Greetings.
The theme following the Timberwolves' morning shoot today was simple: Take care of the ball.
Both starting point guard Ricky Rubio and backup J.J. Barea spent a good bit of time talking about the turnover situation, which has been the driving force behind the team's season-long four-game losing streak.
Kent Youngblood here. I'll be covering the game tonight.
What's interesting is that the two guards -- who combined for 12 turnovers in Monday's loss in Orlando - -attributed their problems to different things. Although they have one thing in common: They're both making mistakes while trying to do too much.
Rubio talked about making the easy pass rather than trying to thread a difficult one through a bunch of defenders. "We have to control the ball," he said. "We have to run the right play. Sometimes we just run the play but we don't care about the ball."
Rubio said he hasn't' seen a big difference in the way teams have defended him, though he did admit that opponents are doing more to make it harder for him to pass out of the pick and roll. "But there are other ways to (do it). I have to attack more the rim," he said"
Indeed, Rubio said becoming less aggressive isn't the answer. He just needs to stay aggressive without being reckless or trying to do too much. "You have to take care of the ball," he said. "But you don't have to lose what we are doing good. When we're attacking, when we are attacking the rim we're doing a good job. We just have to take care of lazy passes."
