After giving the guys a day off from practice, Wolves coach Rick Adelman had the team work hard on defense during practice Friday. Then the team -- minus a few players -- hopped a plane to New Orleans, where the team hopes to win in April for the first time since 2009.
Greetings. Kent Youngblood here. I covered practice today, with Jerry winging his way to the Big Easy.
Defense was the buzzword today, after the way the Wolves defense melted down against Golden State. But before getting into that, I thought I'd share a little humor provided by Kevin Love.
Wolves Adelman was talking with the media following practice when Love walked up, smiled and put his arm around his coach, doing his best Dwight Howard impersonation. "What are we worried about tonight coach?" he said. "What are we worried about?"
Adelman, in best deadpan fashion, looked up and said, "You."
OK. Now back to the Wolves defense.
Fact is, playing without Ricky Rubio and Luke Ridnour -- two of the team's better perimeter defenders -- makes it hard. Still, improvement has to be made.
"Guys have to make an effort," Adelman said. "As a team, we all have to be aware of what's hurting us. ... It really comes down to effort, night-in and night-out. You have to have better effort. You can't give in. That's what's frustrating (against Golden State). In the first half we did a pretty good job. Third quarter, we just gave in to the situation."
