Three Positives:

Jonah: After starting the game 1-6 in the first half, Derrick Williams made a better effort in the second, going 6-9 from the field. Still no made three pointers but not a bad effort to get himself back into the game.

Tom: Nikola Pekovic played well once again, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds. I don’t really have a whole lot more positive to say about that. There’s only so much a player like Pek can do against an explosive, fast-paced team like Oklahoma City. But Pek did his job for the evening.

Derek: (Let’s see…I can talk about…no, not Kirilenko. Oh, Shved shot alright, and had OMG SEVEN turnovers?! How about Dante Cunning– not tonight.) Did anybody get hurt tonight? No? Hell yeah!

Three Negatives:

Jonah: Did you know Kevin Love is going to be out 8-10 weeks now? Yeah, that’s a negative.

Tom: So much to choose from! I’ll go with the 19 turnovers. Frankly, if you turn the ball over 19 times against Oklahoma City, there is no chance in any hell that you are winning a game. The Thunder are too dangerous individually and too good in transition.

You also probably aren’t winning against OKC when your best player is out with a broken hand, but Jonah has that covered.

Derek: Hey, Tom! What’s a consequence of 19 turnovers? Yes, giving up fastbreak opportunities, which the Thunder took advantage of to the tune of 23 points to 8. Even with a relatively even rebounding battle the Timberwolves managed to get killed in the open court.

Three Observations:

Jonah: As hard as it is for many to admit, the Wolves desperately missed JJ Barea’s presence on the court tonight. With the news of Love, it’s going to be imperative that someone step up in the scoring department. Typically we turn to Barea to fill that void. Oh, jeez, I really just said that. Tonight was baaad.

Tom: I’ve come to grips with the fact that the Wolves are hands down the worst 3-point shooting team in the league. That doesn’t bother me anymore. 3-13 from 3-point range? Fine. At least they only took 13 3-point FGAs. What DOES bother me is the fact that Minnesota allowed OKC to score a higher percentage of 3-pointers than total field goals. The Thunder were 11-20 from 3-point range for 55%. Once again, OKC is too talented to miss many 3-pointers, but when the opponent is over 50% from behind the arc, it’s a good indicator that there is bad defense helping out the good offense.

If the Wolves are going to miss a metric truckload of 3-pointers, the least they could do is force their opponents to miss a few as well.

Derek: The Timberwolves, who have been notoriously bad from long this season took just 13 threes. They average 19 per game. I’m not sure if this was a combo of the Thunder’s scheme, dearth of guards, or both, but is interesting to note. There’s a chance that the Wolves’, um, shooters didn’t have much left in their legs after being so shorted handed, though.

Notes: It was the second consecutive game that head coach Rick Adelman has missed due to “personal reasons.” Also, JJ Barea sat this one out with an injured back.

(Derek’s note: The Wolves have now lost TWICE this season 106-84. The first time being to the Jazz.)

Next up: Wolves get a day’s rest then head to New Orleans for a game Friday night.

Two Positives:

Jonah: The news of Kevin Love’s injury is a crushing blow for this entire team but it also bears a silver lining. There’s an opportunity for someone, anyone, to step up the way Chase Budinger did in the earlier part of the season. Now, based off of consistency issues throughout his career thus far, Derrick Williams is going to have to do a lot to make that special impact, and one that fans have been expecting ever since he was drafted, really. His fourth quarter tonight was just inspiring and what I think supercharged the Wolves into their miraculous comeback. Down 19 with 10:42 left in the quarter, Williams started a run, scoring nine straight points on his own. He didn’t stop there as he finished with 18 in the fourth. Like I said, who knows if he’ll be able to repeat these kinds of games because we’ve never really seen it from him before. But with the extra minutes up for the taking, it’s hard not to think that he won’t see the bulk of those ticks and try to make something of it as he did tonight.

Derek: If there’s one positive of the Love injury, it’s that we get to see more Andrei Kirilenko in the box score. 15-7-2 last night, and on most nights he’s able to be a factor. I don’t want to say I’m looking forward to Love’s absence, but I hate it less knowing Kirilenko is still there. Now, if they have to play him 40+ minutes to get by, that’s a different issue.

