The wheels have fallen off....

Do you remember the good ol' days? You know all the way back to last Wednesday?

Remember when Al Jefferson made that shot with 9:50 to go in the third quarter against the Celtics? The Timberwolves led Boston, 56-45. Target Center was jumping. That smug punk Kevin Garnett was, hopefully, going to take himself to Boston with a loss. Things were great.

It seems so long ago now doesn't it?

Because what we've seen since then has been beyond awful. 

Over the final 21:50 of what would be a one-point loss to the Celtics, the Wolves were outscored 47-35. They followed that up with a no-rebounding 87-72 loss to Milwaukee. Next up was a 116-93 loss at Portland and last night's 146-105 embarrassment at Golden State.

Add that up and the math is really ugly. Over those 3-plus games, the Wolves have been outscored 396-305. Yes, they have been outscored by 91 points over a little less than 166 minutes. 

How is that even possible?

In the losses to Milwaukee, Portland and Golden State, opponents shot 49.8 percent from the floor and 44.8 percent on 3s. That, my friends, is defense that can be best described as close to zero. Or less than zero. 

While I can accept the loss at Portland, I have a far harder time with the Milwaukee and Golden State losses. These are not playoff teams. These are not rosters filled with talent. These are peers of the Timberwolves. And if this is how the Wolves measure up with teams like them, it is going to be a long winter in the Twin Cities.

A couple of other things:

1. Remember that Oleksiy Pecherov dude? He played six minutes against Golden State. Yes, six. I understand that the way that the Warriors spread the floor doesn't really fit Pecherov's ability. But this is the same guy who really dominated KG less than a week earlier.

2. ESPN.com's John Hollinger and Chad Ford wrote an interesting piece today in which they did power rankings for where the 30 NBA franchises are based on the next three years. They looked at player, management, money, market and upcoming draft picks. The good news is that the Wolves weren't last. The bad news is that they are in the bottom third, ranking 22nd. The team was dinged for management (26th), the market (28th, and weather was used against us) and current players (21st). The good news is money (8th) and draft (7th). The overall ranking was 10th in the Western Conference. 

I thought a couple of the results were interesting: Portland was first, Oklahoma City was 4th and Phoenix was 27th. Certainly worth a read. And the franchises the Wolves were ranked ahead of: New Orleans, Washington, Memphis, Golden State, Phoenix, Sacto, Milwaukee and (drumroll, please) Charlotte.