Monthly Archives: December 2013

The Timberwolves are back to five hundred. On Friday night at Target Center, they beat the Wizards by 22. On Saturday night in Milwaukee, they beat the Bucks by the same lopsided margin. With these wins, their record is now 15-15; good for ninth place in the West.

Taken together, the games’ eight quarters were like a sandwich made of stale bread, but with the finest meats and cheeses. The first quarter against Washington was rough. Well, the opening few minutes were rough, as John Wall came out hot and the Wizards led 9-0 on the Wolves home floor. The crowd started to groan. But the Wolves, led by Kevin Love, chipped away and cut the deficit to one at the quarter break.

The Wolves next six quarters, second through fourth against Washington and first through third against Milwaukee, were a walk in the park. Shots went in. Turnovers were forced but not committed. Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic were the best players on the floor. Corey Brewer scored on his fast-forward-button throws at the backboard square. Ricky Rubio organized an effective offense and bothered his opponent on defense. Against the Wizards, JJ and Shved played well above their norm. Against the Bucks, Kevin Martin was red hot.

Quarter scores in this six-period stretch were all in Minnesota’s favor, save one tie: 39-24, 27-27, 32-24, 34-28, 30-27, 39-21.

The fourth quarter in Milwaukee was that other slice of bread; the one with the mold on it. Rather than continue the focused offense and aggressive defense, the Wolves second unit let up. What was a 31-point lead with 51 seconds left in the third dropped to just 17, halfway through the fourth. Instead of subbing in rookies Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad for some needed reps, Rick Adelman instead barked at his starters — Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, and Kevin Love — to get back in there.

They won the game easily enough and upped the lead by five points before the final buzzer. But ending such a nice weekend of blowout-winning basketball with such a crappy final period was enough to upset Adelman. I’m sure he’ll use it as teaching point in prepping the team for its upcoming stretch of eminently winnable games. The Wolves will be favored to win their next six games, five of which will be played at Target Center. The effort and focus they put forth in the middle six periods this weekend will get it done. The performance bookending that excellence will not.

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Being emotionally fragile is an important part of being a successful critic; it’s an integral element to being engaged with mainstream art, assuming you aspire to write about it in public.  If you hate everything, you’re a banal asshole . . . but if you don’t hate anything, you’re boring.  You’re useless.  And you end up writing about why you can no longer generate fake feelings that other people digest as real.

–Chuck Klosterman, I Wear the Black Hat

Friday’s loss generated hate. Tonight’s generated shock. Hopefully the next game — Friday versus the Wizards at Target Center — will generate joy. Whatever happens, I’ll continue to try to be objective with the analysis and subjective with the emotional reaction. But sometimes they blend together and sometimes that’s for the best.

Kevin Love scored 45 points tonight. Nikola Pekovic scored 34. The Wolves led by 5 with 26 seconds left, but managed to lose the game. Leading by 2 and only needing to cleanly inbound the ball and successfully possess it until being fouled, Kevin Martin coughed it up. The game went to overtime and Chris Paul was a little too good to be given a second breath of life.

Rick Adelman was too upset to speak with the media. Kevin Love was not impressed by the questions he received from local media while he sat at his locker. Everyone is pissed. As they should be.

It’s a long season. I’ll overreact to a good Robbie Hummel or Gorgui Dieng performance just as often as I’ll describe a sky falling on the green Target Center rooftop. Sometimes that’s part of why I do this. Sometimes it’s the only reason why I do it.

But I won’t ignore the bad things as if they have no meaning. They obviously do. Tonight’s loss, removed from the context of how it occurred, isn’t so bad. The Clippers are a great team. They were the home team. But in the flow of that game, with Matt Barnes being ejected and Love and Pek playing their best game ever as a duo? It really sucks. Why else would Adelman storm out of the presser before it begins?

It doesn’t mean the team will miss the playoffs or even lose the next game. But it means something. And it obviously isn’t something good.

1. Barea wasting a 2-for-1 opportunity in the biggest possession of the game so that he could jack up a terrible shot with a dwindling shot clock.
2. Pekovic missing wide open dunks.
3. Brewer missing wide open dunks.
4. Rubio missing everything.
5. Love refusing to get a hand up when Kris Humphries (1st Half) or Jared Sullinger (crunchtime) are squared up for a shot.
6. Gorgui fouling Gerald Wallace on three-pointers.
7. The Wolves interior defense when Gorgui isn’t on the floor.
8. Shabazz never getting a chance to play on a mediocre team that needs another shooter/scorer.
9. Missing free throws when it’s almost always a team strength.
10. Losing to Eastern Conference teams.
11. Inevitable praise for the Celtics and Brad Stevens despite fact that Wolves lost that game more than Cs won it.
12. Falling below .500 at the 25-game mark.
13. Being worse than Portland every year.
14. Wasting a 9-10 shooting effort from defensive specialists Cunningham & Mbah a Moute.
15. Seeing Rubio benched, which leads to seeing J.J.’s late-game decisions.
16. Imagining Rubio feeding Love in the post and posing zero threat to shoot if Love is doubled.
17. Jordan Crawford’s shot selection and decision making resulting in a win over the Timberwolves.
18. Jared Sullinger being the best player on the floor when five other Timberwolves are on the floor.
19. The end of the Kevin Martin-Rick Adelman Honeymoon.
20. The seemingly-inevitable return of this discussion.