GRIZZLIES (3-3) 90, WOLVES (2-4) 86
The Timberwolves came into the Wednesday’s game riding high after back to back wins, the Grizzlies came into the game without their best player. This should have been a win for the Wolves, but Memphis fought harder and clawed out a W in an ugly game of basketball.
The reasons why Minnesota lost this game are obvious: 1) Far too many careless turnovers. 2) 13 of 24 from the foul line. 3) Wesley Johnson lost all the confidence he had on Monday, leaving a big hole at SG yet again. 4) Bad Beasley showed up again on offense.
Oh, and 5) ONLY SCORING THREE FREAKIN’ POINTS in the first eight minutes of the game.
The Wolves flat out came out flat on Wednesday, possibly because they were too overconfident knowing that T-Wolf killer Zach Randolph was out, or because of their little string of recent success. That’s apparently what Rick Adelman thought.
They were way too lax in their approach. I told them, `You haven’t won anything. Don’t come out there thinking you just won the championship.’ – Rick Adelman postgame comment via AP recap
Even with their horrible start, the Wolves got themselves back into the game and put themselves in position to win. There was absolutely no ball movement in the first quarter until Ricky Rubio checked in and dropped four dimes in his first seven minutes on the court as Minnesota cut a 20-5 Memphis lead down to 23-20. Ricky stayed in through the second quarter and had eight of his 10 assists by halftime. He simply won’t allow the offense to become stagnant when he’s on the court and has the ball in his hands.
Minnesota had a 68-63 lead in the fourth quarter after a layup by Rubio, but Memphis followed with a 13-0 run fueled by Rudy Gay to go up 76-68 with about five minutes left. The Wolves got huge 3-pointers by Luke Ridnour, Kevin Love and Rubio to pull within a point with 16.3 seconds left, but, unlike the Wolves, Memphis converted on its trips to the free-throw line to seal the game.
I don’t think the Wolves ever learned anything after a loss over the past few years other than that they really, really sucked. Here’s to hoping that’s different after this game. I’m sure they’re pissed for letting this one get away, mostly due to their own mistakes. I heard Adelman got after them pretty good after this one, so hopefully they got his message.
We had the victory, and we let it go. – Ricky Rubio postgame
Now, on to the points.
- While most of Minnesota’s bigs can shoot it from downtown, none of them have a capable low-post game. Darko Milicic basically just chucks it up around the rim and hopes it goes in, and Kevin Love’s offense around the bucket comes from offensive rebounds and putbacks. He does try some post-ups, but most of the time he’s ineffective. It would be nice to have someone who can play with his back to the basket.
- Derrick Williams has some serious handles. A couple minutes after checking in in the first quarter D-Will had a sick double crossover on his man and then found an open Rubio in the left corner for a 3-pointer. I’d like to see him use his dribble to create his shot more. I feel he’s got skills he hasn’t even shown us yet.
- Michael Beasley had a couple nice drives to the basket, a big 3-pointer and a putback slam, but really, this was not a good game offensively for him. He was also careless with the basketball, committing five turnovers. On the positive side, he didn’t look like he was sulking out there. I thought he actually played pretty well defensively and made some nice hustle plays. He also pulled down 10 boards and seems to be more aggressive getting on the glass than he was last season. It’s nice to see him contribute in other ways when he’s having a bad offensive night.
- Unlike the San Antonio game, the Wolves really could have use J.J. Barea against the Grizzlies. Their offense was terrible when Rubio wasn’t on the court and it would have been nice to have someone like Barea diving into the lane with his dribble penetration and creating shots for himself or others. It sounds like he’s day-to-day with his sore hamstring. Hopefully it’s feeling better soon.
- Martell Webster can’t get back on the court soon enough. Early projections are mid-January. I wish they’d give us an exact date so I could cross off the days on my calendar. It appears Wesley Johnson’s resurgent game against the Spurs was just an aberration. His shooting was absolutely abhorrent (awesome alliteration!) on Wednesday. How could he lose his confidence so much between games? Why can’t he just turn into Rudy Gay? For as much as the guy smiles, Wes makes me so sad.
- The Target Center crowd needs to learn some cheering etiquette. Don’t chant for Rubio when he’s sitting on the bench and Luke is having a solid game. Don’t even chant for Rubio if he’s on the bench and Luke is having a crappy game. Luke is on the team, too, and we have to assume he will be for the rest of the year. How do you think it feels when you’re on the court and you have the crowd chanting for your backup to come in for you all the time, even when you are playing well? It probably doesn’t feel very good. Luke’s a professional and I’m sure he realizes the Minnesota crowd is just super enamored with Ricky right now, but let’s still try to avoid making our guys feel uncomfortable out there, OK?
- Speaking of the crowd, there was a young lady in the stands with a “Ricky of the Year” poster. Nice work, young lady.
- Jim Peterson suggests the Wolves give Darko Milicic monetary incentives for trying to dunk during games. This idea came after Darko went up with his usual weak sauce after getting an offense rebound. Sorry, Jim Pete, the dude is just naturally a wuss around the basket. You can’t pay him not to be.
- Darko and Love actually did a really nice job on Marc Gasol defensively. Everything he put up was contested and they rarely let him get the ball as deep as he would like to get it in the post. Gasol finished 3 of 11 for the game.
- “Tony Allen” was trending on Twitter in the United States during the game, which was not nationally-televised. That’s what happens when you let a guard who’s usually offensively inept score 20 points on 8 for 8 shooting from the field. It seemed like most of those buckets had to come in transition off Minnesota turnovers. Let that be a lesson to you, Timberwolves: Never let mediocre guards tear you to shreds or it will show up on Twitter.
- Although it didn’t lead to a win this time, isn’t it great to see Rick Adelman on the bench when things are tight late in games? The camera cut to him drawing up plays before he even took a timeout and then when he had the players in his huddle, he looked so calm and collected. Not to mention, his plays worked pretty well down the stretch. His double-drag screens worked to perfection to get guys open for 3s in the closing minutes of the game.
That’s it for points for this post. The Wolves didn’t feel like putting up many points, so I don’t either. Feel free to help me out with points of your own by posting them up in the comments section. All opinions and observations are welcomed.
We’ll be back Saturday morning with a post on Friday’s game against the Cavs. If the Wolves lose that one, the players can kiss all that optimism that was surrounding them good-bye.
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