All out of Love, above .500: Wolves beat Kings, 86-84

OK, 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.

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."

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.

* 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.

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.