Scrappy Report Card of .500 Again! – MIN vs PHI

The Timberwolves and Sixers put on a show sunday night. It was dirty and scrappy, and it was close all night, but somehow the Wolves pulled it out. Without the Frontcourt outright dominating, how were they able to pull it out? To tell you the truth, I have no idea.

I’m not sure if the Wolves deserved to win this one, but hey, scoreboard!

Now onto the grades…

KLove - 41 min, 20 pts on 7/23 FG, 6/8 FT, 15 Reb, 2 Ast, 1 Lin

Grade: C+

This one was a tough one for me. I would probably give him a C for the first 3 quarters, and an A for the 4th. That averages out to about a C+.

Now this may seem quite low, and Love was very beastly in the 4th, but keep in mind that he went 7 of 23 to get 20 points. Not the efficient Love that we’re used to. I think that this has to do with the fact that he was settling for iso midrange jumpers all night long—I would guess his conversion rate on these is abysmally low, if my memory serves me correctly. Once the big man started driving and posting inside, he got his.

He also had 15 rebounds in the game, including grabbing the miss with a little over 3 seconds left to secure possession. Overall, good 4th from Love, but he seemed to have a bad night overall.

Rubio - 37 min, 22 pts on 7/17 FG, 6/6 FT, 6 Reb, 5 Ast, 1 Lin, 1 Steal, 2 blocked attempts

Grade: B

According to NBA.com this is the first time Rubio has scored 20 points or more in 4 and a half years. While it was nice that he kept us in the game early and was efficient, he ended the game 7/17 from the floor. He got a couple of nice looks for Pek in the 3rd quarter, saved some loose balls and seemed to do okay throughout the game.

I recall on one of Holiday’s post-ups, Rubio gambled for the steal, leaving Holiday an easy path to the hoop. Didn’t really like that lapse from our young PG.

Big Bear Pek - 37 min, 17 pts, 4/7 FG, 9/10 FT (!!!), 9 Reb,1 Ast, 2 Blocks, 3 Lins

Grade: B

Looked like Pek had kind of a bad game tonight, but after looking at the boxscore and thinking back…

The Big man was a force tonight. He Beat up on some guys down low all night and set some good picks, and had a pair of blocks. Pek went 4 of 7 from the field and probably would have gone 9 of 12 had the 76ers not hacked him on several of his bunnies.

He had the ball popped out of his hands and turned it over 3 times though, so he’s gotta get better at watching from behind.

The biggest positive from Pek for me was that he went 9 of 10 from the line. I repeat: Our big scary bear had a nice enough stroke to go 9 of 10 from the line. Gotta love Pek!

Ridnour - 30 min, 10 pts, 5/10 FG, 3 Reb, 3 Ast, 1 steal

Grade: B

I honestly don’t remember much from Rid this game. I think he had some nice shots and got his hands on the ball from D but that’s about all I remember.

Wes J: 22 min 0 points, 0/4 FG, 1 blocked dunk, 2 Reb, 2 TO, 2 Lins, 1 block

Grade: C+

Pretty good defense on Iggy throughout the game, as well as a nice block, but…

He went 0 of 4 and had his dunk blocked. He also had some lax passes and I just didn’t feel very good when he was handling the ball. We all know Wes’ problems. If only he could start hitting his jumpers…

JJ Barea – 21 min 14 pts 6/12 FG, 2 Ast, 1 Lin

Grade: B

Barea had a hot hand throughout the game and kept us in it in the 3rd (pretty sure it was the 3rd). He became a little bit of a ballhog, though, though I guess that’s his game. Decent impact and did his job.

Lion- 18 min, 2 pts, 1/3 FG, 3 Reb, 1 Lin

Grade: D

D for DWill. Sorry man, but you’ve gotta make use of your minutes. I recall him awkwardly driving and then turning it over…And not much else. He was out there with the small Love at C lineup which I thought was interesting. I guess RA realized that Pek wasn’t being hugely effective so he went small.

Also, did anyone else catch that one of the advert songs was called "Lion Uncaged" or something like that? Too funny.

Beas - 11 Min, 4 pts 2/6 FG, 4 Reb, 2 Blocks

Grade: C+

Good defense, or at least I remember good D. I don’t remember much on offense except for some long twos. Obviously RA wasn’t pleased as he only got 11 minutes.

Webster - 21 min, 3 pts 1-3 FG, 5 Reb 2 Steals 1 Lin 1 Block

Grade: F

While Webster had some nice passes, and while he did hit a 3….He didn’t hustly back on D on the errant pass. This earns him an F, because I distinctly remember Martell hanging out with JPete and friends on the postgame showa few games ago, and they did a little clinic on getting back on defense. I also remember him saying that it is inexcusable to not get back when its your responsibility. Cmon Martell, you know better!

Darkeem - 0.0016667 min, 1 gamewinning SWAT

Grade: A+

Darkeem had near infinite production tonight. In .1 seconds he did exactly what he was asked to do, and he did it emphatically. Well done.

(sidenote: could he have earned his starting spot back with this gamewinning play?)

RA

Grade: A

Maybe this is too high but man I love having a coach who actually makes adjustments. RA seemed to be pretty smart tonight with his timeouts and substitutions. I’m not that great of a basketball mind though so that’s about it. I'm neutral about the end of game foul situation.

76ers – Scrappy. Team play. What struck me most about this team was that no one really stood out in terms of scoring the ball. It seemed like whenever the 76ers got a basket, the bucket was credited to the homogenous 76ers mass. Or something. They did a great job for most of the game of keeping Pek and Love out of the paint and in check. Also, Iggy is really, really good.

76ers SBN Board - Salty, but good intentions.

Alpha Wolf award goes to DARKO for the gamewinning play.