Yeah...Well, You Still Live In Oklahoma: A Wolves/OKC Recap

Interesting.

How many 3 pointers can Our Beloved Puppies give up to opponents per game? Over the last three tilts Minny has given up 37 3-pointers. 37. Against Portland, this was an insurmountable mountain, as the Blazers won the game on a 16-24 effort from behind the line. (BTW--and h/t to VJ110--the Wolves were able to accomplish something almost historic against Portland:Of all of the games in Basketball Reference where the opponent took 20 or more 3 pointers while making more than 2/3 of them, the Wolves lost by the 2nd fewest points on the list: 5...that's straight up amazing.) Against the Thunder...well, a .603 TS% is still pretty hard to overcome.

That's just about it. We could complain about the fact that Kevin Durant gets to shove Andrei Kirilenko into Russell Westbrook for a foul on AK or that Westbrook gets to put a forearm bar into Luke Ridnour's chest for a foul on Luke but that misses the basic f'ing point: It's pretty hard to beat awesome shooting opponents in the NBA.

Yeah, not having Nikola Pekovic for a large chunk of the game really hurts. Yeah, Ricky Rubio not being able to pretend to shoot a jump shot hurts. Yeah, Alexey Shved getting most of his points iin a 5 minute stretch hurts...however, if a team as good as the Thunder is making its shots at a .600+ TS% clip, shut'r'down.

Random thoughts:

• Outside of bad shooting, turnovers continue to be the Wolves' biggest enemy.
• In the first half Kendrick Perkins shoved Pek. I immediately changed my fantasy basketball team name to "Kendrick Perkins Death Wish." He is terrible at basketball and enemy selection. The only way the poor shooting Wolves had to win the game was to hope for Scotty Brooks to play Perkins 40 mpg. Unfortunately, he did not.
• The Wolves have 7 good players who can play right now. They need help. A lot.
• The Wolves can't be counted on to score without Pek.

Second Half Thread

Careful not to shove anybody into someone else for a foul.

Go Wolves!

Game #32: First Half Thread, Wolves V. Thunder

Your first half thread for the Wolves v. Thunder.

Kevin Love out 8-10 weeks

Love's re-injured hand will require surgery

Game #32: Wolves V. Oklahoma City V. Injuries V. Locusts

In the 32nd game on the road to 67-15, the wondrous yet gimpy Minnesota Timberwolves take on the slimy and soon-to-be-ravaged-by-global-warming Oklahoma City Thunder.