YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES
Jerry Zgoda missed the entire Kevin Garnett era, but he's back covering the Timberwolves after working the beat for their first four seasons two decades ago. In between, he covered a bit of everything: Gopher men's and women's basketball and NCAA athletics, golf, outdoor recreation, sports media and a little Vikings and Twins.
Love to play in All-Star game
Posted by: Jerry Zgoda under Wolves players, Wolves news Updated: February 9, 2012 - 6:13 PM
Timberwolves forward Kevin Love will play in his second consecutive All-Star Game, later this month in Orlando.
Western Conference coaches picked Love as one of seven reserves for the Feb. 26 game in voting announced tonight on TNT's Thursday night pre-game show.
It's a bit of expected good news in a week when he was suspended for the team's last two games -- Tuesday against Sacramento, Wednesday at Memphis -- for stepping on Houston forward Luis Scola's face and chest in a game on Saturday.
Love finished finished fifth among Western Conference forwards in fan balloting that picked the game's two starters, Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant and Los Angeles Clippers' Blake Griffin.
Last year, he was named by commissioner David Stern to the game as an injury replacement.
He played nearly 12 minutes and had two points and four rebounds while playing for the winning West team last year in Los Angeles.
Wolves go deep into bench in loss
Posted by: Kent Youngblood under Wolves postgame Updated: February 8, 2012 - 10:30 PMIf you turned the game on late, I'll be you were surprised to see the Wolves starters -- including Ricky Rubio -- sitting out the entire fourth quarter.
Greetings. Kent Youngblood here for a final time this evening.
After the Wolves had lost 85-80 to Memphis coach Rick Adelman said he was just looking for some energy when he went deep into his bench for the fourth quarter. He didn't say he was making a statement, but in the locker room afterward, there were some pretty glum faces.
Especially from Rubio, who had a season-low one assist and struggled all night with the Memphis backcourt. "We were coming from a great game last night and today we didn't play well," he said. "We turned the ball over a lot. They had easy baskets on the fast break that hurt us a lot.''
Rubio said he couldn't find a rhythm, and neither could the team. He took the blame. But on this night, blame needed to be spread around. A short list:
--Luke Ridnour (1-for-8) struggled with his shooting yet again.
--Nikola Pekovic finished with 10 and nine, but he appeared flustered, at least early, by Marc Gasol's defense.
--The entire team struggled to play help defense and block out, especially on the defensive end. The only reason this game was so close was that Memphis couldn't shoot the ball either.
The good news to come out of this?
1. Kevin Love will be back Friday.
2. J.J. Barea -- who scored a season-high 17 points and had six assists -- continues to work himself back into basketball shape.
3. Kevin Love will be back Friday.
4. Michael Beasley may have held the ball too much -- but then who didn't on this night? -- but he did shoot efficiently (6-for-11) and he got six more rebounds with two assists and two steals.
5. Kevin Love will be back Friday.
That's about it for the good news. And that's about all for tonight.
Wolves, pre-game
Posted by: Kent Youngblood under Wolves pre-game Updated: February 8, 2012 - 6:42 PMGreetings from Memphis, where Wolves rookie Derrick Williams will get a special treat tonight. And we're not talking about a second straight start with Kevin Love serving the second and final game of his suspension.
Kent Youngblood here. I'm with the team tonight.
Williams found out today that his grandfather, L.G. Moore, will be at FedEX Forum for tonight's game. No big deal right? Well, actually, it is. Because L.G. -- Derrick's mothers father -- has never seen him play a basketball game live. Never, as in ever.
L.G. is from the small town of Winstonville, which is in northeast Mississippi. I'm told it's about a 1 1/2-hour drive from there to Memphis, so L.G. decided to make the trip.
Not bad timing, considering Williams is starting and found out today he'd be going to the All-Star Game weekend to be a part of the rising stars game.
"He has seen me play on YouTube," Williams said. "And, when I was in college, my mom sent him video clips. But those were just highlights. He's never actually seen me play."