Two Negatives:

Jonah: Before the Wolves made their fourth quarter comeback, I was ready to pack it in and hit the sheets. I spent the bulk of my evening hyping myself up for the Minnesota Vikings Wild Card bout with the Green Bay Packers and this matchup with the Blazers. But then the Love news landed; the whiskey started flowing; the Vikings started choking; and the Blazers started raining threes and that was my night. The run at the end there still gives me hope that this team isn’t ready to throw in the white flag yet but, regardless, the feelings are still stuck in my gut. It’s Minnesota sports, and anyone who’s been a long-time fan understands how things work around here; we expect the worst and hope for the best, and things may never change around these parts.

Derek: It’s understandably deflating to lose your best player for an extended period of time just hours before the game, but I can’t bring myself to let the first three quarters slide. Especially since they rallied together as a team in Denver on Thursday to put the game away after Love left the game. You can’t expect to win too often in the NBA when you only come to play twenty-five percent of a game.

Two Observations:

Jonah: Wesley Matthews is a bonafide Wolf killer, especially at the Target Center. Twice there he’s scored over 30 points including a cool 26 last night. His weapon of choice? The three ball, of course. Last night he converted on 5-6 attempts from beyond, and back on Jan. 7th, just a year ago, he hit 7-10 from three-point land to go on his way to 36 points, his career high, in that one. The Wolves don’t have and never have had anyone strong enough to cover Matthews one-on-one. It showed last night.

Derek: Nikola Pekovic hip strain? Because who else could get hurt this season.

Next up: The Wolves get a little rest — hopefully allowing Ricky Rubio to return — and then take on the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night at the Target Center.

Two Positives

Derek: Per the voice of the Timberwolves, Alan Horton (@WolvesRadio) Luke Ridnour and JJ Barea combined for 19 points on 9/11 shooting in the 4th quarter. It was the type of thing that the Wolves needed following Love’s exit from the game, and exhibited something that good teams get: role players stepping up. We saw the Timberwolves taking smarter shots, and they wound up outscoring the Nuggets 45-31 after Love’s absence.

Tom: It makes a lot of sense to allow Alexey Shved to continue starting. 17 points on 7-13 shooting is solid, but his five assists also led the Wolves. Not only that, but Shved played pretty good defense as well as a part of the first unit and his size makes more sense than Ridnour’s as the starting 2-guard.  He turned the ball over five time, and his 3-point shooting could use some work (or perhaps just some moderation), but that’s a fairly prevalent problem.

Two Negatives

Derek: Here’s a negative for you: Kosta Koufos had 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks with no fouls or turnovers. Or, as Webster’s calls it, “unacceptable.

Tom: Transition opportunities are usually an easy way to get baskets because they so often end in layups. But the Wolves averaged just 0.59 points per possession in transition tonight, shooting just 3-13 from the field. The good news: only three of the transition shot attempts were 3-pointers. Most of the rest were dunks and layups. So do you consider missed dunks and layups good news, since they will probably fall in the future? Or are you discouraged that Minnesota couldn’t finish easy opportunities?

Two Observations 

Derek: As ugly as the first half was with both teams shooting under forty percent, the Timberwolves were able to build their lead by getting to the line twelve more times than the Nuggets. Early on they forced starters Danillo Gallinari and Kenneth Faried into foul trouble while converting on seventy percent of their attempts. It was a simple philosophy to make them play defense to stop them inside, or be forced to go to their bench earlier than expected.

Tom: So happy that JJ Barea had a great game. Nice to see him hit some shots. Good to see him dish out some assists. But I won’t come around on him until I see it happen much much MUCH more consistently.

Notes: Kevin Love left the game early after putting 17 rebounds in 24 minutes (against the league’s best rebounding team) for what was later revealed as a sprained finger on the same hand he previously broke…We saw Anthony Randolph again, and it took all of a minute for Dante Cunningham to get AR to leave his feet with a simple ball fake. I do not miss those days.

Up Next: Saturday Damian freaking Lillard and the Portland Trailblazers going into town. You should go. I want to go, but I have to work, unless one of you wants to work for me. – Derek

Three Positives:

Jonah: The Timberwolves hung with the Jazz in terms of rebounding and turnovers and actually beat them at drawing personal fouls and getting to the free throw line. That’s really about it, unfortunately.

Tom: Nikola Pekovic is big and strong. He blocked some shots, scored some points, got some rebounds. Like Jonah above me, I have nothing else positive to say.

Derek: Aside from the things the guys above me said and Andrei Kirilenko, I guess I could say that no one else got hurt. That’s a positive.

