Good morning and welcome to your Thursday therapy session, although I think we're all feeling pretty decent this morning. It's still always good to talk about our feelings, so shall we?
Wolves 97, Wizards 77
- Last night, if you haven't heard, the Timberwolves played a basketball game against the Washington Wizards at Target Center. They won, 97-77, their largest win by margin of victory of the season, and that over a team that, even on a five game losing streak, still sits at 33-25 and 5th in the East. They held the Wizards to 77 points, the lowest opponent point total of the year. And Kevin Garnett started at power forward for Minnesota. Key's recap and Eric's immediate reaction after the game have admirable coverage of the return.
- I'm working on tracking down as many good Garnett links from around the web as I can. So far: game story from Jerry Zgoda at the Star-Tribune; thoughts from Steve McPherson at ESPN on the future; game story from Jon Krawczynski of the AP, featuring nervous KG; recap from Tim Faklis of A Wolf Among Wolves. Drop more in the comments if you see them.
- As usual, opposing media from last night: Bullets Forever's recap; Bullets Forever on just how bad the Wizards' offense was last night; Jorge Castillo's recap for the Washington Post; and a nice roundup of last night's celebrations from the Post.
Elsewhere around the league:
- Jusuf Nurkic continues to become one of my favorite non-Wolf players for his delightful, carefree attitude.
- Zach Randolph has range. Wasn't enough to save the Grizzlies from a 102-90 loss to the Kings, but still a pretty sweet shot. Z-Bo and Demarcus Cousins also had some relatively serious words in the second quarter and Cousins took a couple of elbows in the post, but they didn't fight, so we get to keep living.
- The Hawks beat the Mavericks comfortably in an East-West battle 104-87, for which Rajon Rondo was suspended by the Mavs for conduct detrimental to the team. Kirk Henderson at Mavs Moneyball wrote an open letter to Rondo about the issue, which is a good read. The game was also almost canceled due to around 6 inches of snow hitting northern Georgia last night, which is amusing.
- Most unbelievable box score of the night? Evan Turner recorded his first career triple double...against the Knicks. Does it still count?
- Lastly, in draft lottery updates: Lakers beat the Jazz, Sixers lost to the Bucks.
So, what IS next?
Friday will see the Wolves in Chicago to face the Bulls and move on with the rest of the season with Kevin Garnett. I'd like to see Andrew Wiggins get some revenge for his mistake at the end of the last Bulls game, a 106-105 loss in November. Time to see if the Garnett effect sticks around for an away game that isn't a home game and a massive occasion.
Tonight's TNT games should be worth noting: Warriors-Cavs, then Thunder-Suns, which is as close to a must-win in February as I can think of for Phoenix. Good luck, the Thunder are scorching hot.
Cricket update!
Just in case you wanted follow-up on my piece on the Cricket World Cup from over the All-Star break, a couple of quick notes: New Zealand are 3-0 and have looked phenomenal. Afghanistan and Scotland played the most exciting game of the tournament last night, the Afghans scraping out their first World Cup win with three balls to spare after recovering from a massive batting collapse. Chris Gayle of the West Indies got the highest individual innings in World Cup history with 215. The other three undefeated teams with New Zealand are Australia, India, and Ireland (!). Here's the points table currently. Friday night's New Zealand-Australia game should be awesome.
Wednesdays!
Last note for the day which amuses probably only me: The Wolves' performances on Wednesdays this season:
Wed. 10/29: @MEM, L 105-101
Wed 11/5: @BRK, W 108-101
Wed 11/12: HOU, L 113-101
Wed 11/19: NYK, W 115-99
Wed 11/26: MIL, L 103-86
Wed 12/3: PHI, L 85-77
Wed 12/10: POR, W 90-82
Wed 1/7: PHX, L 113-111
Wed 1/21: DAL, L 98-75
Wed 1/28: BOS, W 110-98
Wed 2/4: MIA, W 102-101
Wed 2/11: GSW, L 94-91
Wed 2/25: WSH, W 97-77
With last night's win, the Wolves move to 6-7 on the year on Wednesdays, almost half of their wins coming on Wednesday. Likely a statistical anomaly, but it delights me. Also, let the record show that since I started writing this Thursday post on Canis, the Wolves are 3-0 the night before a Thursday Therapy (there wasn't one after the GSW game). Not that I'm saying, but I'm just saying. Music below is simple, solid, and a favorite of mine. Enjoy your Thursdays, all.