Overtime Ouch

  This game was only enjoyable to the stout of heart, the bounciest of basketball enthusiasts, and maybe Wes Johnson's mother. To your average fan, the awful-shooting, low-scoring, sloppy-handling, third-rate efforts turned in by both the Suns and T-Wolves in the Suns' 94-93 overtime victory was less than impressive.
  I watched the game partly because I hadn't tuned in for a few games, and because I wanted to see if former T-Wolf Michael Beasley would do anything. Beasley, my 4-year-old son's former favorite player, and the subject of many a made-up bedtime story the last couple years, was such a non-factor (13 minutes off the bench, 4 points, some tight cornrows), it's like he barely played. Wes Johnson, another former T-Pup, had a nice game with 14 points, 9 boards, and a key assist late in regulation that made me shake my head in frustration since those kinds of efforts when he was with the Wolves the last two years were total rarities.

Kirilenko bull-charges the rim, to little avail.
Andrei injured his calf in only ten minutes of action.

  Both teams started off extremely poorly with the Suns leading 16-15 after the first period. The scoring didn't really spike until the 4th quarter when the Wolves finally had a decent run and outscored the Suns 26-19 to send the game into OT.
  Once there, both squads resumed apathetic displays of...basketball (?) and muddlingly threw up bricks, including a shot by Alexey Shved that stuck between the rim and backboard. It was really that kind of night.
  Most notable for the Wolves in OT was the decision Coach Adelman made to yank starting PG and team leader Ricky Rubio with just over a minute remaining. After the game, Adelman said he did it because he thought Rubio was "tired"--but anybody could see he was pissed with The Rick for tossing cement at the hoop (2-12 for the game, including an airball from 16 feet that could have won it for 'Sota in reg) and giving the ball away (6 turnovers). It doesn't bode well for team morale when a coach gives the hook to a team leader like that, but it WAS tough to watch Ricky struggle down the stretch. I just think the alternative--more Barea and Ridnour--doesn't ready you for next year like keeping Ricky in at the end does. And I know it kills Ricky, who lives and dies for that end game. I think Adelman should've left Ricky's ass in there--give him a chance to win it at the buzz.
  One ray of light was Derrick Williams. The Wolves second-year forward led all scorers with 21 tallies (many on hard-driving shots at the rim) and a respectable 12 boards (many of which he snatched with a newfound authority). The kid's only 21, you gots to remember. It looks like he's gaining momentum and figuring it out a little bit.