You make the call: Love's streak ends, Wolves lose 100-77 at Golden State

Kevin Love's double-double streak is over at 53 games.

It ended Sunday at Golden State with a putrid 100-77 loss to the Warriors on a night when Love didn't reach double figures in points and rebounds for the first time since the Lakers held him scoreless on November 19 at Target Center.

The Wolves committed 26 turnovers -- six of them by Darko!, five by Luke Ridnour -- and trailed by as many as 24 in the fourth quarter.

Those 77 points are a season low, against an opponent that until Sunday had allowed almost 106 points a game.

And to think they delivered such a sinker right after they put together consecutive 20-point victories for the first time since 2001....

They were behind by 22 points Sunday when Kurt Rambis sent Anthony Tolliver into the game and brought Love to the bench with four minutes left in the game.

By then, Love had made one of just six shots, scored six points and had 12 rebounds in a little less than 34 minutes.

Rambis said the game was "out of control" by then and said that after trying repeatedly without much success to get the ball to Love, he decided to remove him because "I wasn't going to leave him out there as the game deteriorated."

So what would you have done?

I actually wouldn't have argued if Rambis didn't send Love back into the game with less than nine minutes left and the Wolves down by 19.

Love said he understood.

"It was a good run," he said. "I was happy about it. I'm not too upset that the streak has come to an end.lt's OK. If we were winning and I was getting this, it'd mean a lot more."

"We'll see," he said. "That was an incredible run, but there's no reason to think he's not going to start another one. That's just the type of player he is."

Rambis called the league's longest such streak since the 1976 NBA/ABA merger "extremely impressive."

"Just look how long it has been," Rambis said. "You know he's part of every opposing team's game plan. It's not like it has been easy. It has been very, very difficult. It's not like he was getting 10 points and 10 rebounds. He's putting up incredible numbers every night."
Warriors coach Keith Smart admitted after the game that he sent David Lee out there solely to keep Love off the backboards to limit the Wolves' second-chance points.

"The player that was going to guard Love tonight was not going to be involved in the game from an offensive standpoint," Smart said. "He had one objective and that was to make sure he doesn't get to the glass. I thought David Lee did a great job with that and with sacrificing."

Just two of Love's 12 rebounds were offensive rebounds.

That's all I got from Oakland tonight.

The Wolves are staying in San Francisco the next two days and will practice there Monday and Tuesday before flying to Salt Lake City later Tuesday for Wednesday's game against the Jazz.