Good morning! In case you were unavailable last night, the Minnesota Timberwolves played the Miami Heat in a game of basketball. It was a ridiculous affair, featuring one of the dumbest plays of the year (and it wasn't the Wolves!), Ricky Rubio throwing absolutely ridiculous passes, and in the end, a 102-101 home win. There's a recap up on this blog somewhere, go read it!
No terribly deep thoughts for today, just basking in that winning glow. Notes for the day:
- Ricky's most ridiculous pass of last night was a no-look pass in transition to Anthony Bennett, who threw down a dunk so vindictive it looked like he was getting rid of some anger and frustration from his play this year. Other than that one play where he accidentally scored for the Heat, I thought AB had one of his better shifts of the year in the first half. Said thunderous dunk is below, as is Ricky's stare into your soul.
- The Heat's flub near the end of the game has been well chronicled elsewhere. I'll just leave the Vine here and you can figure out what they did wrong.
- Away reaction to last night's game can be found here: Hot Hot Hoops recap, Miami Herald recap. The usual strong disappointment at losing to a now 9-40 team can be found inside.
- Elsewhere in the league, the Atlanta Hawks got back on the winning train with a reasonably comfortable win over the Washington Wizards (105-96), and the Golden State Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks 128-114. You'll want to find highlights of Steph Curry from last night, he was just ridiculous, scoring 51 points on 26 shots, with the usual range of dazzling ballhandling and threes from way out. The Warriors were down 40-18 in the second quarter of that game and won by 14. The Hawks and the Warriors play on Friday, and I'm absolutely split-screening that game with the Wolves game that night. The basketball should be sublime.
- Tonight, your TNT games are Clippers-Cavaliers and Suns-Trail Blazers, both of which should be delightful fun. The Clippers have been playing good basketball lately, 7-3 in their last 10, and will be looking to bounce back from a bad loss to the Nets on Tuesday. The Cavaliers have won 11 straight, and don't look like slowing down. They've made their way all the way to the 4 seed in the East after their early struggles, and are only one game behind the Wizards for third. The Suns have lost two straight and have the Pelicans breathing down their neck, 1.5 games back of the eighth seed in the West, so they will be looking to bounce back. The Blazers have been downright mediocre lately, 3-7 in their last 10 and barely pulling out a win over the Jazz on Tuesday. LA and Portland are both in the mass of five teams within three games of each other from the 3-7 seeds in the West. Hooray basketball!
- One last Wolves-related note: Andrew Wiggins had an off game last night, only scoring 6 points, which broke his streak of consecutive games with at least 10 points. It's pretty clear that he's still figuring out his role in the offense now that Ricky, K-Mart and Pek are back. However, he also received his third consecutive Western Conference Rookie of the Month award for January. Should he win the next three as well, he'll join the likes of Damian Lillard and Blake Griffin as players to win at least six Rookie of the Month awards, which is some pretty solid company.
- Music of the day comes from one of my favorite groups, the Youngblood Brass Band. Genre-bending delights. Happy Thursday!