Jonah: The only positive I tried grasping onto throughout watching the game was the fact that the Wolves weren’t getting blown out. But that was in the first half and the game ended in, well, a blowout. And deservedly so for that sloppy effort. Anywho, the silver lining through it all has been the play of Andrei Kirilenko as of late. He had a starter-high 15 points tonight and converted all six of his charity stripe strokes. He’s been the consistent go-to guy on offense in the last three games, which is frightening to think about but it’s a fact.

Also worth mentioning, the Wolves assisted 29 of their 33 made field goals. Not sure how to spin that but that’s certainly impressive.

Tom: Fifteen shots is a lot for Chase Budinger in 27 minutes off the bench, but it was encouraging to see him moving well without the ball. Several times, Minnesota ran pin-down screens for Budinger that resulted in decent mid-range jumpers. What’s more, we saw him making some nice cuts to the basket and running out in transition. He also shot 2-4 from 3-point range for the evening. The healthier Budinger gets, the more watchable the Wolves are. Most nights, that is. They weren’t really very watchable tonight.

Derek: Timberwolves lost by 16 with just 10 turnovers. You don’t see that happen everyday.

Three Negatives:

Jonah: Klay Thompson is just a nightmare for the Wolves. In fact, it’s simply acid in the wound knowing that he’d be the perfect compliment to Rubio on our side. But he went off tonight for 30, exposing Adelman’s platoon of point-guards-turned-shooting-guards. There’s not a whole lot you can do but do your best to force Thompson to penetrate instead of shooting over the top. The Wolves were horrible at closing out and felt the heat from Thompson’s red-hot fingers.

Tom: Ricky. What the hell was that buddy? A 6/2 assist-to-turnover ratio isn’t bad, but an 0-10 shooting night is borderline disastrous, especially in a game that was close for the first 30 minutes or so. What’s worse is that Rubio’s shots seemed to get more and more wild as the game went on, including a couple of awful mid-range jumpers. One jumper in transition hit the side of the backboard. Just not a good night from the floor.

Derek: There is no way to put it lightly: Nikola Pekovic struggled tonight. But to the Warriors’ credit, they did an excellent job forcing Pek to post up Andrew Bogut far enough out where Pek wouldn’t be able to muscle his way to the basket. Then when he got to the rim they had a body on him there, too. The Timberwolves definitely could have used a big game from Pek tonight, but the Warriors scouted him very well and executed their plan on him even better.

Three Observations:

Jonah: Always nice to see Mickael Gelabale and Chris Johnson get some burn, even in the waning, meaningless minutes of a blowout. Those two will likely find new homes next year so I enjoy watching them play regardless of the score.

Tom: Just a general rule of thumb: If you find yourself halfway through the third quarter hoping that JJ Barea is going to save you and it ISN’T the 2011 Western Conference Playoffs, there’s a solid chance your team isn’t going to win the game. Just something to keep in mind.

Derek: Timberwolves total points in the second half: 35. Warriors third quarter points: 31. Just sayin’…

(Also, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 19 of the Warriors’ 24 three point attempts. That’s insane.)

Next up: The Wolves head to L.A. to take on the Clippers Wednesday night.

Two Positives:

Jonah: It took the Timberwolves nearly two years but they finally got Rick Adelman his 1,000th win as a head coach in the NBA. And deservedly so. Adelman has coached the Warriors, Trail Blazers, Kings, Rockets and Timberwolves, dating all the way back to 1988. He’s missed the postseason just six times (counting this current season), which makes it two straight years as head coach of the Wolves. Although the relationship between the Wolves and Adelman hasn’t been as fruitful as many had hoped coming into it but I have a feeling that both parties are still proud to be united. Adelman’s future may be up in the air depending on his wife’s health problems, but if he remains the coach for next season, I think (Really hope) that we can expect to see Adelman coaching in the playoffs yet again. Seriously, fingers crossed.

Derek: I’m going to piggy back off of Jonah and mention that, while Rubio’s shot struggled to find the bottom of the net, he did a good job staying involved on both ends nonetheless. He grabbed some boards, dropped some dimes, and have five steals. Making your free throws helps too if your can’t find your shot on any given night.

