It was the fourth quarter...there were about 10 minutes left in regulation.
Utah PG Earl Watson chased his own rebound which was sailing out of bounds to the left of the Twolves basket...he caught it, spun in mid air, zipped the ball through Peks outstretched arms to Derrick Favors who was standing all alone under the hoop....dunk...81-67.
Ricky Rubio who is having a dreadful night coughs the ball up on the next Minnesota offense and Utah move it quickly up the floor...Alex Burks spots C J Miles cutting to the hoop from the right wing....alley-oop...83-67
Things looked very, very, very grim....but wait....don't flip up the seat just yet.
This game started badly...well actually it started with a K-Love swish (which was a bit of a tease on this night) and then gradually worked its way down hill. The Twolves did produce little spikes of activity here and there in the second and third quarters but these seemed to be quickly and easily nullified by Ty Corbin simply calling "Time out!".....as we came out of these game pauses the Jazz seemed to move away again with ease.
The long and short of it is that at the start of the fourth the Twolves were staring at a 16 point deficit...the boos, which had started in the second quarter, were increasing and they looked a beaten team...a well beaten team....the only question was by how many points Utah would win.
Then the Twolves slowly started to heat up and the Jazz started to miss...just at the right time....that dodgy road mentality that Utah have started to weigh heavily on their minds and the pack went for the jugular. What we have to bear in mind here is that Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic only saw very limited court time from 5 minutes out...the Twolves five were Barea, Ridnour, Webster, Love and Williams.
Those last five minutes were pretty exhilarating...they had to be in order to erase the garbage that had preceded them.
The Twolves had been shooting the three ball quite well throughout the night...but late in the fourth the long rangers were raining down and Utah's achilles heel was being exposed. JJ Barea who seemed, still, to be locked into his "headless chicken" routine for most of the night suddenly transformed into the Barea of last year's Finals Series and started making all the right decisions...yeah he got lucky once or twice... but he stepped up and did his damage from long range.
Inside, with Kevin Love on his knees with "fatigue/illness"(?), D-Will took up the slack and had his best game in a Twolves uniform. As the announcers ( I was unfortunate enough to have the Utah team...) said, he kept so many things alive in crunch time and was very active on both ends of the floor. Remember that K-Love swish I talked about at the start? Well the next time the Twolves would see the lead would be with 40 seconds to play on two D-Will free throws...93-95.
If we skip forward a few seconds we find the score at 96 -97 and the Twolves in possession inbounding the ball after a time-out. Ricky Rubio is back, but he's been miserable from the free throw line all night (0-4)...it doesn't matter that his FT% is 85%...in this game he's bad...you ask me, I'm searching out Luke Ridnour...no question. The refs restart the game and Barea completely ignores a flashing Luke...he is totally open and he flatly ignores him....obviously under strict instruction?? The ball ends up in Rubio's hands and he's fouled quickly by Devin Harris....is this another mistake by the Timberwolves?
Well, Rubio fortunately kept his nerve to hit the back end of two ( pretty gutsy really) and the lead is back to two points 96-98. However you just knew that Al Jefferson would have a say in proceedings and he made a big jumper over Kevin Love to tie things up with 7 seconds left.
What happened next?
Well, did I ever tell you that I love Luke Ridnour?
This huge win means the Twolves head into the All-Star weekend with the 0.500 record that we all so desperately craved. There will be plenty of rest now before the trip out to LALA land....should be interesting for B-easy...if he gets on the court that is?
Utah PG Earl Watson chased his own rebound which was sailing out of bounds to the left of the Twolves basket...he caught it, spun in mid air, zipped the ball through Peks outstretched arms to Derrick Favors who was standing all alone under the hoop....dunk...81-67.
Ricky Rubio who is having a dreadful night coughs the ball up on the next Minnesota offense and Utah move it quickly up the floor...Alex Burks spots C J Miles cutting to the hoop from the right wing....alley-oop...83-67
Things looked very, very, very grim....but wait....don't flip up the seat just yet.
This game started badly...well actually it started with a K-Love swish (which was a bit of a tease on this night) and then gradually worked its way down hill. The Twolves did produce little spikes of activity here and there in the second and third quarters but these seemed to be quickly and easily nullified by Ty Corbin simply calling "Time out!".....as we came out of these game pauses the Jazz seemed to move away again with ease.
The long and short of it is that at the start of the fourth the Twolves were staring at a 16 point deficit...the boos, which had started in the second quarter, were increasing and they looked a beaten team...a well beaten team....the only question was by how many points Utah would win.
Then the Twolves slowly started to heat up and the Jazz started to miss...just at the right time....that dodgy road mentality that Utah have started to weigh heavily on their minds and the pack went for the jugular. What we have to bear in mind here is that Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic only saw very limited court time from 5 minutes out...the Twolves five were Barea, Ridnour, Webster, Love and Williams.
Those last five minutes were pretty exhilarating...they had to be in order to erase the garbage that had preceded them.
The Twolves had been shooting the three ball quite well throughout the night...but late in the fourth the long rangers were raining down and Utah's achilles heel was being exposed. JJ Barea who seemed, still, to be locked into his "headless chicken" routine for most of the night suddenly transformed into the Barea of last year's Finals Series and started making all the right decisions...yeah he got lucky once or twice... but he stepped up and did his damage from long range.
Inside, with Kevin Love on his knees with "fatigue/illness"(?), D-Will took up the slack and had his best game in a Twolves uniform. As the announcers ( I was unfortunate enough to have the Utah team...) said, he kept so many things alive in crunch time and was very active on both ends of the floor. Remember that K-Love swish I talked about at the start? Well the next time the Twolves would see the lead would be with 40 seconds to play on two D-Will free throws...93-95.
If we skip forward a few seconds we find the score at 96 -97 and the Twolves in possession inbounding the ball after a time-out. Ricky Rubio is back, but he's been miserable from the free throw line all night (0-4)...it doesn't matter that his FT% is 85%...in this game he's bad...you ask me, I'm searching out Luke Ridnour...no question. The refs restart the game and Barea completely ignores a flashing Luke...he is totally open and he flatly ignores him....obviously under strict instruction?? The ball ends up in Rubio's hands and he's fouled quickly by Devin Harris....is this another mistake by the Timberwolves?
What happened next?
Well, did I ever tell you that I love Luke Ridnour?
This huge win means the Twolves head into the All-Star weekend with the 0.500 record that we all so desperately craved. There will be plenty of rest now before the trip out to LALA land....should be interesting for B-easy...if he gets on the court that is?
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