GH And Petey's Timberwolves Blog

Saturday, December 18, 2004

So much to say...

...and so little time to say it all.

I've got a final in 8 hours, so I'm taking a quick break from studying to write a little bit. I watched the Wolves dominate the Clippers tonight, but wasn't paying much attention for most of the second half. Then, I realized that Suns vs. Sonics was on ESPN. I knew I needed to study, but I kept in on in the background.

I was going to write about the second game, as well as the Vince Carter trade, but I'll save those for a different night. In the meantime, here's a list of assorted thoughts I had about the Wolves game tonight.
  • The only major downside to tonight's game was that Sprewell went out only 2.5 minutes into the game with a foot injury. I'm not sure about the severity of it yet, but it will hurt the Wolves significantly if he can't come back. Luckily--for his starving children--he gets paid even if he's injured.
  • KG took another flagrant foul in the first quarter tonight. This one wasn't quite as bad the one from last night, but it was still dangerous. In Maggette's defense, it looked like he was trying to help KG stay on his feet. Obviously, if teams keep doing this to Garnett, he'll eventually get hurt. Even if you aren't aiming to hurt somebody, if you're out of control and you foul somebody hard, then it should be flagrant--regardless of intention. It's too dangerous.
  • Probably one of the worst calls I've seen in years happened in this game. My understanding is that if you're in front of somebody, you can't get called for over the back. However, Professor Zoidberg was completely between Elton Brand and the basket, and when there was contact, Zoidy got called for a foul. I think this one shocked about everybody in the arena, including Brand.
  • One of the more optimistic things I've seen lately is the high level of play from Wally. He set a season high for points for the second time this week tonight. I mentioned in my last post about how sometimes you can get down on a player and not really give him credit if he starts to improve again. To be honest, I think I've given Wally this treatment for a while, but his play lately has been outstanding. He hasn't been trying to do too much when he gets the ball. Usually he'll just catch and shoot or else take only one or two dribbles and make a strong move toward the basket. In addition, he's been moving very well without the ball, getting open under the basket for wide open layups. And probably the best thing is that his D has been much better. It makes me happy to see him playing like this.
  • Speaking of dishing the ball to wide open players. How about the passing of KG? If we counted in base 9 instead of base 10, he'd have 4 triple doubles already this year. When he gets the ball, he seems to see everything on the court. I can't imagine how much fun it must be to play with him. I've gotten the opportunity to play with big men who can pass (finding anyone who can pass in college IM ball is a rarity) and it's a blast. You always know that if you can make a good cut, they'll find you.
  • Speaking of KG, how amazing is he? You'd think with a url like kg4mvp, I'd talk about him non-stop. However, he's just so good that it would get boring to just kiss his ass every time I blogged. It's easy to take him for granted though too. After seeing him play for years, you just get kind of used to it and almost start to take it for granted. Luckily, every year he seems to show me something I haven't seen before, which keeps my appreciation of him fresh.
  • Finally, the Twolves are off to their best start ever. Nonetheless, I've had trouble staying optimistic about them. Part of the reason is that they've only had one strong stretch (a 5-game winning streak). Other than that, they've been a mediocre 10-8. This is partially due to the fact that they're near the end of an 8-week stretch with ZERO back-to-back home games. Luckily, this will get better soon. They have a light schedule for the rest of the month, then start off January with 2 home games in a row. At the end of January, they'll have an amazing stretch where they play 7 out of 8 at home, with the only away game in Milwaukee.