Two Negatives:

Jonah: Ricky Rubio’s shooting was straight horrendous tonight. And it all came down to mechanics. He was getting good, open looks that he can usually convert on, and I use “usually” very liberally. Luckily he was able to make his only field goal an important one in the final minute of this closely contested game. But if you watched closely, Rubio’s jumper was terribly flat, which led to a lot of rim-out’s and hard bricks. It’s something I’m not very worried about moving forward because it’s the easiest part of your game to improve but it needs to happen in time for next season because the Wolves really need Rubio to score the ball.

Derek: My negative tonight is on the Derrick Williams and Greg Monroe matchup.

First off, we knew ahead of time that Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe were a potential problem for the Timberwolves’ frontcourt. In fact, Jim Peterson noted that Derrick in particular was really going to struggle with this, and he was right. Actually, this is more about the strategy the Timberwolves employed with the mismatch in the paint than it is Derrick in general.

In the first quarter, the Pistons tried to take advantage of their edge by posting up Williams with Monroe. At first, the Timberwolves would do things like send help as soon as he got the ball and were able to force Monroe to pass out of it. Other times, Williams was left on an island against an opponent that was longer and more athletic than he was. Instead of sending the help right away, the Timberwolves waited until Monroe began his dribble and backed Williams too far in for their defense to have a chance. And by that point all it took was for Monroe, and even Drummond, to just flip the ball over Williams.

To me, Derrick did a good job man-to-man against Monroe and Drummond, despite the mismatch. He bodied them as well as he could, contested their shots, and even was able to try to force them baseline where they would be less-likely to find an angle on the backboard that they liked. Unfortunately, Williams did manage to pick up a couple of fouls and had to go to the bench even though he had it going offensively. In fact, Williams has been only slightly below average on post ups this season, with a  0.97 ppp on defensive plays, which isn’t terrible considering his physical tools, but isn’t really good either.

I understand that it’s too risky to always send a double team, especially right away, since you risk the opponent being able to hit the open man with a pass, but knowing that Williams was at such a disadvantage and not trying to get more switches for a bigger defender did not put him in a very good position to succeed. We saw that even Dante Cunningham and Nikola Pekovic were able to disrupt the frontcourt more than Williams. But all-in-all Williams was solid in the post, man-to-man; it was when he had to rely on his defensive awareness off of the ball with rotations that he began hurting the team.

Two Observations:

Jonah: JJ Barea was the hottest hand in the entire game yet he only saw 21 minutes of court time. He finished with 20 points on 9-13 shooting. But with a good matchup against the Pistons’ backcourt, I was a little surprised Adelman didn’t play the hot-handed Barea down the stretch of a close game or even just a little more in general. No complaints though.

Derek: The Pistons wouldn’t even have to improve their talent level to improve as a whole. What I mean by that is that whenever they would force a turnover in the first quarter, they would immediately negate the added possession by getting careless with the ball again. Little things like that put them behind early, and the Timberwolves’ offense stagnating from time-to-time were really the only things that kept them in this game. Wait– why am I complaining about this?

Next up: Wolves head West for the final time this season, starting in Golden State on Tuesday at 9:30 pm.

Two Positives:

Jonah: Jim Peterson and Dave Benz, who have truly been great this season, mentioned the better scoring jobs as of late from Ricky Rubio. And when they said it, he had just six points. Well, Rubio finished with 23, a game-high actually. The root of his improved scoring has been his ability to get to the free throw line and convert. He was constantly getting tied up with Mike Conley and reaped the benefits of 12 attempts from the charity stripe (He nailed 10 of them).

Derek: Greg Stiemsma actually played pretty well last night. He played smart for forty minutes without getting into foul trouble or committing too many turnovers. Against this Grizzlies frontline, that’s no easy task, and he managed to convert the scoring opportunities he was given pretty well, too. He didn’t make us forget about Nikola Pekovic, but he did as good of a job in relief as we could have hoped for. That’s a compliment, right?

