The Chicken Dance is a wedding staple. The dancers all get in a circle around the dance floor, claiming not to be a chicken or a duck, as they flap their arms before dropping low and shaking their butts, followed by three claps as everyone stands back up.
The song has a unique history. It started in Germany as Der Ententanz (the duck dance) in 1957 when Swiss artist Werner Thomas played it in bars and pubs. It then slowly became adopted as an Oktoberfest tune celebrating the end of the harvest season.
In the early 1980s, the song made its way to the English language and earned the nickname “the birdie song.” Eventually, American Polka artist and Wisconsin Music Hall of Famer Bob Kames renamed it the Chicken Dance.
Nowadays, Minnesota Timberwolves fans hear the song at weddings and in the fourth quarter at the Target Center. For example, the Wolves were up 90-87 with 2:34 left in their Nov. 10 matchup against the Miami Heat.
Julius Randle had fouled Heat center Bam Adebayo, who went to the free-throw line with a chance to make it a one-point game. As the fans went crazy, the jumbotron displayed what was truly at stake. Everyone got a free Chick-fil-A sandwich if Adebayo missed both shots.
Adebayo calmed himself at the line and shot his first attempt. As it clanged off the rim, fans went into a frenzy. Adebayo geared up for the second free throw as the volume of Target Center approached near ear-splitting volume. He clanged it again as the crowd somehow erupted into even louder cheers.
They had gotten, née earned, their free sandwich.
Randle pulled down the rebound, and the Wolves started their offense. However, midway through their offensive possession, the Chicken Dance blared through the arena. Minnesota passed the ball around, unable to penetrate Miami’s defense before Randle missed a three-point attempt. The Timberwolves dropped the game 95-94 after the Heat outscored them 8-4 over the final 150 seconds.
That moment in the Heat game became a harbinger for the Wolves. They dropped their next two games in Portland and fell to 6-6 on the season. Don’t blame The Chicken Dance for the decline. However, it’s a fitting cutoff point for when Minnesota’s flaws become large enough to warrant discussion around what happened at the end of the Miami game and against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Myriad things went wrong for Minnesota’s starters in Portland. The Wolves shot an average of 37.0 three-pointers and only made 27.0%, 10.5% below their season average. Minnesota’s shooting decline is mainly due to Anthony Edwards going 4 of 19 over the two games and Donte DiVincenzo shooting just 1 of 9. That’s a combined 17.8% from the Wolves’ highest-volume shooters.
We could dismiss Minnesota’s struggles from distance as off nights. However, the inefficiency makes it nearly impossible to overcome, considering those 28 shots make up 16.4% of the Wolves’ total shots.
Three-point shooting aside, the Wolves could not get stops defensively. They allowed a 112.3 defensive rating, 2.1 points worse than their season average. While just 2.1 points may seem insignificant, that is the same margin that separates the seventh-best defense from the 13th-best in the NBA at the time of writing.
Minnesota ranks 10th in defensive rating at 110.2, only 0.2 points behind the seventh-ranked Los Angeles Clippers. However, Portland ranks second-to-last (29th) in offensive rating and true shooting, making those losses more concerning. That means the Wolves dropped off defensively against statistically the second-worst offense and shooting team in the league.
The Wolves have played 12 games, roughly 14% through their season, so it’s not time to panic. However, the lack of chemistry between the Wolves has begun to manifest. Miami’s late-game execution allowed them to steal a game in Minneapolis, and Portland won both ends of their back-to-back games. The Timberwolves need to get right fast because they play the Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, and Boston Celtics in three of their next four games.
Teams with new rotation players tend to struggle early. Even super teams suffer from slow starts. The first year of the LeBron James-led Big Three Heat team in 2010-11 started 9-8. However, they finished the year 58-24 and lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the finals.
Even the most talented teams struggle early, regardless of whether they hear the Chicken Dance playing during a crucial late-game possession.