Three Negatives:

Jonah: Well, the whole game was pretty awful. But you’re just not going to win a game shooting less than 35% from the field. It’s pretty typical, though. Sure, there hasn’t been a poorer shooting night than this but it’s gotta be mentioned that the Wolves, coming into this game, were the fifth worst in field goal percentage in the league. So even with the new year — a time to declare a new you — the Wolves were unable to turn a new leaf. Shooting will always be a problem when Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Love can barely crack 33% from the field combined. Those kinds of performances are never going to bode well for the team, and that was exactly the story tonight.

Tom: 2-17. 2-17!! 2-17 from 3-point range. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I get it if you can’t hit 3-pointers. I play with a ton of basketball players who can’t hit 3-pointers and I’m not mad about it. But if they jacked up 17 3-pointers I WOULD BE REALLY REALLY MAD ABOUT IT.

At some point, you just have to stop taking 3-pointers, no? The Wolves shot 40% on 2-pointers, which really isn’t very good either, but the 3s need to go.

Derek: 

I read a book tonight called, ”How to Let a Winnable Game Slip Further Away With Each Passing Quarter” by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Chapter One: Make it as easy as possible for your opponent to score.

Summary: Getting killed in the paint (56-36) and in transition (25-8) has a way of negating low turnover totals and good rebounding, especially when you can’t shoot.

Three Observations:

Jonah: Now obviously I wasn’t there but word has it that the home crowd’s welcoming of former Jazz man, Andrei Kirilenko, was not nearly as enthusiastic as some may have thought it could’ve been. Why? Take a gander at this piece and you’ll understand the root of Jazz fans’ mixed emotions of the Russian vet.

Another quick note: Greg Stiemsma, in just eight minutes of work tonight, managed to foul out. Upon committing his sixth personal, Stiemer walked straight to the locker room despite time still left on the clock. Yeah, it was that kind of night.

Tom: I mentioned in the preview that the Jazz are one of the worst spot-up defenses in the NBA. Per Synergy Sports, the Wolves took 18 spot-up attempts and scored 0.89 PPP. That’s not incredibly efficient, but it’s .02 PPP better than usual (in other words, not noticeably different at all). By the way, the Wolves are 28th in the NBA at spot-up efficiency. What an ugly game.

Derek: Tonight we had off shooting nights for Alexey Shved and JJ Barea, and pretty much everyone else. Kevin Love struggled once again, but he’s still getting his hand right. Now, I’ve  got to ask: Did Luke Ridnour break his hand after the Heat game on December 18th, and not tell anyone? Seriously, here are his shooting percentages for the past four games: .250%; .385%; .300%; .286%. Probably just a hard regression to the mean since he was shooting it well before those four (.571%; .412%; .833%; .417%.), but it’s still frustrating to watch.

Hopefully he’ll snap out of it soon.

Notes: Ricky Rubio did not make the trip to Utah due to back spasms and has also been ruled out for tomorrow night’s game in Denver. Adelman claims that he’s overcompensating for his injured knee, shifting the bulk of exhausting aches to his back area.

Next up: Wolves head to Denver to take on the Nuggets tomorrow night.

Three Positives: 

Derek: They closed out a close game! Seriously, after the last two games, this is an achievement in itself. No, I don’t care if the Suns have bed wetting issues, so to speak, either. In fact, Luis Scola admitted afterwards that closing games is in their heads, but kudos to the Wolves for closing this out.

Jonah: The sheer net gain of not resigning Michael Beasley last summer is a positive in itself. Beasley’s minutes in the game boiled down to how well he can throw the Suns and their offensive chemistry off their game. It was sorta like having a puppy so excited to see you that when you asked him to jump up on your lap (Or sub him into the game) he starts wiggling around so much and then wees all over your lap (Taking eight shots and only hitting one.) Beasley managed to throw off the Suns’ offense at some opportune moments that helped the Wolves key on small but helpful runs. And for that, I thank you, Alvin Gentry.

Tom: After a couple of tough games for Kirilenko, he scored 20 points on a variety of shots, but a rather startling number of his baskets came from cuts and dunks. An underrated positive of being an excellent passer is that you also usually have a really good sense of when and where to move around the basket. Kirilenko looked more confident and comfortable tonight, and the result was a lot of abuse on the Target Center rims.