Two Negatives:

Jonah: Seriously, how did they let this one go? The Wolves led the game through the first three quarters but allowed the Grizzlies to keep in it the whole time. And for that, they got shunned in the fourth as the Grizzlies put up 34 that quarter. Obviously, they’re not used to winning but they ended up getting blown out of a game they led most of the way. It might’ve been one thing if it ended in a 3-point game but it didn’t. Things just turned embarrassing. It’s as simple as that.

Derek: You will not beat the Memphis Grizzlies by turning the ball over nearly twice as much as they did (16-9). If the Grizzlies are forcing turnovers then you better be, too.

Two Observations:

Jonah: Sooo, Chris Johnson got up to go in midway through the first quarter. It would’ve been his first time getting early game minutes in a very long time. But soon after, he retreated right to the bench, never to enter the game until late. How disappointing!

Derek: I don’t know where to put this, so I’ll just throw it here. Aside from the Grizzlies’ frontcourt I absolutely hate seeing the Grizzlies on the schedule because of their tenacity on defense. They do little things like get their hands active in passing lanes and body up players before they can get set in their spot. Really, while you may have possession of the ball, you’re playing Grizzlies basketball. If you’re a basketball fan, you love it, but if you’re a Timberwolves fan, you hate it.

We saw it in the fourth quarter as the Grizzlies put the clamps down on the Timberwolves, and essentially smothered their hopes and dreams. With no Pekovic in the paint, the Timberwolves had no big body that could hold his own against Gasol or Randolph, and the pair managed to push the bigs out of their desired position. Also, without Pek, the Timberwolves were unable to have an effective screen setter, and this enabled the Grizzlies to disrupt the Timberwolves offense by d-ing up their point guards well above the break. Doing so forced the Wolves into having Greg Stiemsma and Dante Cunningham (who had an off-night) into consecutive midrange jumpers.

Next up: The Wolves take on the KG-less Celtics on Monday night at the Target Center, 7 pm.

Three Positives:

Jonah: Overall, this is a really fun win for the Wolves. It’s not often we get to watch them beat anyone let alone the top team in the West. They couldn’t contain Kevin Durant but certainly kept Russell Westbrook in check. And on the offensive end, they were efficient and played the best ball they could, running through Nikola Pekovic and his dominating post presence. But unfortunately, in a lost season, this entertaining bout becomes something of a sweet nothing. There’s nothing wrong with that; I’m simply stating the obvious.

Tom: I’ll give a nod to the Wolves in general for showing their ability to close a game out. Finishing against better teams in the fourth quarter is tough for any team, but the Wolves have struggled especially this year. But when Oklahoma City made a final push with about four minutes left, Minnesota buckled down and got stops against the explosive Thunder. More importantly, they got the necessary baskets to pull out the win.

As Jonah said above, the game itself didn’t matter in the long run, but it was definitely fun to beat the team the Wolves would like to become.

Derek: The Timberwolves may not be the league’s most potent offense, but it seems like they may have figured one thing out against the Thunder: Make enough shots to win, try to keep one of Durant and Westbrook in check, and try to win the turnover battle. This is the second time this season they have out-shot the Thunder, albeit slightly, and kept Westbrook from going off and basically dared the Thunder to beat them with more than just Durant. Dangerous? Sure, but the Thunder are a dangerous team anyway that you don’t stand a chance against if you have both getting whatever they want.

We’ve seen before how Durant and Westbrook have combined for 60, 70 and even 80 points of their offense, and that makes it difficult to win. Plus they played smart, getting easy shots in the paint, limiting and forcing turnovers, and doing little things like rebounding and moving the ball. You can beat a lot of teams that way.

Three Negatives:

Jonah: As stated in my positive, the Wolves couldn’t stop Kevin Durant. No problem. No one really can. But Durant seems to love playing in the Target Center. As a pro, Durant has averaged over 27 ppg, and has netted more than 30 in nine straight while on visit to the Twin Cities. So, come on, guys. Someone’s gotta guard the man!

Tom: *debates the merits of discussing the 5-15 3-point shooting* *debates the merits of discussing the 44% shooting from the field* *debates discussing the mere seven fast break points*

Nahhhhhh. Good win, guys.