In other items:
--Both Williams and Ricky Rubio will be a part of the rising stars game. The way Nikola Pekovic has been playing you'd think he might have gone. But, as coach Rick Adelman said, Pek's playing time rose only recently.
--Guard Malcolm Lee, who is doing a rehab assignment with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, scored 16 points with six assists Tuesday. Adelman said Lee will play two more games with the Skyforce, which has games both Friday and Saturday nights.
That's about it for now. Have a good night and I'll get back to you after the game.
All out of Love, above .500: Wolves beat Kings, 86-84
Posted by: Jerry Zgoda under Wolves postgame, Wolves news Updated: February 8, 2012 - 2:47 AMOK, so while Kevin Love was home in his highrise tweeting out 140-character commentaries, his teammates forged ahead and won their third consecutive games and their sixth in the last eight to move over .500 for the first time since January 2007.
Just some quick hitters tonight:
* Join me on a live chat Wednesday at noon at startribune.com. I'll answer all questions Wolves and NBA related for an hour.
* If you follow me on Twitter, you know I go the ol' standby -- DeMarcus Cousins -- late at night when I'm bored and want to troll for tweeps just for sport. Any mention of Cousins' magnificence is guaranteed to produce at least an hour's worth of outrage.
Part of that is me playing, but I also think the guy has HUGE upside when -- if? -- he grows up and figures it out, but I'll admit tonight that big Pek clobbered him.
Pek was the aggressor from the start, got Cousins in early foul trouble and clearly outplayed him all night...and Cousins still got a double-double and was in position to influence the game in the final minute one night after he went for 28 and 19 in New Orleans.
Pek not only again delivered another double-double -- 23 and 10, the one you count on Love for every night -- but he went a perfect 6-for-6 from the field in the third quarter when his teammates couldn't hit a thing.
And he stole a ball at midcourt in that quarter and took it all the way to the hoop for a layup, a sequence that led Ricky Rubio to joke afterward that maybe Pek should play the point and he can play center.
You'll find that quote and other stuff in the game story from tonight here.
* Rubio, btw, tied his career high with 14 assists (and had 5 steals, too) and could have had close to 20 probably if his teammates could shoot better.
But he missed a couple foul shots in the final two minutes -- and Derrick Williams missed a couple before that -- on a night when the Wolves made just 18 of 28.
If they had made a couple more, Rick Adelman wouldn't have had to look away when Donte Greene launched what could have been the winning three-pointer at the buzzer.
"I didn't even look at the shot, I didn't even want to watch it," Adelman said. "I was standing right next to him."
* So how did the Wolves make up for Love's 25 points and 13.7 rebounds missing? Pek did his part with those 23 points and Mike Beasley did his with a season-high 14 rebounds.
Lots of folks tweeted and commented tonight, complaining about Beasley's game because he shot 7 for 21 and gunned 'em up again tonight.
But he did hit the glass hard with Love out and he would have had a couple, three assists if his teammates had converted the times he did move the ball. He needed 21 shots to get his 17 points, but he still contributed with his reboundnig.
* Did you notice Love tweeted all night and Derrick Williams didn't?
The guy who seemingly has used Twitter to voice his unhappiness over his lack of playing time didn't tweet a peep tonight after he started in Love's place, played 26-plus minutes and hit a crucial 3 that broke a tied game and put the Wolves ahead to stay with 56.8 seconds to play.
Until then, he had gone 2 for 20 on 3s in his last 16 games.
"It felt great, just for my confidence," Williams said. "I started the season pretty strong shooting the 3. I went into, I don't even know...the last 10 games, I haven't been hitting my shots. I've been hesitant on 3s the last 10 games. I'm glad I hit that one, especially at that point of the game. It really got my confidence back a little more."
* A few tweeps upset tonight that Martell and Wayne didn't play a second and want to know why.
Nobody asked Adelman that after the game, but with Love out, he shortened that rotation down to eight players to play for the win and used his three point guards exclusively together all night and never played his shooting guards a single second.
