http://www.startribune.com/511/story/964462.html The visitors' dressing room at Seattle's KeyArena cleared out quickly after the Timberwolves' 102-100 loss to the Sonics, a game that slipped through Minnesota's grasp in the final 71 seconds. Eventually, there was one chair, one man, lingering near his stall, hunched over, head in hand. Kevin Garnett was sifting through it all. "I'm not really happy with my play on this whole trip," the Wolves forward had said moments earlier. "I've got to turn it up another notch, take my [game] to the next level. I'm not really pleased with how I'm playing. Trying to get other people [involved], but I need to be a lot more aggressive than what I am. And flow better. "I'm in no kind of flow like I would like to, going into the [All-Star] break. I've got to get this going." It had been a difficult week. Five games in seven nights, trekking from Arizona to Washington state back down to southern California. One game -- for Garnett and teammate Ricky Davis as they served out league and team suspensions, respectively -- for which the NBA wouldn't even let them in the building. There was that small matter of Dwane Casey's firing, followed by Randy Wittman's promotion. That meant more demanding practices to adapt to the new coach's style and strategy. There was the losing streak, six games long as of Friday night, four of them coming on the trip. As the Wolves stepped onto the Staples Center court Saturday in Los Angeles to face the Clippers one last time this season, there were echoes of the six games of road kill from last March. From takeoff on March 7 to touchdown on March 17, last year's club went from seven games under .500 to 13 under. Finally, there was Garnett's play. On the trip, he had averaged 21.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists, while shooting 45.5 percent. During the losing streak, those numbers were 18.4, 12.2, 4.0 and 42.4 percent. At Portland on Wednesday, Garnett scored 31 points but missed a shot to win in regulation. He grabbed only eight rebounds in an overtime loss in which even one more might have won it. Against the Sonics, Garnett came within one assist of a triple-double. But Seattle's Nick Collison outrebounded him 12-10, rookie Mickael Gelabale matched his 17 points and Garnett missed a 10-foot shot with 13.9 seconds left that might have clinched it. He was 0-for-3 with two points in the fourth quarter. Other teams' defenses might not be stopping Garnett, but they sure do have him thinking. "It's [up to] me being patient and understanding how they're playing me. Being a lot more precise," he said. "Sometimes I've got three or four different things I want to do ... instead of just taking the first one and reacting. "But I'm not perfect. I take my game from [Friday], like I did the other day, and just analyze it and try to apply some of the things I [see], just to get better, man. I'm by no means happy with my play." The cruelest month With the Wolves' loss Friday, they slipped to 127-127 all-time in January -- which, a few hours earlier, had been the only calendar month in which they had a winning record. Counting Saturday's meeting with the Clippers, they had three games left to edge back above .500. But the defense had given up an average of 102.6 points in 14 games, after yielding 92.6 per game in November and 95.4 in December. Bench pressing The best thing about rookie Craig Smith's 26-point explosion Friday? Besides the fact that he scored them in 23 minutes, that is, or caught that outlet bomb from Garnett for a fast-break slam that made it 100-95, however briefly? Smith's big output helped the Wolves' bench crush Seattle's 40-15 in points production. Granted, the Sonics are thinned by injuries. But Minnesota's reserves had been outscored in 12 of its 13 previous games, including 119-71 on the first three games of the trip. "It was open [inside] the zone a lot," Smith said, after roaming inside Seattle's defense. "I needed to be active. So I just went in there, put my body on the line and tried to get as many boards as I could." With Wittman determined to dial back Garnett's and probably Ricky Davis' minutes as the season drags on, it will be more important for backups to provide more punch. He would like to rely on Marko Jaric for that, in particular, while sometimes staggering starters back into the game --

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