefferson's first miss of the contest occurred at the 8:52 mark of the fourth quarter. Through three periods of action, Jefferson hit all eight of his attempts from the field and was 2-for-2 at the charity stripe. Jefferson has dealt with conditioning issues for a majority of the season but capitalized on several perimeter shots against Houston. Wolves' fans should be optimistic about the fresh legs from No. 25 despite a brief scare in the fourth quarter. Jefferson was able to return to game action after Carl Landry inadvertently kicked him in the face at the mid-point of the period.
"He was energized and ready to play. He seemed more natural, and more his full self in the first half," Rambis said.
At 1-11, Minnesota will have two days to prepare for another difficult matchup against the Blazers on Saturday night.
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