Future Timberwolves: Eric Gordon?

As we draw nearer to the NBA trade deadline 2 days from now, more and more rumors are flying around involving Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Jamal Crawford, Michael Beasley, Pau Gasol, and just about every other player in the league it seems like.  At this point I get the feeling more and more that Minnesota is going to stand pat this week with the roster they have.  Unless they are overwhelmed by an offer for Beasley or Williams, I just don't see Kahn parting with either one of those guys with the team in this position in the Western Conference standings.  The return from a trade by the Wolves would probably be in the form of draft picks, and I would be surprised if the chemistry on this team is disrupted this week - even with the loss of Ricky Rubio.  Looking further ahead beyond this season and into the off-season, however, my eyes are set on one player: Eric Gordon.

 

Wolves/Lakers - Beat the Streak

This past Tuesday, March 6th, marked my fifth anniversary.  Nope, not my wedding anniversary - that's not for a few more weeks.  Tuesday was the 5 year anniversary of the last time I saw my favorite basketball team beat the LA Lakers.  That night at Target Center, Ricky Davis was 2 assists shy of a triple-double (33 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists), KG poured in 26 and 17, Rashad McCants played 22 minutes off the bench, and Marko Jaric and Mark Blount started at the 2 and 5 respectively.  Kobe had his usual performance against the Wolves, scoring 40 points, 13 boards, and 8 assists.  Even Smush Parker scored 24 that night, but it wasn't enough as the Timberwolves outscored the Lakers 12-2 in the 2nd overtime to win 117-107.  It's been 17 straight Laker victories since that night.

This is what Kobe thought of Smush Parker.

Breaking Down the Wolves Ownage of the Clippers

Well, our favorite NBA team continued their success last night against the NBA's version of the Philadelphia Eagles.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see last night's 3rd of 4 meetings in what I would call a budding rivalry between K-Love and the Wolves and Blake Griffin and the Clippers.  There was a lot of talk about how Love's game winner about 6 weeks ago was lucky and the Clips were without Chris Paul, but that jabber has slowed with the completion of the Lob City Sweep last night.  Here are just a few observations from this 3-game set so far with LAC.

Darko 2, Blake 0.

Leading up to last night's tilt with the Clippers, hope was at an all-time high and I couldn't wait for the 2nd half of the season to see what my favorite basketball team could do as they push for the playoffs.  More specifically, I really wanted to see the match-up between our best power forward, Kevin Love, and Blake Griffin.  Just to throw this out there right off the bat, I am not a big fan of Blake Griffin.  I never have been and never will be.  My opinion of Blake Griffin before last night was that he was really good at dunking a basketball, and not much else.  So, last night I was really hoping Love would dominate Griffin all-around to validate my opinion.

Breaking Down the Remaining Schedule

Living in a state where my favorite baseball team won 38.8% of their games, and my favorite football team won 18.7% of their games; I have to say it feels pretty good to say that my favorite basketball team is .500 at the All-Star break and within 1 game of a potential playoff spot.  As you would expect in a 66-game condensed schedule that almost feels like an MLB regular season, the first half absolutely flew by.  Knowing that sometimes a 5 day break can do weird things to a team, let's take a look at the remaining schedule and try to figure out what to expect from these last 32 games.  Will the Wolves continue to compete like they did in the last week winning 4 out of their last 5?  Or will they run out of gas in the end and miss the playoffs for the 8th straight year?

Can Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio lead the Wolves to the Playoffs?

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.