Remember that game against the Heat last year where Miami just toyed with the Wolves and we all got to see what it would look like if a Flyweight went up against a Heavyweight?
The Wolves have stepped up a few weight classes since that tilt and last night's beat down at the hands of the Indiana Pacers showed all of us what it is like to see a cutesy Middleweight get beat the you-know-what-down by a grown ass man Middleweight.
The Pacers entered last night's tilt with a single goal: to beat the living hell out of Our Beloved Puppies.
Mission Accomplished.
Here's what I think was going through the head of each and every single Indy player:
"You want to run the pick and roll? We'll crush the pick. You want to throw your body around on the defensive glass? We'll grab at you until we get called. We'll poke, pry, hustle, and hack and we'll beat your finesse. We'll beat you because you're soft. We'll beat you because we're better. We'll beat you because our bigs are bigger and our wings can play. We'll beat you because our coach has an edge."
Last night's tilt was the first time I got the sense that the Wolves need something more than an above-average wing player to really compete. When Kevin Love got tied up with Danny Granger on a frustration foul at the end of the 3rd quarter, Granger got riled up and Love rolled over. Michael Beasley took some grief from the play-by-play as being "the Bad Beasley" but he and Martell Webster seemed to be the only Wolves on the court to sense what that play actually meant. Love got called out and he stepped down. Indy went on a 22-10 run to put the game away. Granger led the way.
Yes, the Wolves shot like crap. Yes, Rick Adelman couldn't find a lineup that could play defense and score. All of that comes into play, but what really matters is that a young team on the rise who is in the same weight class as the Wolves came into Target Center and knocked the Wolves the f**k out.
Until later.