Rubio reveals a fab new floater

Yes, that was a floater from the lane with which you might have seen Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio score during Wednesday's tumultuous overtime victory at Dallas.

Wolves coach Rick Adelman confirmed it.

So, too, did Rubio, admitting a shot he lofted over a Dallas defender was one seldom seen from him in his three-year NBA career.

"Yeah, it was," he said, smiling. "It was."

In a small way it helped him deliver his third career triple-double — 22 points, 15 assists, 10 rebounds — and a 123-122 overtime victory that night.

Going forth, it needs to become a bigger part of his game, and he says he's working on it.

Rubio has struggled to score around the basket all season, but he attacked aggressively from the night's beginning. Included for one night only in his repertoire was that running floater smaller players — most notably San Antonio's Tony Parker in today's NBA game — use to counter approaching behemoth shot blockers.

Rubio said he has studied Parker's shot and continues to work on his own.

"It's something I want to add to my game," Rubio said. "But I want to work on a lot of things. It's something that's going to help me finish better when there are shot blockers. I want to work on every single aspect of my game, so sometimes it's hard to do everything at once. I'm just adding piece by piece."

That floater shot is just one way Rubio needs to continue to develop his game around the basket, Adelman said.

"The biggest thing is when he gets in the open, he's got to be slowing down so he can make decisions," Adelman said. "If a guy is waiting at the basket, shoot the floater. If the guy comes at him, attack him. The game has to slow down when you get in that painted area."

When asked if he works on that floater shot regularly during the season or if it's work better saved for the offseason, Rubio said, "It's something you do in the summer, but you can be working on it in the season, too."

"Tony Parker has one of the best," Rubio said. "There are a lot of players who use it, and I want to add it to my game."