Blount Starts Against Wizards
By Rick Alonzo, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Feb. 22–WASHINGTON — The Timberwolves’ offensive efficiency has taken a hit in recent weeks.
Wolves coach Dwane Casey believes a change in the starting lineup will help.
Casey inserted center Mark Blount into the starting lineup Wednesday night against Washington. The Wolves went into the game shooting 44.2 percent in February, by far the worst shooting month of the season.
The Wolves also were averaging only 88.9 points this month, also their worst, while compiling a 2-7 record heading into the Wizards game. Casey hoped that Blount would give the team more spark on offense.
With Mark Madsen in the starting lineup, defenders were sagging off Madsen and putting more pressure on other shooters. Blount has nice touch on midrange jump shots that Madsen lacks. Casey thinks that will help give Minnesota better spacing on offense.
It appears Blount will remain in the starting lineup for a while for the Wolves, who have 29 games remaining to make a playoff push.
Blount, a 7-footer who ranked 10th in the NBA in field-goal accuracy (51.9 percent) heading into the Wizards game, was acquired in the Jan. 26 multiplayer trade with Boston. He averaged 9.8 points on 58.3 percent shooting in the four games before Wednesday.
“We’ve got to try everything to get better and in a groove,” Casey said. “I’ve seen flashes of real good basketball from Mark Blount. I think getting him in the starting lineup will give him a little bit more ownership, a little bit more opportunity to score early in the game.”
As for Blount, he didn’t seem fazed by making his first start as a Wolf.
“I’ve started. I’ve been the first man off the bench. I’ve been the last man off the bench,” he said before the game. “It doesn’t make a difference to me. You still have to play (well).”
Touting Arenas: Casey said Wizards all-star Gilbert Arenas ranks with Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant in terms of the league’s best scorers. Arenas began the night ranked fourth in the NBA in scoring with 28.3 points a game.
Casey said he planned to use man-to-man and zone defenses against Arenas, who scored only 12 points on 4-of-22 shooting in the Wizards’ previous game last week on the road against Dallas. Two days earlier he scored 43 against New Orleans/Oklahoma City.
Arenas scorched the Timberwolves with a game-high 34 points on 14-for-23 shooting and had five assists.
“He gets them in so many different ways,” Casey said. “He is as quick as Iverson with the ball, probably not from coast to coast, but from a standstill going to the basket, he is as quick.”
Briefly: Reserve Wolves point guard Marko Jaric, who had been listed as inactive for the previous three games because of tendinitis in his left knee, was on the active list Wednesday.
— Casey said in the games immediately after the trade, he sometimes would use Boston’s terminology to call plays so his four newcomers would better understand Minnesota’s corresponding schemes.
Rick Alonzo can be reached at ralonzo@pioneerpress.com.
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