Can you believe it? The Wolves beat the Spurs. This happened even though the Wolves were without Kevin Love and Andrei Kirilenko and Nikola Pekovic and Chase Budinger and Malcolm Lee and Josh Howard and Michael Jordan. But, okay, fine. The Spurs were without Tim Duncan and that Parker guy and . . . David Robinson or something.

But the Wolves won! And they played well, which is the weirdest thing. I suppose I should get to the grading.

Minnesota Timberwolves:

Ricky Rubio A++ : Seriously. 21 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists. Monster game. He was everywhere. Like Savoire Faire!

Luke Ridnour: A+: Luke played about as economically as a guard can. Fourteen points on nine shots? Nice.

Mickael Gelabale: B-: Five points, five rebounds, two assists and a block. Pretty nice.

Derrick Williams: B: Thirteen points, five rebounds, and a block. Not terrible. Could be much better, but this filled the gap tonight.

Greg Steimsma: B-: Dude was a foul machine, but he was efficient, he got some boards, and he never seemed like a liability on the floor.

Chris Johnson: B-.: Perfect from the field. Zero from the free throw line. Active and *doing shit* all night.

Alexey Shved: A: 6-8 from the floor. Seven assists. Three boards. For as much as I dogged him in the pregame--this kid brought the goods tonight.

JJ Barea: B+ A: 5-7 from three! Dude was on fire! Seventeen points is good. Six of fourteen isn't so great, though. Five assists and five rebounds? Badass. You know what? I was going to give JJ a B+. I'm going to give him an A. He really did play that well.

The Notes I Took: (I'm not going to relate everything I scribbled, because that would be ridiculous. Here are some of the highlights.)

10:20 Ridnover

10:25 Ridnour breakaway layup

14-4

Ricky 3 bad, Jelly putback layup

Splitter schools Steimsma

Jackson corner 3. Ugh! Wide open.

Manu backdoor damn.

Lion inside draws foul

1/2 tho

Steamy board!

Steamy dunk!

Captain Jack for 3. Fuck.

26-24

That was the longest 2.6 seconds ever.

Christ awesome steal!

Shveddy 3!

Pop TO!

Looooooooooooooooooong Shved!

What's a de Cole?

Ricky clank.

Alexey killing it--long 2!

Ham seals the lane for CJ!

Manu fucks up badly!

CJ rejection to Ricky to ridiculous Shved layup.

JJ to Christ alley-oop!

Awesome! (Yeah, I felt the need to include that).

O-foul on Ricky You lie!

Ricky Lion oop!

Jelly 3!

Steamer eats de Colo alive. (Foul, though.)

JJ Hero ball . . . fail.

Shved! Hit the rim about seven times!

JJ3

Ricky Trip Dub!

Joseph - Like they dared him to shoot it. Hit it.

Is Gelabale sporting a Hitler stache?

Ricky is ridiculous.

Luke hits a casual three.\

Pek lookin' sharp in the suit.

Shved for Ham! Shaved ham! Ham Jam!

Game over.

I'm sorry to have subjected you to that. This was a great game by any measure. Especially compared to what we've seen lately. We saw decent shooting, for one thing, and that's been seriously lacking. I'm happy to have reported on this game. Be well, CHers.