Wolves Casey draws line at hard competition
No NBA player wants to be embarrassed. No NBA coach wants to see his team
humiliated on its home court, with a blowout score turned into something more
mocking.
Then again, no NBA player or coach is likely to admit publicly that he would
either a) rub an opponent's nose in it the way the Denver Nuggets are alleged
to have done Saturday night in New York, or b) push back to the point of
hard, even violent fouls the way the Knicks supposedly did in precipitating
that ugly skirmish at Madison Square Garden.
In penalties announced Monday by the league, seven players were suspended for
a total of 47 games without pay -- Denver's Carmelo Anthony, who threw the
most glaring punch, will miss 15 -- and the two teams will pay a combined $1
million in fines.
How would the Timberwolves react, if they were on either side of that
situation? Head coach Dwane Casey walked the question as if it were a
tightrope.
"It's a competitive game," Casey said. "Nobody likes to be shown up. You
don't want it to escalate into a fight. But you hope that your players are
competitive enough to compete back and play to the end of the game, no matter
what the score is. You definitely don't want to get embarrassed. The key word
is compete."
Not fight.
Casey declined to comment on specifics of the incident, sparked when New
York's Mardy Collins grabbed Denver's J.R. Smith around the neck for a
flagrant foul with 75 seconds left in what became the Nuggets' 123-100
victory. Smith reacted angrily, then wrestled with Knicks guard Nate Robinson
in a scrum that spilled into the front row. Moments later, Anthony slugged
Collins, reigniting the skirmish. Ten players were ejected.
Neither coach was penalized, but both had doubters: Denver's George Karl had
veterans Anthony and Marcus Camby on the floor late in a lopsided game,
reportedly to punish New York's Isiah Thomas for his firing of Karl pal Larry
Brown this summer. And Thomas was accused of warning Anthony that he could be
fouled hard if he ventured near the basket late in the blowout.
Casey's take?
"I'm not fearing the other team. I'd be more fearful of injury," the Wolves
coach said. "The game is over. I would want to save my players from time on
their legs and injuries."
Forward Mark Madsen, who has given and taken hard fouls, talked about an
unwritten rule that starters sit and reserves play as hard as they can late
in lopsided games.
"I don't know why those [Denver] guys were on the court at the time," Madsen
said. "But at the same time, it's not my place to try to get inside the
defender's psyche to find out why that would happen."
Madsen said he could relate to Collins, a rookie trying to impress a coach
who values toughness. He also said he could relate to Smith, who had a flashy
dunk not long before his final breakaway.
"Guys are showmen," he said. "You might not like it. You might want to pay
them back. But you pay them back [next time] with basketball, not fighting."
Madsen on mend
Madsen practiced Monday, then went through extra ball drills afterward. But
Casey said he likely wouldn't decide until Wednesday whether the backup
forward would face the Lakers.
Defensively blurry
Scoring 104 points on the Bucks on Saturday was no biggie; that is
Milwaukee's defensive average. But giving up 108 was a bad night for the
Wolves, who had been giving up just 92.5 in 20 previous games.
"We didn't come into the game with the defensive mentality that we've had the
entire year," Casey said. "We were gambling, taking ourselves out of plays,
doing stuff out of character. I'm not saying we weren't aggressive. But with
that, we have to be disciplined."
Who loves ya?
A recent ESPN.com poll asked the question: Which team needs Philadelphia
guard Allen Iverson more? Of the 68,150 respondents, 61 percent picked the
Wolves. Miami, with 15 percent, was second.
原文：http://www.startribune.com/511/story/884251.html
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