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Kevin Love of the minnesota Timberwolves plays against Vince Carter of the New Jersey Nets during their game in Eat Rutherford. New Jersey, December 5, 2008. The Nets defeated the Timberwolves113-84. (EFE/JASON SZENES)
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12/06/2008 0:00am
Timberwolves stomped by New Jersey Nets for third road loss in five days
Dec. 6--EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Timberwolves reached the end of the road Friday night in much the same way as a driver who falls asleep at the wheel.
Playing their third road game in five days, the Wolves looked like a tired team, starting sluggishly and never waking up in their worst loss of the season, a 113-84 stomping by the New Jersey Nets.
That ended a 0-3 road trip for Minnesota, which has lost four straight and dropped to 3-6 since owner Glen Taylor gave coach Randy Wittman a vote of confidence.
This latest loss and losing streak might not change that, but team vice president Kevin McHale, who was along for the ugly trip, couldn't have liked what he saw.
Wittman said he didn't think fatigue was a factor and wouldn't fault his team's effort, but guard Randy Foye strongly disagreed.
"It ain't got nothing to do with the schedule," he said. "It's just we didn't get the effort tonight. That's all. You've got to come out and give the effort every night."
The Wolves played without sharpshooter Mike Miller, who was inactive because of a sprained right ankle, but Foye said that was no excuse.
"You've got to bring it," he said. "Three games in five nights, you can't really use none of that for an excuse. We're all professional players. We've been through this before. We know how tough the schedule is. We've got to prepare for this. Tonight, the effort just wasn't there."
Foye did his part with 20 points, and Al Jefferson added 17 to go
with 12 rebounds, but it wasn't nearly enough for the Wolves, who come home to face the Los Angeles Clippers tonight.
Foye went as far as to call that a must-win game.
"We have to win this game tomorrow," he said. "We've got to come out and play our tails off. We have to win. There's no more excuses. We've got to go out there and put it all on the line."
Wittman didn't like his team's 17 turnovers but said he thought his players did a good job of fighting through things, at least for a half.
"The effort's there," he said. "We go through too many lulls offensively that kind of zap our energy a little bit."
Wittman gave some credit for that to the Nets, who hit 14 of 28 from three-point range and got 50 points from Vince Carter (18), Yi Jianlian (16) and Devin Harris (16).
"It takes a lot out of you when they're hitting threes like that," Foye said. "You're giving it all you've got and play defense, defense, defense, and they shoot a rainbow three. ... It takes a lot out of you."
Yi had four three-pointers among his six baskets for New Jersey, which raced to a 31-17 first-quarter lead and never really looked back.
The Wolves clawed back to a 50-41 deficit by halftime, but the Nets erupted for 33 points in the third quarter to make it a 17-point game, and the rout was on.
While the home team was draining threes, the Wolves were hit with three technical fouls, on Sebastian Telfair, Wittman and Craig Smith.
Foye, asked if that was a sign of frustration, said there was a lot of it to go around.
"I felt as though that's a team we could have beat," he said. "If we'd have played hard for 48 minutes, that's a team we could have had beat. Because when we didn't want them to score, they didn't score."
It was a particularly frustrating game for Kevin Ollie, who got his second consecutive start at point guard but ran into early foul trouble and played just over seven minutes.
He called it a tough night but said he doesn't think losing is wearing on the Wolves or sapping their spirit.
"I hope not," he said. "We're just going to come in here and keep working hard, keep listening to coach Witt, and hopefully we can change this thing around. ... There's no cavalry coming here to save us, so players in here have got to change it around."
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