The Timberwolves spent most of October engrossed in improving their team defense, an objective that yielded success in their season-opening victory over Sacramento and what coach Randy Wittman termed mistrust in Saturday's loss to Dallas.
What Wittman wants to see this season is a remade team capable of creating offense from its defense. "Our defense wasn't a very major part of our offense last year, and that's got to be a better thing for us," Wittman said. "For us to make another jump, we're going to have to win games with better defense. As we move on, we won't have to worry about our offense. We'll have to worry about stopping guys."
In Wednesday's opener, veteran guard Kevin Ollie forced a turnover, rookie Kevin Love gathered the ball and threw an instant over-the-head, two-handed outlet pass to Corey Brewer, who streaked for a dunk, a play that got Target Center fans up on their feet.
"I like being the energy guy out on the court," Brewer said.
On Saturday against the Mavericks, Wittman lamented a team that regressed from opening night and didn't "trust" each other on defense. Either that or it simply was a case of playing an opponent that won 38 games last season one night and facing one that has averaged 57 victory over the last eight seasons three nights later.
"The problem with tonight's game at both ends of the floor is we don't have that trust factor," Wittman said. "It's not a matter of effort, not a matter of trying. We did a lot of good things tonight, too. When we're trusting each other at both ends of the floor, we're pretty good, and when we don't, we look really bad.
"If we just trust each other, we've got enough good players on this team that if they want to handle it that way, then we're going to do this. Trust me."
MAVERICKS 95, TIMBERWOLVES 85: Trailing by 11 points after one quarter, by just one not long before halftime, the Wolves briefly led by a point 84 seconds into the second half. However, they lost for the first time this season Saturday on a night when they played a game coach Randy Wittman thought they could have won.
The Wolves trailed 90-85 with less than two minutes remaining, but they couldn't get any closer. They made the free throws they missed in Wednesday's opener -- 22-for-24 compared to 11-for-22 -- but again relied on too many jump shots and never really got Al Jefferson going. They scored 44 points from the paint, a number that would have been higher if they hadn't missed numerous additional opportunities near the rim.
Minnesota shot only 1-for-12 from 3-point range, and Jefferson labored through a 5-for-15 shooting night because he was forced to take too many outside shots and got trapped in too many double teams. He had 14 points, 12 rebounds and four turnovers, while Rashad McCants led the Wolves with 18 points off the bench.
