Last night's loss hurt. The Wolves are 2 games back for the 8th playoff slot and had a chance to cut it to a game behind Denver because they lost. I listened to bits and pieces of the game on the radio last night and things seems alright. Ridnour had 13 assists and 4 turnovers, but those 4 turnovers seemed to come at really bad times. JJ Barea seemed to have a bad game with 5 turnover. Paul Millsap had 8 steals and they all seemed like at the end of the game and overtime. Blarg.
Hopefully Kevin Love can go tonight, he hurt his thumb late in the game and had X-rays afterward. As of this writing, it seems like he is ok but the whole Twin Cities sports landscape has been snakebitten with injuries, one just never knows...a simple tweak turns out to be a broken everything it seems like.
Luke Ridnour has notched 32 assists to 11 turnovers since replacing Rubio.
The Wolves have a record of 21-21. They also have a record of 9-9 on the road. The Suns have 19 wins on the year and 12 at home. This will be a tough test for the Pups. Darko is inactive tonight for some reason.
as you might know, Ricky Rubio is out for the year with that stupid knee injury. You know what, its not time to swallow the pill of defeat. No, its time to stand up and rally around this team! We got a player that no other team has...Pek! We got an MVP caliber player in Kevin Love! We got a Hall of Fame coach in Rick Adelman! We are going to the playoffs! GUARANTEE! RAH!
Bruce Springsteen 'No Surrender'
httpv://youtu.be/_nOiiwx9i5I
Minnesota has not beaten the Lakers in 5 years. I guess that what happens when the franchise hires terrible coaches and has little talent. This year is different. The Wolves have a different kind of swagger about them. Heck, they
have swagger. Maybe this is giddiness about a winning record, but I am guessing the Wolves win this one tonight.
The Wolves have been living out of their suitcase since the All Star Break, 4th game in 5 days. After this the Wolves return home for a week then go on a grueling 7 game roadie. I'm not saying this is a must win, but man it would be super sweet (my prediction coming out of the break is that the Wolves would go 2-2).
Portland has a few 'whoa, those guys are playing' on the roster: Kurt Thomas (not playing tonight), Marcus Camby, Gerald Wallace.
The Police 'Man In A Suitcase'
httpv://youtu.be/7QNMf1WGZB4
I think last night was just 'one of those games'. Every team gets blown out a few times a year, and luckily for our Wolves, its been few and far between this year. Plus, the Lakers have our number having beating the Wolves 52 times (it seems) in a row. The Lakers/Wolves is is like what the Yankees are to the Twins. I dont know who would play Joe Mauer on the Wolves.
Last night's win was simply awesome. Between Derrick Williams being unleashed to Micheal Beasley going en fuego leading to this awesome exchange a the :28 mark between Ricky Rubio and The Beas (also, Ricky Rubio has gotta be leading the lead in .gifs. His passes, his dances, his dusting people off. what a joy).
Last night's win also guaranteed a winning record for the month of February (now 8-6 for the month) and that is now 2 straight winning months (January they went 10-8). Before Jan, the last time they had a winning month was January of 2009 when Kevin McHale took over for the fired Randy Wittman and went 10-5. THREE years without a winning month. ye gods. The last time the Wolves had back to back winning months, you gotta go back to 2005 (!!!) when again Kevin McHale took over for a fired coach in Flip Saunders and had winning records in March (10-5) and April (6-4).
fire up the Colortinis cause its a late night West Coast NBA game
the Wolves are on a two game stop at Staples Center, playing the Clippers tonight and the Lakers (Kobe-less?) tomorrow. The Wolves have a tough stretch coming out of the All Star break with a West Coast swing (LAC Tues, LAL Wed, Phoenix Thurs and Portland Sat). 2-2 this week would be pretty good in my book.