Derek: I really don’t want to make too much of Derrick Williams 2-8 shooting performance in 26 minutes, but he still got involved in other ways and finished with two fouls and zero turnovers. So what’s really my gripe here? Would I even bother mentioning this if he hit even one or two more shots? It looked like an off-night for Williams, but this is my negatives section and I had to pick something! Anyway, it’s hard to be too negative about beating the Thunder.

Three Observations:

Jonah: At Pek’s size, I’ve always expected him to be a Kevin Love-like rebounder, but he just hasn’t for whatever reason. But tonight he grabbed 15 as well as 16 on Wednesday night against the Lakers. Without Love in the lineup, rebounding truly becomes a team stat and Pek’s contributions on the glass have been incredibly helpful.

Tom: I wasn’t at the game tonight, but from what those in attendance said, Rubio was in a foul mood during the game, kicking empty chairs and slamming the ball on the ground. Presumably, this can be tied back to the no-call against the Lakers that cost Minnesota the game. But oddly enough, I find it refreshing to hear he was angry. He deserved to be.

Derek: Chase Budinger really appears to just what the Timberwolves have needed, which we kind of knew, but his line of 13 points on 4-8 shooting from the field and 2-3 from distance really confirmed that. Are the Timberwolves still in the lower-third in the NBA as far as shooting? Probably, but they might not be last at least. At any rate, we got a good look at how this team can do with a shooter on the floor.

Next up: Wolves are back at it tomorrow night hosting the Grizzlies at 7 pm.

Three Positives: 

Jonah: I’m sure even the Timberwolves didn’t see this coming but their 14 connections from deep are a season-high and come at just the oddest time, in a nothing game against the Pistons. Whatever, though. What tonight did solidify for me was that, given some dead-eye shooters and a brute presence in the paint, the Wolves are a really good team. It’s this kind of game that I picture a fully healthy Wolves squad to play like at the offensive end. That’s really exciting to envision.

Tom: Things we learned about Alexey Shved’s passing tonight: If the Wolves knock down shots, he can be a very good drive-and-kick player. Shved dished out seven assists, and six of the seven were driving passes that turned into jumpers. Sure, it helps for the Wolves to be hot like blue flames, but Shved’s passing was definitely a positive this evening.

Derek: I’m not a huge plus/minus guy, but this is interesting to note in such a blowout win. Timberwolves starters plus/minus’: 18-23-28-16-26. Clearly the Timberwolves need to do one of three things in the future: 1) Shoot 50% from 3; 2) Play lockdown defense; 3) Play the Pistons every night.

Three Negatives:

Jonah: Derrick Williams of old sorta showed up again tonight. He finished with six in just 17 minutes, mostly because of some boneheaded D-Will plays. Like one when he dribbled down court himself, took it to the rack and got called for the charge. Just so blatantly too. The ensuing visual? A Rick Adelman facepalm. After that I couldn’t see the screen because I emulated the same move.

Tom: Aside from Williams’ somewhat mediocre performance, it’s hard to pick nits with tonight’s game. Chase Budinger continues to look a little bit uncomfortable, but his free pass to look uncomfortable doesn’t run out for a while. What’s more, we saw a few drives and cuts from Budinger, and even though few of them translated into points, it’s good to see him testing things out and re-acquainting himself with the court.

Derek: Timberwolves starters-not-named-Nikola-Pekovic 3 point shooting: 7-10. Nikola Pekovic from 3 tonight: 0-0. Oh, someone didn’t feel like doing their part…

…I’m kidding of course. You could point out a few small things here and there, as far as negatives that that haven’t been mentioned, but you would really picking nits.

Three Observations:

Jonah: He’s 6-foot-9 and ultra lanky, so when Andrei Kirilenko goes up for a slam, it looks sorta awkward. But in full stride and with some oomph, AK’s literally one of my favorite dunkers. Just so simple yet but fun to watch.

Tom: In a little under half of Ricky Rubio’s games, we express surprise at how well he shot and wish he could shoot that well consistently. Tonight, he shot 6-9 with two made 3-pointers. If Zach Lowe is correct (he usually is) and shooting is perhaps the easiest thing for NBA coaches to teach their players, Rubio’s potential is so unbelievably high.

