Wesley Johnson shot 6 for 12 from the floor tonight. Luke Ridnour shot 5 for 9, and 5 for 5 from the stripe. Martell Webster shot 3 for 6. Ricky Rubio shot 3 for 7, and Nikola Pekovic shot 6 for 12.
With this collection of players hitting 50 percent from the field, one would expect the Wolves to prevail over a sub-mediocre Phoenix Suns team. Unfortunately, the Wolves most-talented players Kevin Love, Michael Beasley and Derrick Williams combined for an 11 for 40 stink-bomb that left the team helpless even in an extended fourth quarter sequence when both Steve Nash and Marcin Gortat were on the bench doing Pilates.
Over his last four games Love is shooting 29.7 percent from the field. Over Ricky’s last five games, he’s hitting 26.1 percent of all shots.
Yikes.
The Wolves probably need more than just “competent wing play” to take this thing up a notch. Perhaps holding off on any desperate trades, and dumping big money at Eric Gordon in free agency is the best plan. This team needs somebody whose turnovers are made from aggressive plays that usually lead to good scoring opportunities; not careless travels or failed attempts at baiting a ref.
Or maybe I’m just worn down from this back-to-back-to-back even more than Ricky Rubio is. It wasn’t fun staying up late to watch an ass-kicking from the Lakers and a pitiful loss to the lottobound Suns. A much-needed off night tomorrow. Maybe we can get the first ever win over LaMarcus Aldridge on Saturday at Portland. That’d make up for this one. Until then.
Season Record: 18-19
Punch-Drunk Wolves 
Andy – Do you get the sense that K-Love has more leeway under Adelman compared to other players? I know he’s our only All Star, but it seems like Adelman is keeping him out there even when struggling.
Love was definitely one of the big reasons Adelman was hired (Love and Adelman’s son played AAU or some organized form of basketball together and are good friends).
It seems like when Ricky is struggling (against Utah for example) he’ll pull him and go with Ridnour and Barea. Don’t see that with Love.
A. Shah-
Without question Love gets more leeway. He deserves more though, since he’s the best and most consistent player on the team. I guess the other night versus LAC would kind of refute this point though–I don’t think Love was getting back in that game with the way Williams was going off, and the walk to the locker room may have been Love’s way of seeing that coming and making the decision easier for his coach.
A. Shah, good point. In the second quarter with the Twolves up 8 and D-Will playing himself into a decent game he gets hooked in favor of Love, for no apparent reason….why not just leave the Rookie out there and see what he can do?….as long as Love is getting more rest that, surely, can’t be a bad thing?
Andy, good point about the shooting also….in the breakdown Mike Beasley took 12.5% of those 40 shots…don’t you think that’s very uncharacteristic, maybe he’s been told that if he misses three in a row the plug gets pulled…It just seemed odd to see him wander around on the periphery of this game…usually he either keeps on missing or keeps trying until he gets one to drop, regardless!!
Personally I don’t think K-Love should have played last night, it sends out the wrong message to the rest of the players…you can’t have flu (or flu-like symptoms, whatever that may be??) one day and be fully recovered the next. Ultimately it would have made little difference and he would have had a further days rest…seems to me the All-Star made the call……mistake!
Kevin,
I thought Beasley looked pretty checked out in last night’s game. The trade rumors heat up every day for Mike. I know he’s not a good defender ever, but he seems less interested than ever right now in getting into good defensive position and he seems *even more* nonchalant whenever he gets the ball. I think we should expect a trade, very soon.
Love is just missing shots. It isn’t pretty, But of course he gets treated differently. He should be treated differently. It’s also not like the effort isn’t there; he wasn’t trying to miss. He worked for stuff inside, he just couldn’t convert.
Williams had a rookie game, but at least there was activity. Missed a bunch, but got to the line a bit (where he also couldn’t make).
Just watching, it seemed like the Suns did a good job of packing the paint; even so, it looked like guys were not cutting to the rim off Rubio’s penetration. Teams are obviously playing for the PnR and slips to the basket.
Beasley was just so damn passive. Really looked out of it out there. Ultimately, 1-13 from 3 won’t do. They won a couple of games (Utah, LAC) with great 3 point shooting, they lost tonight with bad 3 point shooting.
Frankly, they should have taken more. Once again, you saw several instances of guys passing up open looks from the arc.
It is weird how this team seems to get discouraged from shooting 3’s. This isn’t a LeBron James situation where every 3 attempted is a missed opportunity at exploding to the rim–the Wolves don’t have any *great* scoring options the way that certain teams do. Rubio wheeling around and finding shooters (like Nash has been doing for years in Phoenix) is probably as good as it gets. And it can look pretty good when the shooters will shoot.
I was obviously a little cranky when I posted this wrap–staying up for three straight West Coast games and watching Bassy Telfair trump Ricky Rubio will do that to a Wolves fan…