West also-rans show signs of life (cont.)

Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota's Randy Foye (left) and Sebastian Telfair have had reason to celebrate lately. AP

After starting their season with a two-point win, the Timberwolves proceeded to lose their next eight games. Included in the streak were losses by three points, by four points (in double overtime), by four points, by three points (in OT) by five points and by six points. Psychologically, that kind of stretch can be very damaging. Having seen teams go through both that and the opposite, I suspect at times we see actual records catch up to point differential because a team's play changes, not its luck.

Still, it was probably inevitable that at some point Minnesota was going to get it together, because outside of Randy Wittman's losing the team late in his tenure, the Timberwolves have been in games throughout the season. Minnesota won five straight and seven of nine before falling at the buzzer Tuesday against Miami. The Timberwolves took advantage of a weak schedule that featured three games against the other two teams in this group (and a date with the Bulls, who have somehow lost to all three of these teams).

While Minnesota improved on both ends over the nine-game stretch, its progress was most apparent at the offensive end. The Timberwolves rank only 24th in the league in Offensive Rating for the season, at 105.4 points per 100 possessions, but that number has increased to 114.3 of late -- about as well as the league's best offenses have scored over the course of the season.

A key factor in Minnesota's surge has been abandoning the Randy Foye point-guard experiment and letting him settle in as an undersized shooting guard. In the last 11 games, Foye has averaged 19.8 points while shooting 49.4 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. Foye as a shooting guard creates problems in terms of lineup construction because the Timberwolves are thin at the point -- journeyman Kevin Ollie has been starting, with Sebastian Telfair doing a nice job filling in with Ollie now sidelined by an elbow injury -- but getting production out of the seventh pick in the 2006 draft is an important step.

Quietly, Al Jefferson has done nothing but produce in two seasons in Minnesota. On a better team, Jefferson's consistent scoring and rebounding production would earn All-Star talk. Jefferson would look even better alongside a true center with length who could be the Timberwolves' primary help defender. Alas, that description doesn't match anyone on the roster, and especially not Love or Craig Smith, who has started alongside Jefferson most of the season. As for Love, as I broke down not long ago, his season has been a mixed bag.

Oklahoma City Thunder

While the Timberwolves had a rough start, no one beats the Thunder when it comes to heartbreaking losses. Oklahoma City has lost five games by a single score. Most heartbreaking might have been the loss to Denver on Jan. 2. The Ford Center celebrated Kevin Durant's go-ahead three-pointer, but the Thunder left too much time on the clock and Carmelo Anthony answered Durant's triple at the buzzer to give the Nuggets the win.

Since Scott Brooks replaced P.J. Carlesimo on the sideline, Oklahoma City has lost just twice by more than 15 points (including an odd 42-point demolition to the Timberwolves). Based on that, it should have been obvious that any talk that the Thunder might threaten the 1972-73 Sixers (9-73) for all-time NBA futility was extremely premature. Lo and behold, Oklahoma City is already two-thirds of the way to that mark and still has dramatically underperformed its point differential, which on average would translate to an extra three victories thus far.

The trend under Brooks remains the same as when I looked at the Thunder and Kevin Durant last month: The offense is much improved, the defense greatly weakened. Oklahoma City has even passed the Clippers to move out of the league's cellar offensively, but will not be able to win consistently until being able to pair solid production at both ends of the floor.

The good news for the Thunder, in the bizarre way, is that the team's veterans besides Nick Collison have generally struggled this season. That might make things more difficult for general manager Sam Presti in trying to move Earl Watson and Chris Wilcox in particular prior to the trade deadline, but it means that most of the team's surge can be tied to the young core of sophomores Durant and Jeff Green and rookie Russell Westbrook.

In that earlier column, I suggested Durant's offensive surge (which has yet to let up) should not really be credited to his move from shooting guard to small forward under Brooks. However, it does appear the position change has affected Durant's rebounding for the better. When Carlesimo was fired, Durant had a dismal 6.3 percent rebound percentage, along the lines of what he did as a rookie. Since Brooks took over, Durant has become an above-average rebounder, grabbing 10.5 percent of available boards.

What I missed then is that Westbrook, too, had benefited from the Thunder's improved floor spacing. Westbrook played as well in December as any of the league's rookie guards. He's shown a rather stunning ability to create shots for a guy who was the third or fourth option at UCLA. Despite that, Westbrook is using 25.2 percent of Oklahoma City's possessions and has been assisted on just 28 percent of his baskets. Since the coaching change, Westbrook has started to control his drives, and now the biggest question is whether he's such a capable scorer that the Thunder might want to put him at shooting guard for the long term, along the lines of what Minnesota has done with Foye.

Like Durant, Green has taken a massive step forward this season after an underwhelming rookie campaign. There's still work to be done -- Green must improve his rebounding if a starting lineup with him at power forward is to make sense, and his college profile suggests he can be a more effective interior scorer than he has showed -- but there have been enough flashes that it's reasonable to project Green as a part of Oklahoma City's core at this point.

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