Also of note: That pass where he throws his arm way out and whips a pocket pass into the middle of the defense is one of my favorite plays in basketball.

Derek: This isn’t really a positive or a negative, so it’s going here. Know how I know you shot 53% from three on 26 shots? Well, you only took eight free throws in the entire game. Furthermore, here is a list of players who didn’t go to the line even once: Luke Ridnour, JJ Barea, Alexey Shved, and Derrick Williams. There were more who didn’t get to the line, but these are the ones that stand out considering their styles of play, but when you’re shooting threes like that I’m not going to complain about not drawing a bunch of fouls and just observe it.

Next up: Wolves come back home to take on the hated Los Angeles Lakers, 7 pm.

Two Positives:

Jonah: The game after his odd benching in Phoenix, Derrick Williams picked up where he left off by tying his career-high in points (28). And he was fairly efficient too; 11-18 from the field including three deep bombs. Williams’ improved play is going to leave the Wolves with a big decision to make on his future moving forward. My take? Ya keep him and milk his production as long as it takes.

Tom: After Williams’ excellent performance (and I concur with Jonah’s assessment of the situation), the next logical player to highlight is Ricky Rubio, who had a very solid game with 15 points on 4-8 shooting. Two very notable things about Ricky’s performance that are inextricably tied together: Rubio was 7-10 from the free throw line, and he dished out eight assists. Both statistics were a direct result of his offensive aggression, which has been much, much better as of late. Many of his assists were pick-and-roll dishes, including one gorgeous between-two-defenders bounce pass to Nikola Pekovic for the slam. Pekovic’s efficiency can often be predicted simply by looking at Rubio’s stat-line, and sure enough: Pek finished 6-9 from the field for 15 points.

Two Negatives:

Jonah: This game is hard to analyze. Just looking at the numbers, the Wolves shot 50% from the field and make just two less field goals than the Bulls. They hit 50% from three-point land as well while dropping in one more free throw and one less turnover than the Bulls as well. The difference? Rebounds. The Wolves got their ass’ handed to them in the paint and completely wiped on the glass. For being known as workhorse rebounding team, getting beat by 20 is unacceptable, even if you’re missing your top rebounder. Rebounding is a team stat that requires everyone’s attention and aggressiveness.

Tom: I quote: ”‘They could complain about how many guys they’ve got hurt and they don’t do that,’ Rubio said. ‘They just play aggressive. We have to learn from that. If they can do it, we can do it, too.’”

I admire Rubio’s sentiment, and I appreciate the amount of heart and hustle we see from him on a nightly basis, even in ugly losing efforts. I just don’t think that Chicago’s injury problems, though certainly severe, can be compared to Minnesota’s. You can play aggressive, but when Lou Amundson got significant minutes for much of the year, aggressive just isn’t going to cut it.

Two Observations:

Jonah: Moving forward, I’m starting more and more to question Alexey Shved’s role on this team. He can’t seem to coincide with Rubio all that well — although he hasn’t gotten much of a chance quite yet. But he seems to only be effective when the ball’s in his own hands. He’ll never be a spot up shooter, nor do I believe that’s what Adelman wants from him. It’s cliche but this rookie wall is bearing down hard. It’s time to shoulder through it and build confidence moving into the offseason.

Tom: Three jumpers for Budinger tonight, who seems to be picking his spots and getting comfortable as he returns. He looks understandably hesitant still, but the good news is that he is a good enough shooter to contribute while he works his way back to full health.

The downside: Seeing Budinger knocking down jumpers and driving to the basket is a gigantic tease knowing how much he would have helped this season back when it wasn’t a lost cause.

Next up: The Wolves meet in Detroit to take on the Pistons on Tuesday night, 7 pm.

One Positives:

Jonah: The Suns are a pretty awful team. Awful enough to probably predict that the front office was more invested in the NCAA Tournament today than this game. But it still has to feel nice to win handily, against anyone, for the Wolves. After last night’s loss in Sacramento, I surveyed some photos from the game and came across a depressing picture of Rick Adelman and Ricky Rubio embracing each other with arms around one another as they walked back to the locker room. That’s the mentality surrounding the locker room on a nightly basis, and the only way to turn it around would be to gain some wins. That’s why this one is important at least for the Wolves.