Three Negatives: 

Derek: Sure, Luis Scola played with prime Tim Duncan. However, nobody told us that he stole a small bit of his talent to use on one given night down the road. I didn’t mention Scola in my preview, but not because he wasn’t worth it, and he went on to drop 26 and 11 on the Timberwolves tonight. He only made one trip to the line, which tells me that he probably didn’t have to earn too many of his baskets.

Jonah: How ’bout those free throws? The Wolves continue to amaze me at the pathetic game-by-game effort at the free throw line this year. They continue to draw fouls and get to the line, which is great, but collectively and consistently klank shots off the rim. Last night they ended up taking 26 attempts and only converted 16 of them (That’s 61.5% for you non math wizards.)

Tom: If Minnesota could have won while Michael Beasley dropped 20 points on 12 shots, I would have been happiest. My fondness for Beas has been well-documented, so seeing him struggle on any team is a bummer. Of course, I prefer the outcome of the game, but it would have been nice for Beasley to be more productive.

Annnnnd more on Beas from Derek below!

Three Observations: 

Derek: I guess Mike Beasley got booed tonight, which is dumb. I know, it’s a fan thing, but for what offense? DUI? Violent crime? Drug trafficking? Maybe a sex crime? “No” to all of that you say? Oh. He was just a mediocre player for two seasons? Give me a break.

Jonah: Andrei Kirilenko continue’s his All-Star season but there’s probably no way he makes it. The problem with that is, to this day, the MVP race on the Timberwolves roster is between AK and Nikola Pekovic. And I’d probably go even further to say that AK has an advantage. In every game this season, he’s provided some type of aspect to give the Wolves that advantage. Sometimes it’s steals and defense, sometimes it’s scoring and passing — Last night was the latter, which brings me to my point. He’s a box score stuffer that does all the little things and seems to do it when you’re team needs it most. Last night he was moving so well and finding back door cuts that most of his points came off uncontested dunks. Every night is a different story with him but it’s always a benefit to the team. He’s definitely my MVP right now.

Tom: Of Alexey Shved’s 10 assists (per Synergy Sports), five of them were to Andrei Kirilenko and of those five, four were dunks. One play was particularly impressive. Kirilenko fumbled the ball a bit and Shved picked it up. He caught AK’s eyes and made some hand signal. Immediately, AK dropped back, hesitated, and cut backdoor for an alley-oop. The level of communication and intuition between Shved and AK is very impressive.

Next up: Wolves get a nice little break and then head to Utah for a big bout on Wednesday night with the Jazz.

Three Positives:

Jonah: A positive, huh? Can it be a positive for the Rockets? Because, in that case, the Timberwolves completely stepped aside and allowed the Rockets to come back into this one. They attacked the Wolves beginning in the middle of the third quarter — when they’re most vulnerable, always — and never let up until the final buzzer. It was James Harden who tipped the final decision but the Rockets collectively never quit and abused the Wolves on both ends of the court in the second half of the second half. Just brutal to watch because of how eerily familiar this style of loss is; losing a game you owned the whole way because of poor shooting in the second half and an impressive, backbreaking effort from the other team’s star is just heartbreaking.

Tom: Well, Alexey Shved played pretty okay. He had some nice drives to the basket, especially in the first half, and a couple of his assists were really pretty. He hit a few 3-pointers as well, which really invites the question “WHY THE HELL WASN’T THE FINAL PLAY DRAWN UP FOR HIM?! OR WAS IT FOR HIM AND WE JUST COULDN’T TELL BECAUSE KEVIN LOVE AND JJ BAREA BLEW THE WHOLE THING INTO SMITHEREENS?”

Kill me.

Derek: I guess if you’re going to get beat you should get beat by a team’s best player (James Harden), and not someone like Toney Douglas. No one other than Harden and Omer Asik really had much going for them. Look: Chandler Parsons: 12 points, 12 shots; Jeremy Lin: 8 points, 9 shots; Marcus Morris: 8 points, 9 shots; Carlos Delfino 11 points, 13 shots. This is a game they probably win most other nights.

