The JJ Barea Show

The first 42 minutes of the Wolves/Jazz game last night felt like that commercial from about ten years ago where a tall guy has his hand on top of the head of the short guy holding him at arm’s length.  The short guy says “Don’t make me…sweep the leg.”  Of course he can’t reach him because his legs are too short.  Maybe it was a movie – I don’t remember.  The last 6 minutes however, were the JJ Barea show.

In my opinion Barea absolutely controlled the 4^th quarter after a pretty frustrating night leading up to it.  Barea got elbowed, run over, slapped, shoved, you name it.  It happened to Barea.  If not for Martell Webster stepping in, one of the referee’s life may have been in danger after a no-call in the 3^rd quarter when Al Jefferson knocked him over going to the basket.  JJ led the comeback though, knocking down three’s, finding open looks for Ridnour and Webster, and getting to the line and making free throws.  Excellent night for JJ!

Ricky Rubio, on the other hand, had one of his toughest nights of the year.  His teammates weren’t knocking down shots he created in the 1^st quarter, and outside of 2 3-pointers in the first half, he really struggled with his own shot.  I want him to succeed so bad, it almost feels like he’s my little brother.  Every time he turned it over or missed one of his 5 missed free throws, I felt terrible for the kid.  With the way he played, I am still not too sure why Adelman threw him in there in the last minute, knowing the Jazz were going to foul.  Beyond that, why did Barea pass up an open Ridnour to get it to Rubio, knowing he would get fouled?  I wonder if Adelman planned that wanting his young point guard to have an opportunity to redeem himself with some clutch free throws.  Pretty risky if you ask me.  It was good to see Rubio playing co-head cheerleader along with Tolliver during the comeback in the 4^th.  The kid is going to be a great leader as the years go by.

One last observation from last night is that I actually thought Wes Johnson had a decent performance, even in the limited minutes again.  He hit a couple jumpers, got to the rim, deflected a few passes, and even had a blocked shot or two.  He seemed a little lost on a few plays in the first half on defense, though, which is obviously concerning knowing that his defense may be the only reason he sees the floor right now.

I’ve never been much of a fan of Luke Ridnour, but he’s growing on me as long as he doesn’t try to take control of the offense.  Congratulations to Luke, though, on a fantastic game-winner.  He has perfected that little 10 foot floater, and it was one of those shots that you know was going down as soon as he let it go.

What a great comeback win for the Wolves (the first divisional win of the season) to get back to .500 before the All-Star break.  On a night when Love, Rubio, Beasley, and Pekovic were pretty quiet, I was very impressed how their teammates picked up the slack against a pesky Jazz squad.  Hopefully they can carry this momentum into the second half of the season, and make a nice run at the playoffs!

One more thing I almost forgot: I thought Kevin Love did an excellent job on Al Jefferson down the stretch defensively despite Al’s production.  Al made some big shots, but Love was in his face the entire 4th quarter and nothing came easy for Big Al.  Way to step up to the challenge on the defensive end K-Love!

Follow Wolves Rubes on Twitter @wolvesrubes.