One Negatives:

Jonah: This isn’t so much a negative on the team rather Adelman’s questionable decision to sit Derrick Williams for the majority of the night. He finished with just four points, all from the line, in just 14 minutes. There’s speculation as to whether he was injured or not feeling well but no one has a firm grasp on what happened. Anyways, given the advancements in his game we’ve witnessed the past few months, it’s hard to justify sitting him in a game he could get some easy reps. I’m not all that happy about that.

One Observations:

Jonah: In yesterday’s recap I wrote about Greg Stiemsma’s ever-improving offensive efficiency. Tonight, Stiemer went 6-10 from the field for 14 points in 34 minutes of work. Boom.

Next up: Wolves come home to play the Bulls on Sunday evening, 6 pm.

Two Positives:

Jonah: I’m a big Bud fan, if you didn’t already know, so seeing Chase sprint the court, albeit for just 18 minutes, was certainly reassuring. I wasn’t — and won’t be moving forward — expecting too much while he returns from a torn meniscus but he also doesn’t need to do much to set up shop in a corner and rain down threes, something the Wolves need so desperately.

Derek: I really like efficient Nikola Pekovic– 18 and 12 on 6-12 shooting, and 6-8 from the line on top of that. Nice game for Pek.

Two Negatives:

Jonah: Budinger returns and hits a three. How does the rest of the team respond to his shooting? They go 0-18 from three-point land for the rest of the game. Just so awful. You’d think that just seeing a deep ball slide through the net would give someone else some confidence but it doesn’t. That’s just how historically bad this team is at shooting.

Derek: On the possession prior to the final possession, the Timberwolves subbed in Andrei Kirilenko and Dante Cunningham for defensive reasons, which is a fine strategy unless you’re not going to call a timeout to sub in more offensive players. Instead, Rubio kicked it to Ridnour, who passed it to Cunningham who was forced to take a three that he missed at the last second. Even though they would’ve had to inbound from the backcourt if they had taken a timeout, making for a tougher shot, I would’ve preferred to see Ridnour take that shot if they didn’t take the timeout.

Two Observations:

Jonah: Ever since Nikola Pekovic went down to minor injuries, Greg Stiemsma’s role has increased substantially  seeing that he’s the only other center on the roster with the ability and strength to play every opponent. Sorry, Chris Johnson. And I have to admit, he’s certainly been getting better and better each time he goes out there. He still makes some knuckle-headed decisions but I’m very impressed with Stiemer’s advanced offensive ability. In the last five games, he’s averaging just over eight points a game and shooting 53% from the field.

Derek: You all know I love the Timberwolves, but I’ve also been a huge fan of the Kings’ Isaiah Thomas since his Washington days, and  who was also the 60th pick in the draft a couple of years ago. Despite concerns over his size he’s risen to being a starter in the NBA and put up 24-3-6 last night. I know, I know…#trader!

Next up: Wolves stay out west to take on Phoenix tonight at 9 pm.

Three Positives:

Jonah: Late in the third quarter, Ricky Rubio tried fronting Mike Conley, I believe, as he was bursting up the floor. He lower-body buckled and jerked that left him limping until the next dead ball. He sat down in frustration as Wolves fans held their breaths. Then he made his way to the locker room and everyone thought all was lost. Luckily he arose from the tunnel and took a seat on the bench. Marney Gellner so candidly explained that it was only a tweaked groin and he was available if needed for the rest of the game, which he wisely wasn’t. So at least for everyone’s sake, he’s A-OKAY. That’s my positive.

Tom: Well, the Wolves managed just 14 assists, 33.7% shooting from the field overall, 25% shooting from 3-point range. They scored just 28 points in the paint and allowed 50 to Memphis. They were out-rebounded 49-45. Sooooo positives. Hmm. Just 11 turnovers, I guess? That was a thing.