Three Negatives:

Jonah: Superstars earn their respective title because they perform at a very high level consistently on a night-by-night basis. They have poor shooting nights just like every other player in the league but what separates them from the others in the league is that they find other things to do well to give their team the best chance to win. That can include late-game heroics, just the ultimate “clutch” player. Or amping up their defensive effort. Or maybe just utilizing their focal point in the offense to create opportunities for others. Kevin Love fails to do those things. His body language and behavior on poor shooting nights greatly hurts the Wolves’ chances of winning, and tonight was the perfect example. So I ask this: Why leave him on the court? In that final 11.7 seconds of the game, where a three is needed, why draw up a play for the guy who’s gone 0-for-7 from deep and had looked like he’d completely detached himself — both mentally and physically — from the game way before that? For what it’s worth, Derrick Williams, who hit two threes in the game and actually looked hungry when he was on the court, should’ve been on the court for that play. Or find a way to screen Alexey Shved open for a better look than he got. The inconsistent performances and the bizarre body language has me questioning Love’s determination and ultimately his stardom in the NBA.

Tom: Jonah covered Kevin Love, so I’ll cover JJ Barea. Here’s the thing: I don’t really like Barea, so I have to be careful to be fair to him in these recaps. And to be fair, he hit some big shots and kept the Wolves afloat several times, which was great. But it was his ball-dominance that cost Minnesota a clean look at a three on the final play, and that really takes away from any of his positive contributions. With 11 seconds left on the game clock, the Wolves just didn’t have time for Barea to stand at the top of the key waiving off teammates, and it really bit them in the ass.

Derek: Me having to close out my Twitter tab postgame due to yet another Loveageddon. Do we talk about this as much if the Wolves make their shots? Like, any of them– they couldn’t hit from anywhere. Do we pass this off as, “Love is in a slump” or “Love’s hand isn’t right and he’s frustrated…” if they do win? I don’t feel like the conversation is necessarily wrong tonight, but furthered by the result of the game, and Love obviously hesitating on whether to shoot or pass on the final play. That’s not the Kevin Love we saw last season, and I think we all know it. Anyway, here’s what .381/.250/.756 shooting looks like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Observations:

Jonah: The Timberwolves are at the top of the league when it comes to drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line. Tonight they only managed to shoot 17 of them, proving that they were getting beat in the paint and struggled to beat Rockets on the perimeter. That led to 28 three-pointers taken in the game, which is just not their strength by any means. Nikola Pekovic struggled tonight, and a lot of that alarming statistic tonight is due to his void but the Wolves need to do a better job of bypassing threes to get to the paint.

Tom: Ricky Rubio is way less fun when he doesn’t have teammates running in transition. He’s still struggling with his mobility, understandably, but it doesn’t help that the rest of his team is walking up the court. Remember when every time Rubio had the ball last year, you wondered if he was about to toss an alley-oop to Wes Johnson or Derrick Williams? Now you wonder if he’s going to pass the ball around the perimeter to JJ Barea or Alexey Shved. I am teh sadz.

Derek: Is it just me or has Andrei Kirilenko been off lately? You could say our AK47 is in need of re-calibration. Or not, depending on if that statement is funny to you.

Notes: Pekovic left for a brief period with an illness. He returned to the bench in the third quarter and got some playing time down the stretch. Didn’t make too much of a difference against the wall of a man that is Omer Asik.

Next up: Wolves get a little break and take on the Phoenix Suns Saturday night in Michael Beasley’s return to the Target Center.

Three Positives:

Jonah: Dante Cunningham all but solidified himself as Kevin Love’s ultimate backup for when he misses games, such as today’s. His intensity off the bench is unmatched and he just flat out knows his game. Defense, hustle and midrange jumpers. That’s what he does best and he sticks to it. Anything else he does on the court is just a bonus, especially the fact that he doesn’t try to do too much with the ball. When he does catch the rock, it’s always a catch and shoot situation from midrange, and it’s oh so sweet how easy he makes it look. He was very impressive tonight, making Love’s absence seem a little less noticeable, especially in the box score.

Tom: Minnesota won so many important area in that game. The Wolves outrebounded New York, outshot them from 3-point range, dished out more assists and had more points in the paint. It’s also interesting that Minnesota was able to grab 13 offensive rebounds against a team that currently employs Tyson Chandler.

Derek: Don’t confuse this with a moral victory, but we almost beat the East’s best/second-best team (record-wise) without our best player. That’s…not…bad…

Three Negatives:

Jonah: What seems to be an ongoing trend this season is the lack of fire in the fourth quarter from the Wolves. It happens more often than not, when the shots don’t fall, they seem to lose hope and lose it quickly. Carmelo Anthony was there to answer the Wolves’ fourth quarter woes and did it swiftly. Ending a quarter shooting 1-of-11 from the field never bodes well. Melo should and will beat you in that scenario 10 times out of 10.

