MINNEAPOLIS -- When Nikola Pekovic discusses his and the
Timberwolves' recent shortcomings, the only vibe emitted is dogged insistence
this is only temporary.
Oh, he's been irked, alright. Hard not to be when rebounds
keep bouncing off his gargantuan hands and shots made with apparent ease a year
ago are clanging off the back iron.
But frustration is tantamount to fuel in the Minnesota
center's world. The Timberwolves have experienced plenty of it during their
past two outings following a 3-0 start.
They might as well use it, Pekovic said.
"Of course, you're gonna be frustrated," Pekovic
told reporters Thursday. "When you stop being frustrated, when you stop
thinking about that, that's the point when you realize that you don't care. I
think when you're frustrated, until some point, I think that's good for a
player."
Through five games, the 6-foot-11, 285-pound giant hasn't
resembled the one that asserted himself as one of the NBA's best offensive
centers last season and earned a maximum-length contract extension as a result.
Pekovic is shooting 38.9 percent from the floor -- he's yet to shoot less than
50 percent in a full season -- and has almost as many turnovers (13) as
offensive rebounds (15). He ranked 13th in the league last year in offensive
boards.
He's hurrying things, coach Rick Adelman said, and is still
adjusting to life with Kevin Love back on the block opposite him and Kevin
Martin on the wing.
Last year, Pekovic became injury-rocked Minnesota's
clear-cut, No. 1 offensive option. The touches and opportunities are fewer and
further between this time around, so there's more of an impetus to make the
most of them.
It'll come, Pekovic has said since the beginning of training
camp.
"It's normal, because we don't play together for so
long," said Pekovic, who looked particularly lackadaisical in a 10-point,
seven-rebound effort Wednesday against Golden State. "It will come all
together. It will be fine. The first three games, everything looked great. But
then when you lose, you start seeing why didn't we do this, why didn't this
happen.
"I know that everybody is doing everything in their
power to make my life easier and I'm doing everything to make their life
easier."
That was Adelman's focus when asked about his Montenegrin
big man's early season struggles. Pekovic must slow things down a bit, but his
lower production level is a reflection of outstanding, team-wide issues.
A lengthy film session Thursday brought them to plain light,
Adelman said.
"What is this play?" Adelman said he asked his team
several times during the video review, "'because I don't recognize it.
"I told them we were in the first week of training camp
in that game, watching the stuff that we did. It's uncalled for. You can get
beat, but you don't have to hand it to them."
The two outstanding headaches: offensive ball movement and
defensive rotation. The past two outings featured a dearth of both.
Adelman didn't earn his reputation as an offensive genius by
employing overload and isolation schemes; Timberwolves players are expected to
cut without the ball -- sometimes to generate their own looks at the basket,
others to open something up for a teammate -- and whoever has it is supposed to
find them.
Neither didn't happen enough Wednesday or Monday in a loss
at Cleveland.
"I don't think we have any selfish players, but we're
playing selfish right now," Adelman said. "It's not so much you don't
pass the ball, it's you don't make the right cuts, you don't get the right
spots. We're short-cutting a lot of stuff offensively."
The same could be said on defense. The second-man assistance
that bottled up Kevin Durant and kept Carmelo Anthony quiet last weekend was
nowhere to be found Wednesday, especially in the fourth quarter as Klay
Thompson found a hot hand from 3-point range and allowed the Warriors to run
away.
Adelman even switched to a zone at one point to alleviate
pressure on J.J. Barea, who was charged with guarding Thompson, but to no
avail.
"Sometimes you have good nights, sometimes you have bad
night," Pekovic said. "Sometimes on bad nights, you need to push
more, play better defense."
The absences of center Ronny Turiaf (elbow fracture) and
wing Chase Budinger (meniscus surgery) loom large at the moment. They leave
Gorgui Dieng and Alexey Shved as the only realistic backups for Pekovic and
Martin, respectively, and neither sub has been effective.
Dieng's still adjusting to professional hoops and learning
how to avoid foul trouble. The Louisville product has at least three fouls in
each of his three games played so far.
Shved appears to be in an even more dire mental state,
frequently driving or chucking up off-balanced jumpers rather than patiently
waiting for opportunities.
"We're trying to think we're going to bulldoze
everybody and just get there," Adelman said when asked about Shved.
"You can't play that way. And it's hard, especially for guys off the
bench, because they want to make something happen so they can get more minutes.
But it's a fine line."
Fortunately for Minnesota,
chances for correction come swiftly in the NBA. The Timberwolves' next
one is Friday when Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks come to town.
Heading into that 7 p.m. tip, the Timberwolves' first 3-0
start in more than a decade feels like it took place a long time ago.
That's not all bad, Pekovic said.
