Entering a cold winter

Thanks to some corporate seats, I was about 12 rows up on the side from Ramon Sessions when he missed the first of two free throws last night. All he had was an opportunity to last night's game in the closing seconds and potentially force overtime against the Memphis Grizzlies.

I watched the Wolves melt down, again, in the third quarter and give up control of a game that they owned in the first half. I watched defense -- especially on Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph -- become super soft.

A postgame beer later, I walked out into a brisk night and it hit me: This is all we've got. The Timberwolves are a bad team and even though Kevin Love could be back as soon as Friday night, I'm not sure things are going to really change.

Because let's be honest. If you can't beat a bad Memphis team that was playing the final game of a five game road trip at home, how good can you really be?

I tried to be optimistic even as the Wolves won game after game. I thought it was the schedule and that the home losses weren't really all that bad. But nobody is going to confuse Memphis with the Lakers or the Celtics. While the Grizzlies do have a few good players, there doesn't seem to be a big team concept going on there.

And if you can't beat a Griz team with an injured point guard, who are you going to beat?

It has been five weeks since the Wolves won their home opener. When are they going to win again at Target Center?

I truly thought this team would be improved over a year ago. Damn was I wrong. And it's going to be a long, cold winter.