This is not the first time Wolves fans have heard this.
But after the Wolves started the first half of Sunday's game against Indiana at Target Center looking half-asleep, coach Flip Saunders once again spent a good bit of his postgame news conference talking about a lack of energy and urgency.
"I told our guys what was most disappointing — and it was pointed at the young guys — was they had no energy to start the game," said Saunders after a 100-96 loss. "When you're playing young players, and you have that many wasted minutes, you're going to struggle. We didn't play as hard as we needed to play in the first half.''
Saunders has said this before. And he appeared to be grasping for explanations for why the Wolves (5-21) would come out so flat, missing 13 of their first 14 shots, playing poorly on defense, allowing themselves to fall behind by as many as 10 points in the first quarter and by 16 in the second.
To be fair, the Wolves rallied, hard. Down 19 early in the third quarter the Wolves — led by Shabazz Muhammad and Mo Williams off the bench — got within three in the third quarter and held a brief one-point lead in the fourth. But the Pacers, led by C.J. Miles' 28 points, never faltered.
In a game between two teams looking for just their second December win, it was the Pacers who had the energy from the start.
But why the flat start? Maybe the young players feel a bit enabled, Saunders said, because they know they're going to play no matter what simply because of all the injuries. Maybe playing in a season that has been labeled as a year of development has meant losing has lost its sting.
"No matter what, if they don't play they'll have to sit," Saunders said. "They have to play the right way."
Muhammad, who continues to score even when opponents focus on stopping him, had 21 points and six rebounds. Williams, still playing with a sore back, had 24 points and 10 assists. It was Williams' three-pointer with 2:31 left that gave the Wolves a 92-91 lead.
But Miles answered with a three-pointer. After Gorgui Dieng (10 points, seven rebounds) tied the game at 94 with two free throws with 1:36 left, the Pacers scored the next four points, taking control for good.
"You have to [make a statement] on how you're going to play the game," said Chase Budinger, who scored 13 points off the bench. He noted the Pacers were playing their fourth game in seven nights and had played in Denver on Saturday. "You have to bring the energy. You have to be the aggressors."
And while the Wolves picked it up in the second half, a tone had been set. The Pacers (9-19) came into the game at or near the bottom in scoring and shooting and shot 50 percent for the first time this season.
Center Roy Hibbert had 15 points and eight rebounds and David West had 14 points.
The difficulties of playing so many young players appears to be wearing on Saunders, who pinned both the slow start and the skittish finish on youth; he pointed to Muhammad's offensive foul late in the game with the score tied when Muhammad rushed to try to score rather than hitting an open trailer.
"It's the growing pains of the young player," Saunders said. "You just keep pounding on the boulder and eventually it will work."
Live and learn. "It's not like we don't try to bring energy," rookie Zach LaVine said. "But we have to bring more at the start.''
Said Muhammad: "Who cares if we're younger than all these guys? We've got to out and compete.''