Derek: Look, the bench scored 44 points! This is great because it has often because there have been times the bench has given the starters very little support. Wait– what’s this…(scroll down to my negative)

Three Negatives:

Jonah: People tell me that Nikola Pekovic needs to return to the Wolves at any cost possible. But when Marc Gasol takes Pek to school and leads the Grizzlies to a large deficit in scoring in the paint, 50-28 to be exact, I’m hardpressed to even listen to any of them. I’m as much of a Pek fan as the next guy but I also sport a realist mind that can’t justify paying the man much more than $10 million a year or so.

Tom: Two bad things about tonight’s game: Derrick Williams’ inefficiency (3-12 for eight points…sigh), and Jonah’s pun in the title above. Williams’ inefficiency is less excusable than Jonah’s pun work, because at least Jonah’s pun didn’t jack up five 3-pointers, making only made one. The same cannot be said about Derrick Williams.

Derek: …the starters combined for just 33 points? Seriously, here are the points for Timberwolves starters last night: 8-8-9-6-2. Everyone has their off-nights shooting, this team of course having been no exception all season long, but that lack of production is pretty bad. Whatever, though. They were on the second night of a back-to-back on a road and are just getting healthy as a whole, but that is one big negative.

Three Observations:

Jonah: The Wolves actually led most of the first half of this game but in typical fashion they left off the pedal in the second. Everyone seemed gassed and utterly disgusted in the fact that shots weren’t falling. It’s a common theme I’ve witnessed all season long, the complete disinterest in playing a second half, and thus the blowout.

Tom: Most teams struggle on the road, but the Wolves are 7-26 away from the Target Center. That’s barely better than Charlotte, who are 6-28. At this point, wins are tough to come by at home as well, but barring any unforeseen factors, most road games can be chalked up as a loss for Minnesota before they even begin.

Derek: Had this been a close game, one stat likely would have been on the Timberwolves’ side was points off of turnovers. The Timberwolves had 14 off of them, but the Grizzlies had just 6, and both teams finished with similar figures. At that rate they could have finished with twice as many since the Grizzlies didn’t exactly capitalize on their extra possessions. Of course, you shouldn’t be allowed to win if you finish with 24 or more turnovers, but that disparity just caught my eye.

Next up: Wolves have another road game in Sacramento on Thursday night, 7 pm.

The Timberwolves two most talented players right now are just 22 and 21 years old. That’s why when you see those two lead this team to victory down the stretch of an awfully close game is so special. Young, inexperienced players don’t know how to play basketball with a lead down to the wire. For a great example, go pick your bracket(s) and watch the NCAA Tournament. There will be a ample leads broken and likely strands of hair pulled out.

It’s frustrating to watch as a fan of the leading team but quite an exhilarating emotional roller coaster for the fans of the other team. Behind a sharpshooting Grevis Vazquez, the Hornets made their move on the Timberwolves mid-to-late in the fourth. A couple of deep threes from Vazquez changed to tone to the game and the Wolves had to make big plays at the end rather than coast out like in a blow out victory.

Now, as I write about my affection for both Derrick Williams and Ricky Rubio, I must explain a disclaimer on this game. These two certainly had tremendous games. Williams a career-high 28 points on 9-16 shooting, and Rubio had a better shooting night of 7-11 that registered the Wolves 16 points. But they aren’t the reason the Wolves won this game down the stretch.

As explained earlier, from observations of all my years living on this earth, youth-filled squads can’t close games. They need a little bit of help, which is why the Timberwolves have sought after wily vets that can push the young guys to winning a couple. That being said, yesterday’s win is devoted to Andrei Kirilenko, who made that block on a driving Eric Gordon as the seconds ticked down. It was one of those awe moments that makes you step back and appreciate an old fart like him. AK47 understands how to win and he also possesses the tools and mind to make plays that can assure a win on most given nights. I don’t see Williams out there making that last-second block, or even Alexey Shved in to hit a big-time shot any time soon.

This was a fun game to watch, especially during crunch time. It’s entertaining to see Williams and Rubio grow up together within the context of just one game but it’s even better to see them walking out smiling after a win probably saying the same thing, Thank God for that damn Russian.”