After being one of the top stories for the first 10 weeks of the season, the Timberwolves are struggling.  Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune pinpoints Wally Szczerbiak as the issue.

Citing his single shot in the fourth quarter against Sacramento, he says that Szczerbiak "was either in the wrong place -- constantly -- or he was being frozen out."  Apparently Szczerbiak felt pretty strongly it was the latter.

Reusse compares the downward spiral of the T'Wolves the past while to the problems the NFL Vikings had this season: "The Wolves found out the same thing about themselves ... that the Vikings had discovered a year earlier: They were willing to quit on one another.  Once you have done that, it is hard to trust your teammates. Those screaming matches you saw on the Vikings sideline this season? Those were players who did not trust one another."

That was Sunday. Monday coach Flip Saunders did not agree with Wally's sentiments, stating "To freeze somebody out on any of the 29 teams, that is extremely difficult. Do you know how good you have to be to do that? There's not enough good players to do that and if somebody does that, the coach is not going to play them."

"Do players miss open guys? Yeah," Saunders said. "It's magnified because teams are playing Wally differently the last 2 1/2 weeks than the first three months. Teams are not leaving him at all and when they do, it's like a breath of fresh air. He wants the ball. It gets to be a frustration for everyone, but there's no malice from anybody."