'Unselfish' play leading to Beasley's turnovers

OKLAHOMA CITY - One night after he and three other starters watched the entire fourth quarter of a close loss at Dallas, Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley played seven fourth-quarter minutes in a 111-103 loss at Oklahoma City and afterward lamented the number of turnovers committed on Friday.

Yeah, 19 of 'em.

"Who, me?" Beasley asked.

No, Beasley had only seven of those, including four in a fourth quarter when the Wolves committed eight of those 19.

"That's unacceptable, especially against a team expected to go deep into the playoffs," he said after the Wolves played their second game in as many nights without injured All-Star Kevin Love. "You got to take care of the ball."

Beasley had five turnovers the night before in Dallas, which may be one reason he watched all of the fourth quarter. Afterward, he re-tweeted on social network Twitter another person's posting that read, "I sure wish coach would just let @RealMIkebeasley play his game!" and on Friday he deleted his Twitter account.

After Friday's game, Beasley called the re-tweet "accidental" and said it wasn't an endorsement that Rambis has restricted his freedom this season.

"Nah, nah, nah, nah," he said. "Kurt has given me all the opportunity in the world to grow as a player, as a leader. I really don't have anything against Kurt and my game."

Before Friday's game, Rambis said Beasley has regressed recently in his willingness to execute the team's offense.

"I think he's trying to force things a little too much," Rambis said. "That gets him into trouble. ... If you're settling for shots and driving into spots where you shouldn't be driving, the results are not good."

After the game, Beasley agreed and said he has been forcing things and trying too hard.

"I think so," he said. "I've been beating myself up lately because I've kind of lost sight of what I wanted to accomplish this year. I'm a little too unselfish. I'm just not taking care of the ball like I'm supposed to."

Did a guy who has taken 80 more shots than anyone on the team -- Love included -- say he was "too unselfish?"

"I'm not going to say I'm too unselfish because I shoot a lot," he said, "but I feel like most of my turnovers come from forcing passes instead of making the right pass."

He said injuries to his ankle and hip have limited him since early January and left him "limping" and "hesitant" to take the ball hard to the basket more, like he should.

"I need to go to the hole a lot more," he said.

And tweet and re-tweet less. Or not at all.

"I just got tired of it," he said of deleting his Twitter account. "Somebody said something I didn't like. I just got rid of it."

Was that something in the posting he re-tweeted?

"That was an accidental re-tweet," he said. "I really don't know how to tweet well from my Blackberry. That was accidental. I didn't agree with it at all."