Tom: That killer Melo and-1 wasn’t the reason Minnesota lost (Jonah will get to this in the observations), but man. Carmelo kicked out his leg, flailed his arm and made the play look foul-ish, but Kirilenko’s defense was pretty clean, and that was such an important juncture in the game. Again, the Wolves lost this game themselves, but they certainly got some assistance in doing so.

Derek: If you hold the Knicks to 23% from three, you think that you would be able to come away with the win, but they didn’t. They kept the Knicks from doing one of the things they do best, but that fourth quarter killed them.

Three Observations:

Jonah: It was arguably the poorest officiated game of the year. The Wolves slumped at the worst possible moment but there were times they should’ve been bailed out by some calls. Instead, it was WWE Smackdown on a two-minute timer that ultimately swung the outcome. Awfully disappointing to see.

Tom: I know I’m biased, but which is more impressive: Stiemsma timing his jump perfectly, avoiding Smith’s arm and rejecting a strong dunk attempt out of bounds, or Smith’s dunk on Stiemsma? Smith’s dunk was impressive, but to me, Stiemsma’s block and his subsequent decision to challenge the second dunk attempt was way more impressive.

Derek: Not sure I could’ve been more off with my lineup projection — that’s what happens when you write it five hours in advance — but I love how Adelman countered the Knicks’ smallball lineup with a Ridnour-Barea-Shved-Kirilenko-Pekovic one of their own to start the game.

Next up: Wolves head back home Wednesday night to take on James Harden and the new-look Rockets for the first time this season.

Three Positives: 

Jonah: JJ Barea was the savior in the fourth, and because all that happened later in the game, in big moments, it’s fresher in our minds. But take a trip back to the first half, where Alexey Shved was blowing minds up. He was indeed the reason the Wolves got off to such a hot start against the Thunder. Doing his best Rubio impression on national television, Shved was doing everything right, including hitting Kevin Love in stride on his early three-pointers.

Derek: We’ll forever know this as the Barea game. Ok, we won’t, but he played a big part in holding off the Thunder’s late charge with a personal 8-0 run of his own that included a couple big threes and a strong take to the hoop. In just 23 minutes Barea put down 18-4-2 on the reigning Western Conference champs. When a team is shorthanded like the Wolves were tonight, they need performances like this from guys like Barea.

Tom: Rick Adelman. “It’s important, but I would like to see us get to a point where this is not a big deal. It’s a big game against the best team, but this is something we can do.”

I’m sure Adelman is, in part, trying to keep his team from a big letdown against the Knicks, but I think this quote also speaks to why he signed on with this team last year. He wanted to coach a team that could win big games like this, and he saw the potential in Minnesota’s core. He knew that it could get to the point where winning games like this would be the norm. That’s a pretty encouraging thought.

Also: Alexey Shved was awesome and I have the warm fuzzies.

Three Negatives: 

Jonah: Nikola Pekovic had himself a game. You’d think that if there were just a couple of guys in the league that could guard him that list would include Kendrick Perkins. But instead Pek constantly battled for position, took a stern pass in the post and then went to work. The only problem was that he should’ve easily gone 16-18, instead of 10-18. As soft as he is around the rim, he still sees a lot of layups rattle in and out.

Derek: Not to pick at nits here, but shooting your free throws at less-than 70% is not good. Those are easy points that could’ve made this game much less close had they made more. Likewise, OKC made nearly 85%, and that kept them in it despite an off shooting night.

Tom: In such an awesome game (and since Derek covered the free throw shooting), my negative is going to be that JJ Barea keeps making me look alternately stupid and also stupid. When I say Barea played well, he plays badly in the next game. When I say he sucks, he follows with a strong performance. So JJ, you played very something. You were something. I was impressed with your something, and you should work on your something. Go work on those things. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Three Observations: 

Jonah: Despite picking up five fouls by the end of the game, the Wolves found their defense against the weapon of mass scoring that is Kevin Durant. Andrei Kirilenko was brilliant on defense tonight. It wasn’t up to par with his usually stat-filled box score, but if you watched the game you could see how AK was getting physical with Durant, moving him out of his scoring positions and held him to 1-4 from downtown. You don’t need to accumulate steals and blocks to become a great one-on-one defender. It’s all about how you force your opponent into uncomfortable place. There’s no stopping Durant — that’s for sure — but AK’s defense did just enough to make him uncomfortable and put up some bad shots in big parts of the game.

