We’re Going Streaking

Let's Get This Party Started

If the Timberwolves wish to make the postseason, they best go ahead and win the next eight games. The next eight games they play, they should be favored, including…

March 1 at Sacramento (20–37) – On three full days rest, with Pekovic likely back

March 3 at Denver (25–31) – Against a team that has been regularly getting chewed out by its rookie coach

March 5 home vs New York (21–36) – Against a team they blew out earlier in the year whose PG just got distractingly arrested on some strange gun charges

March 7 home vs Detroit (23–35) – Against a team that will fold if you jump on them, like the Wolves seem to do to almost everyone in the first qtr this season

March 9 home vs Toronto (32–25) – A tough opponent, but one the Wolves should beat on their home floor—and want to get revenge on for the whitewashing they were served earlier in Toronto this season

March 11 home vs Milwaukee (11–45) – To finish up a weeklong homestand against the team with the worst record in the NBA

March 14 at Charlotte (27–30) – Which might be the toughest team to beat in this eight-game stretch but one the Wolves are easily more talented than

March 16 home vs Sacramento (20–37) – Against a team that they (hopefully) beat 15 days ago

A nice win streak is something that’s been glaringly missing from the Timberwolves’ season thus far. Or from the Timberwolves’ franchise since Kevin Garnett left.  In fact, since Kevin Garnett was traded from the Timberwolves to the Boston Celtics on July 31, 2007, the Minnesota Timberwolves have endured losing streaks of 5 games or longer 32 times (including two 15-game losing streaks and a 16-game losing streak). They have gone on exactly ONE winning streak of 5 or more games in that time. Let me repeat: Since 2007, the Timberwolves have had 32 losing streaks and 1 damn winning streak.

That one winning streak happened in January of 2009, Kevin Love’s rookie season. Kevin McHale had just canned Randy Wittman and trickled down to the bench to coach the team himself, they’d just recently lost 13 in a row, and then they beat the Warriors, Bulls, Grizz, Thunder, and Bucks to start the New Year. I remember thinking,

Randy, Randy, Randy, I can't let you go....

“Wow, Randy Foye is really starting to heat up and might actually be something, Kevin Love is a really good rebounder, and Big Al Jefferson is getting all grows up.” And then Big Al tore up his knee and the Wolves sucked again for many moons.

But what I’m telling you is that the Wolves have, in front of them, over the next three weeks, a chance to make history here. If they win their next eight games—which they will be favored to do—they would be the owners of a 9-game winning streak (tacking on last Tuesday’s nice win in Phoenix), which would be the longest such Wolves streak since 2001–2002, when they won nine straight. These kind of streaks change things like attitudes, minds, winds, landscapes. A nine-game win streak might make Ricky Rubio shoot with more confidence. A nine-game win streak might rile up and light a fire in ol' Rick Adelman.  A nine-game win streak might show Kevin Love how team success easily trumps personal accolade. It might make JJ Barea pass the ball more, make Kevin Martin show some heart, make Chase Buddinger's knee feel better, make Alexey Shved shake the doldrums. And Pekovic becomes Shaq-like, and Gorgui Dieng channels Dikembe Mutombo, and Shabazz Muhammad is Vinnie The Microwave Johnson 2.0, and Robbie Hummel shoots every open shot he gets and never misses again, each attempt arcing like a well-hit home run, destined for twine, money from the moment of conception, kissing us with swish.

Wouldn’t it be nice?

Nate’s Notes:

Did you know that the Wolves longest win streak in franchise history is 11 games? This was accomplished in 2000–2001, when the starting lineup was: KG at PF, Rasho Nesterovic at C, Terrell Brandon at PG, Anthony Peeler at SG, and Wally Szczerbiak at SF. LaPhonso Ellis, Chauncy Billups, and Sudden Sam Mitchell off the bench. Went 47–35 that year and got bounced out of the playoffs by the Spurs in the first round

L-R: No D, No Authority, No Polish, circa 2009

…During the Timberwolves’ franchise-worst 16-game losing streak in 2010, the starting lineup was: Al Jefferson (PF), Darko Milicic (C), Jonny Flynn (PG), Ryan Gomes (PF), and Corey Brewer (SG). Young Love off the bench. Kurt Rambis was in (cough) charge, and things were damn bleak…The Twins, by comparison, stunk pretty bad last year (6 streaks of 5 or more consecutive losses), but even they had a win streak of five games.