Wolves Dropped At Home
Jonah BallowWolves Editor/Writer
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In a game that featured three technical fouls and one ejection, the glaring statistic was 26 turnovers for the Wolves. Facing a deep Dallas squad even without center Brendan Haywood, Minnesota could not take care of the basketball as the Mavericks scored 32 points off the Wolves mistakes.
"You are just trying to dig yourself out of a hole it's too big of an obstacle and that's been a problem for this young team all year, and it continues to be a problem. Until we correct that it's going to make it very difficult to get wins," head coach Kurt Rambis said.
Tempers flared once again at the Target Center. The hometown crowd remembers a brief confrontation in the first meeting between Dirk Nowitzki and Ryan Hollins, which eventually led to a Hollins ejection. Tonight, Hollins mixed it up with newly acquired swingman DeShawn Stevenson at the 9:15 mark of the second period. As Sasha Pavlovic shot a free throw, Stevenson and the former Mavericks big man jostled for position on the blocks. Stevenson voiced his displeasure for a non-call on Hollins and was then hit with the technical. Both players exchanged words but were separated by their teammates in a game that suddenly received a jolt of intensity.
Six minutes later, Nowitzki was whistled for a technical from the Dallas bench after recording his third personal foul in the first half. The Mavericks held a commanding lead at this point, outgunning Minnesota 64-48 behind a blistering offensive attack. However, Al Jefferson flipped a no-look pass to Ryan Gomes for a reverse layup as part of a 10-4 Wolves run in the final minutes of the second quarter to cut the lead down to ten points.
Jefferson was fantastic in his return to the floor following the two-game suspension served this past week. He jumped out to a terrific start, scoring 11 points in five minutes to give Minnesota a 21-13 first quarter lead. Dallas answered quickly, dominating the next seven minutes, outscoring the Wolves 21-6 to build a sizable advantage. Jefferson finished with 36 points, the highest scoring output for a Minnesota player this season and he also snagged a team-high 13 boards.
"My confidence has been up, I have kind of lost my confidence in the past two weeks before my little trouble and I got my confidence back and I know what I'm able to do," Jefferson said.
In the final quarter, the drama continued with Hollins attempting to steal the ball behind Nowitzki, striking him in the back of the head. The referee crew reviewed the play and confirmed Hollins was in violation of a flagrant type 2, sending the seven-footer to the locker room for the evening.
"Our guys want to win. They are trying to fight, they are being aggressive, they are trying to attack inside. I like Ryan Hollins aggressiveness, I don't always like his decision making; but I like his aggressiveness," Rambis said.
Minnesota remained within striking distance during several points of the contest but could not match the Mavericks talented group of players and 2-3 zone. Shawn Marion led Dallas with 29 points on the evening, slicing through the Wolves defense for easy buckets. The Matrix also utilized his supreme leaping ability to grab 14 rebounds.
"You have to shift the zone, you have to stay inside and then go back outside, move it around the horn all the while you are looking inside to lure the basketball," Rambis said. "But any time you try to hold it or force it, any time you telegraph passes you are going to be in trouble because they have too many eyes focusing on the ball. So our guys did not do a good job in those areas."
Offensively, the Wolves shot 47.7 percent from the floor and six players scored in double figures. Kevin Love seemed frustrated while matching up against the Mavericks athletic frontline. Usually Love is a surefire double-double, tonight, he only played 12 minutes and scored six points on 1-for-7 shooting.
"[Kevin] didn't look like he had any energy to play in stretches, also a lot of it had to do with matchups, keeping an inside presence scoring inside for us as well as somebody out there that could match up with Dirk," Rambis said.
Minnesota will have little time to worry about the loss that dropped the team to 14-50 on the season. The third-best team in the Western Conference marches into town on Wednesday night as the Wolves host Denver at the Target Center.
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