Derek: So what if the Thunder were missing Kevin Martin? You could call it an off-night if you’d like, as well. Although I didn’t see every attempt, I’m going to give the Wolves some credit for holding the Thunder to a dismal 5-20 from deep. It’s almost a Freaky Friday situation where the Timberwolves make threes and the Thunder don’t. We really saw the effects of good and bad free throw shooting tonight.

Tom: It’s a bummer seeing Rubio have 3 assists and zero points in 18 minutes. Not because we expect more from Rubio at this point, but because we DON’T expect more from Rubio at this point. After all of the build-up surrounding his return, it’s hard to remember that he is still playing on a surgically repaired knee and he isn’t going to be 100% for quite some time. Fans will be understanding (since how could you yell at that face?), but that doesn’t make it any easier to stomach his slow recovery.

Next up: Wolves cap off this awfully tough three game stretch — First Miami, then OKC — in New York on Sunday evening to take on the red-hot Knicks.

Two Positives:

Jonah: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rebounding deficit like this in my life: 53-24 in favor of the Wolves. And, honestly, that might be the only reason why the Wolves were really in this thing until the very end. Behind Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic, they are no doubt the league’s best offensive rebounding tandem but the wealth was spread across the board, which meant the Wolves made it precedent to crash the boards on both ends of the court.

Derek: In the wake of Kevin Love’s struggles shooting the ball last night, Andrei Kirilenko stepped up in a huge way. It’s not just the 22 points on 10-16 shooting. It’s not just the 4 rebounds or 3 assists. It’s the fact that he was able to at least annoy LeBron for much of the game and keep the game’s best player from going supernova.

Two Negatives:

Jonah: Kevin Love had himself another baaad shooting night. Some thought he may have shook that streak with a decent night last night but it was obvious that he was afraid to fling the ball, especially from long range; any pass he grabbed on the perimeter ended in indecision due to his lost confidence in his stroke. It’s not a good sign but everyone hits these rough patches but seems to come out okay in the end.

Derek: You will rarely beat a team of the Heat’s caliber when you lose the turnover battle 19-8, and give up 18 points on turnovers. With the Heat, you’re not just giving them extra possessions: you’re giving the league’s best shooting team more chances to make more valuable shots (threes); not just higher percentage looks on the break, which they can also do well.

Two Observations:

Jonah: The Miami Heat came into this game averaging over 20 shots from beyond the arc per game and connecting on over 40-percent of them. Tonight the Heat outshot the Wolves from deep by eight and were able to nail nine more than them tonight. It’s astounding to see a team with players so physically commanding with the ability to drive the paint at will shoot so many threes and connect at the clip they do. Tonight was an example of how disgustingly good that really is.

Derek: Love’s performances have been scrutinized ever since he’s made his public comments and also made many question leadership, incidentally. Jerry Zgoda pulled some comments from Love that I don’t want to see go unnoticed:

Timberwolves two-time All-Star Kevin Love spent all summer watching LeBron James at arm’s length from Las Vegas to London, and Tuesday night he got another intimate view during a 102-93 loss at Miami that careened from early joy ride to late blowout.

The experience inspired Love to gather a couple of teammates on the bench during the final ticking minutes for a talk.

He and starting frontcourt mates Nikola Pekovic and Andrei Kirilenko agreed that, together and as a team, they need to be stronger and tougher, perhaps more like a guy who has won an NBA title, three MVPs and two Olympic gold medals before his 28th birthday.

“I’m not saying we’re soft,” Love said afterward. “But we definitely need to be more physical.”

I like Kevin Love and realize that the timing and how he chose to vocalize his concerns may not have been the best, but look at his language. He’s using words like “we” and went out of his way to say that they weren’t soft– or not to be accidentally confused with throwing his teammates “under the bus”, as many accused him of doing in earlier weeks. Am I reading too much into his comments? Yeah, probably, but am I over-thinking his comments tonight anymore than people were when Woj’s piece came out? Not really.

That’s the type of leadership this team needs more of from their best player, and it’s great to see veterans like Kirilenko respect him enough to listen. The way I see it, we should be calling it both ways if we’re gonna call it at all with Love.

Notes: Wolves sat Ricky Rubio as an agreement to sit him on the second night ofback-to-backs for a while as he regains his legs. Safe to say they could’ve used him tonight on the defensive end.

Next up: The Wolves come home from their tumultuous Florida tour to take on the OKC Thunder at home on Thursday night.