Shootout in San Antonio

Heading into Wednesday night's Western Conference showdown against the Southwest Division leading San Antonio Spurs (16-6), the Wolves four-game win streak is certainly on the line. Wins against Philly, Houston, Utah and Chicago were spurred by excellent team defense and improved ball movement on offense, both of which Minnesota will need to grab their fifth straight W.

We talked to assistant coach Rex Kalamian to figure out how the Wolves plan on playing San Antonio. Check it out.

Mike Trudell: Hey coach, let's talk about the Spurs. First of all, how does Kevin Garnett being able to guard Tim Duncan one-on-one help you guys control San Antonio?
Rex Kalamian: What we're going to try and do is put Garnett on Duncan straight up and not give KG much help. I think where the Spurs get teams is when you have to double team, they're such willing passers out of the post. It's a great passing team. So if we do double, it'll be as a last resort. What they've been doing with Tim is putting four shooters around him, and we saw that Brent Barry had a phenomenal night shooting the ball (Monday) night. We all know that Michael Finley and Bruce Bowen can shoot the three as well.

MT: So it's KG 1-on-1 with Timmy, and your perimeter guys trying to contain the shooters. Not having to double should be huge, because Duncan had six assists on Monday and five on Sunday passing out of double teams.
RK: He's a very good passer, especially once the ball goes into the post and guys cut off him. Tony Parker usually is the recipient of a lot of easy layups, because Duncan is so good at dropping the ball off in perfect position. It's something we're going to have to be aware of. They are a hard-cutting team and are always in their spots. They are like clock work - they all know where each other are going to be at all times, both on the perimeter and on the boxes. They are a very disciplined offensive team.

MT: Speaking of Tony Parker...well, aside from the fact that he's engaged to Eva Longoria...is he the quickest player in the NBA?
RK: He's incredibly tough, especially when he's in the pick and roll. To me he's one of the fastest players in the league if not the fastest with the ball in his hand. In the past couple of weeks we've had guys like Chris Paul and Kirk Hinrich that we've had to contain, and this will be a similar type of game where you have to keep the point guard out of the paint. The lesser of two evils is making him shoot jump shots as opposed to attacking your bigs, getting them in foul trouble and finishing at the rim. I can see us trying to wall him out of the paint area and turn him into a shooter. He's a difficult cover for anybody, especially when he gets to the middle of the floor with Tim Duncan setting the screen. We're probably going to rotate different players on him.

MT: The other really tough cover on the Spurs is of course Manu Ginobli, about whom Charles Barkley often says, "That's a bad white boy."
RK: Yeah. Manu has a thousand different moves. Sometimes I think he just creates moves as he's doing them. He has a great up-and-under move, and is very good at getting defenders off their feet. He's a great three-point shooter, and has a knack for finishing off-balance with his left hand. He's the kind of guy you want to keep away from the ball, because when he has the ball and is in rhythm he's very tough to stop. He's back from a back injury that kept him out of a few games last year, but you want to try to jump on him early, limit his points, and not help too much off him. He's at his best when he has some freedom to roam.

MT: See Rex this is why you're a good interview, I just mention a name and you hook up the whole scouting report on the guy. But let's talk about how to attack the Spurs when we have the ball. They've been quite solid defensively since Beverly Hills 90210 went off the air.
RK: I think you have to take aspects of whom you're playing against, so it's not necessarily the entire defense, but whom do you want to attack within the defense. Without going into any names, I think they have some weak links on their defensive end that we can attack. I think you'll see a lot of pick and roll out of us. They'll probably put Bruce Bowen, their best defensive player, on Ricky Davis, our best perimeter offensive player, and try to take him out of the game. We're going to come up with some things to free up Ricky, with a lot of movement off the ball and a lot of screening. I don't think it's going to be a game where we'll pass it into KG and stand. The space-out game is not going to work against them.

MT: So you need a lot of action from your guys to have offensive success...
RK: Right, it's the cutting, creating, pick and rolls, diving and a lot of movement that you need. When you play against a good defense, you need a lot of movement in your offense, which is what we've worked on in practice.

MT: Does Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich do what Jazz coach Jerry Sloan does in keeping defenders under screens and allowing guards to shoot jumpers out of the pick and roll? And if so, do you think Mike James will get some open looks?
RK: I do. We talked about that Tuesday morning. A lot of times they will go under pick and rolls, because their bigs like Duncan don't really pop out and prevent jumpers. We're going to test that early and see what they're doing. However, they have the ability to read off each other, so if the point guard is playing the pick and roll a certain way, the big guy will recognize it. They'll make adjustments during the game because they have a foundation that's been built after seven or eight years of playing together.

MT: We've talked about that being a place you want to get with this defense. So far things are going well: right now, the Wolves are third in the NBA in points allowed (92.3). The Spurs are second (91.3).
RK: That is what we're trying to do, build a foundation defensively. They've been doing it for years, but with the addition of some of our new guys, we're still building it.

MT: OK. Offensively, our ball movement has been pretty good the last few games, with the assists totals being high as the Wolves spread the rock around. How important is that movement to the success of your offense?
RK: Well it's ball movement and it's body movement. You need those two things. The ball has to be moving, and once it leaves your hand, your body needs to move. You need to make the defense move its feet and adjust. The other night against Chicago, we had 16 assists on 20 baskets in the first half, and that was indicative of how we were moving the basketball, sharing and getting easy shots. If players understand that the next shot is a better shot, we'll be a difficult team to contend with. We have a lot of weapons, and if we make the extra pass we'll be very tough.

MT: Anything else we should know about the Spurs heading into Wednesday night's 7:00 p.m. contest, which can be seen on KSTC 45 and heard on BOB 106.1?
RK: You know what, they are a phenomenal shooting team from the perimeter. Barry, Finley and Bowen are ball movers and great shooters. The ball doesn't stick to their hands. When I say ball movers, I mean when they catch the ball, it's out of their hands immediately if they don't have a good shot. They are the type of team a lot of teams want to emulate in terms of moving the ball offensively. We have to contend with that, play fast basketball at times, play good defense, and take smart shots offensively to limit their ability to break out.

MT: As always coach, thanks for the knowledge, and good luck tonight.