The Warriors retired Chris Mullin’s jersey tonight, leading to the longest halftime I can remember for a regular season NBA game. Or any NBA game. Apparently the Dubs crowd booed the owner, Joe Lacob, when he wouldn’t stop talking. And then apparently Rick Barry grabbed the mic and started lecturing the crowd a bit. Sounds like quite a zoo over in Oakland, these days. Pat could tell us more about it, I suppose.
In any case, the Wolves took control of this one early but lost Mike Beasley to what must have been an aggravation of his toe injury, and then lost Nikola Pekovic to what must have been an aggravation of his ankle sprain. The game got pretty intense in the second half, with Kevin Love grinding out a hard-fought victory with his unparalleled effort on the glass blended in with some excellent shooting touch. When Beasley and Pekovic are removed from a lineup that dearly misses its playmaking point guard already, things get ugly FAST. As bad as these tanking Warriors are, they could have won this game with a bounce here or there.
Is there anything else to add? I suppose Anthony Tolliver deserves some props for regaining his shooting touch that left him months ago. AT chipped in 10 points on 4-5 shooting in 16 high-quality minutes off the bench. He knows Oracle well, and this must have been a homecoming of sorts for him.
Oh, and Kevin Love’s siblings took to Twitter, expressing their disdain for J.J. Barea. I’d guess the tweets will come down after big bro gives him a phone call, but here’s a gem from Collin Love:
“I hope he gets gang green and they amputate JJ Barea’s right arm. He shouldn’t be in the league.”
Yikes.
Season Record: 23-24
ADDENDUM: Friend of the blog and Bay Area native George N was at Oracle last night and witnessed the spectacle. Here’s hoping he weighs-in in the comments.
Punch-Drunk Wolves 
Here’s a hint, Collin. Unless you’re talking about the punk band, you need to work on your spelling. JJ Barea is better at basketball than you are at Tweeting: http://youtu.be/Cz3GmHferlQ
As for Collin Love’s quote – My wife leaves the room when JJ takes the floor. He makes her very nervous. Too much dribbling and risk-taking from her perspective. I enjoy him but have little faith in his perimeter shooting. Good for reserve Tolliver. This nice guy had 5 rebounds and 10 points. He has struggled with his shooting this season but should see many more minutes in the future. He plays hard.
We need Tolliver to play like this every game. He’s capable of playing tough defense and he has the luxury of being *extremely* selective about the shots he takes–even with Rubio out–so he needs to make them.
Collin Love needs to get off of the Twitters. K-Love doesn’t need his little bro going to bat for him on the Internet. This just makes both of them look like weenies. And with The Love Family (am I smelling a reality tv show?), image is everything.
I actually thought JJ played better in this game. He came out looking to pass and collected 10 assists for the game. But he does kind of hijack the whole offense when he comes into the game. It isn’t fun to play with a point guard who dominates the ball so much.
Probably unfair to JJ but Rubio upgraded our expectations at point. Still, the little guy has passion; therefore, stand back if you piss him off – Love included.