I'm guessing it goes back to his season-long themes: He's put a premium on decision makers and ball handlers presumably because he thinks his three point guards are the only ones who really can do those two things.Ridnour, Rubio and JJ Barea all struggled with their shots tonight -- a combined 7 for 25 -- but Adelman stayed strictly with them in combinations (including again playing all 3 together with the lead in the final minute) on a night when Keith Smart played Jimmer Fredette and Isaiah Thomas together for good stretches.
* Malcolm Lee made his D League debut tonight in that knee rehab assignment.
He started for Sioux Falls, played nearly 24 minutes, made 7 of 15 shots, got to the line once for two attempts and had 16 points, six assists, two rebounds and three turnovers.
Our correspondent Derek Rick -- @Djr57108 -- scouted him tonight and said, "Honestly, when Lee is playing with Rubio, he is a perfect complement, his line will be better than tonight. Lee has great potential but I'm sure he will have limited minutes at first, like tonight."
Lee could play games there Friday and Saturday -- the Wolves play Dallas and New York back to back at home those nights -- and then return for Monday's game at Orlando.
Or he could play Friday and come back for Saturday's game against the Knicks.
That's all I got for tonight.
The Wolves flew to Memphis after the game without Darko and Love and play the Grizzlies Wednesday night.
Kent's got that game.
He'll blog at you on Wednesday after eating a big ol' plate of Rendezvous Ribs, I'm sure.
Derrick Williams expected to start for suspended KLove
Posted by: Jerry Zgoda under Wolves players, Wolves pre-game, Wolves news Updated: February 7, 2012 - 6:45 PMRookie forward Derrick Williams wore the white starter's jersey at this morning's shootaround, a good sign that he will get the start at power forward with Kevin Love out suspended tonight for the first of two games.
Rick Adelman's other main option is to start Michael Beasley at that spot, but it looks like Adelman has chosen to keep Beasley is his role coming off the bench.
It sure looks like your starting lineup will be Rubio and Luke Ridnour in the backcourt again, Wes Johnson, Pekovic and Williams up front.
Darko! is out again tonight, this time with a sprained ankle sustained in practice on Monday.
Gee, what happened to the bruised quad muscle already?
We'll see if starting Williams at his more natural power forward spot for the first time unleashes the proverbial lion from his cage.
That was Williams' latest barely veiled tweet -- something about feeling like a lion in a cage purportedly because of his limited playing time so far -- after he played 14 minutes against Houston on Saturday.
Williams and Anthony Tolliver will see more action with Love out.
Somebody asked Tolliver after shoot about Love's absence and he said something about having to play without him last year and he said the team did all right.
Well, uh, Love missed nine games at the end of last season and that was smacked in the middle of their season-ending 15-game losing streak.
So, for the record: They were 0-9 without him.
Love rode the exercise bike and watched this morning's shootaround but did not participate because there was no need for him to do so.
He cannot be in the arena for the two games, so he's not expected to accompany the team to Memphis after tonight's game for Wednesday's game against the Grizzlies.
He'll be back in the lineup on Friday against Dallas at Target Center.
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recent posts
- Love to play in All-Star game
- Postgame: Wolves go deep into bench
- Wolves, pre-game
- Postgame: All out of Love and above .500
- Williams expected to start for Love
- Love reacts: Two-game suspension 'warranted'
- Love suspended two games
- NBA suspends Love for 2 games
- Postgame: Finally back to .500
- Darko out, Pekovic to start at center for Wolves
- Postgame: What the Pek? Another road win
- Darko's a go, will start tonight at New Jersey
- Working full time on the half-court offense
- Postgame: Rubio says, 'They played hard and we didn't'
- Darko! will start, Randolph is season's first healthy scratch
- Zgoda: Barea and Darko back; Rubio rookie of the month
- Postgame: Record-setting night for the Wolves
- Wolves, pre-game
- Postgame: Sign of progress in loss to Lakers?
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