When Superstar Treatment Ruins an Outcome

  We don't like Kobe much in our house. To my kids, he's the guy that broke Ricky's knee. So when Kobe fouled Ricky but the refs didn't call on a potentially game-tying 3ball last night when the Lakers came to town, much booing ensued as the Lakers won 120-117.
  The whole damn season's been a prolonged gut punch, but this one especially took the air out. You know, with the Lakers having beat us the last 200 times. And Kobe being the hero even though he didn't deserve to be. Remember how the officials blew the call by not calling Bryant for a charge against Rubio on the knee injury play last year bout this time? And then Kobe saying: "That's not a foul. They ain't calling that shit. I don't think I got him."
  Replays clearly show Kobe did smack Ricky. The NBA would be 200 times better if refs would just have the guts to make the right call. Like on traveling. Or intentional fouls. Or Ts. On when giving a veteran star a free pass.
  And then Kobe's cocky response after a reporter asked him what would've gotten the call, hit the FTs, and forced OT? "We would have gone into overtime and won the game. It's as simple as that."
  I think I just found a way to like Kobe even less.

Spur Stomp

A rare moment of congratulations from
Leader of the Pack Rick Adelman.

  Yes. Now that was fun. That's how you play some ball. That's how you sock it to the best team in the NBA.
  The T-Wolves' 107-83 win over the Spurs included more highlights than the previous month's-worth of games, most often thanks to Ricky Rubio, he of the 21-12-13 triple double, the first of his NBA career. Two of Ricky's plays were top ten of his career so far, including a heady behind-the-back bounce job to D-Will in the first half and a double behind-the-back dribble drive and lefty scoop in the second half. Ricky Boy is playing better and better, and that includes his defense, which is enthrallingly anticipatory to the max, and, on this night anyway, his shooting. He even threw in a nice halftime buzzer-beating banker after getting fouled a couple times with no call.
  Chris Johnson provided a jolt in the paint for the Woofers, recording 5 blocks in the first half and a sideways alley jam that you probably ought to youtube, or, better yet if you want great hightlights, nba.com.  Even Alexey Shved came out of his shell to knock down 6 of 8 from the field with 7 assists in the best game he's played since the All-Star break, hands down.
  All in all, it was the most pleasant Wolves effort I've witnessed in a long time, and a breath of fresh air.

NATE'S NOTES...Speaking of fresh air, Nick Healy came over for the game with his younguns, Harry and Erin. Great peeps. I don't honestly remember the last time the Wolves lost when I watched a game with Healy... Healy said that Chris Johnson's "fly swat" reminded him of the legend of Dave Winfield supposedly swatting a shot into the upper deck at Williams Arena back in his Gopher Hoops days. Could that have really happened? I've also heard Healy tell about the legend of a youthful Paul Molitor once throwing a snowball over St Paul's Cathedral. I've also read a lot of Healy's fictional short stories... I'm not getting paid by Summit to write this, but I'd just like to say that what they did with that Saga Unchained offering was something wonderful. Summit Sagas go well with Wolves wins.

Nuggets With Sauce

  Denver can play. For the record, I'd pick them right now for my de facto NBA darkhorse that could easily surprise any and everyone in the coming 2012-13 playoffs. From an excellent, cancer-beating coach in George Karl to a well-rounded team that's as good on offense as it is on D to a deep bench to a fierce home-court advantage, the Nuggets got it going on.
  The TWolves are actually one of only three teams to beat the Nuggets in 31 games in the Mile High City this season. They played tough in the first half and then fell apart a little in the third quarter, but--as often is the case--mounted a gutsy comeback in the fourth quarter.

Rubio, most likely milliseconds before
having McGhee toss his shit five rows up.

  The game, which ended up 111-88 in Denver's favor, turned for good with roughly nine minutes remaining. The Wolves had been down hard with Denver threatening to throttle them when the Luke Ridnour found himself with a wide open threeball in the left corner that, if converted, would've cut the Nuggets' lead to six. Luke, though, clanged the back iron and failed to get back on D as the ball bounded long and the Nuggies threw a TD pass to former Wolf Corey Brewer (he of a solid-looking big boy beard that gives him a much needed edge to that ever-smiling face, if not a bit of extra weight) for the cramberry jam. Another Sota "empty possession" (droll Wolves play-by-play stooge Dave Benz's verbal tic of a phrase for when the Wolves fail to score...which happens, uh, a lot) and a threeball by Ty Lawson (draftee of the TWolves in the Rubio-Jonny Flynn draft) later, and the Wolves are down fourteen, just like that. Another minute and a half later the gap balloons to 23. So, yeah, could have easily been a six-point spread with 9 minutes but ended up being 23 with 6 minutes. A quick death. An inglorious guillotine of a demise for the Wolves.
  Go Nuggets. Beat the Thunder and Spurs.

NATE'S NOTES...Some entertaining sauciness from both Adelman and Karl in the fourth quarter when both of them nearly busted a respective nut in picking up fourth quarter Ts. Karl, in partic, really spazzed out and had to be briefly restrained from charging the ref, who was walking away and didn't even really see Karl's eye-bugging reaction... JaVale McGhee made the play of the night when he (an athletic albeit clodhoppin' 7-foot-plus behemoth) picked the pocket of Rubio (a ball wizard if ever there was) on the perimeter and then went coast to coast for a turkey dinner. He also had two or three other demoralizing dunks and sit-yo-ass-down swats... Wolves center Chris Johnson is athletic, but damn raw. He gives the Wolves more of a chance to compete than, say, Greg Stiemsma, but he gets mad or embarrassed and loses his mind fairly easily and often, most likely goaltending shots or taking huge, swinging swipes on block attempts that simply aren't necessary... Dave Benz is my new Robby Incmacrapski. He's just straight up clueless about hoops and has zero feel for the game. I can see him on the speech team in about ninth grade, wishing he could be on the ball team. He tries hard, sure, but come on Fox Sports North. Jim Peterson, no trophy talker himself, seems pissed he has to work with Benz and constantly reel him back in from constant bonerific statements. But Peterson gets no pass, either. I've had it up to here with his intolerance of Alexey Shved. Jim, he's a rookie, he's from Russia, he's hit the wall, he gets no calls. But he's been healthy all season, he's got game, and he should figure heavily into the Wolves' rotation the next few seasons--give him a damn break. Or better yet, go interview his ass and get his perspective.