Los Angeles Lakers 105 - Minnesota Timberwolves 102

Thumbs up for effort...

I think I said, in my preview for the previous meeting with LAL that they would miss Kobe more than we would miss K-Love. Last night Love was absent again with back spasms and Kobe was there sporting his best "Phantom of the Opera" facial wear. I think had this scenario been flipped the Twolves would have finally buried this losing streak...they came very close...but in the end bad decisions by the rookies gave the game to Kobe and the Lakers on a plate.

This is the most annoying aspect....but it's really hard to be annoyed with Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams....they contributed plenty on the night to help get us into a contest in the first place....."Rise and Shine Rookies!!" even made a come-back.

To be honest a team that allows Ron Artest to shoot three pointers in crunch time doesn't deserve to win...that was when I thought we'd caught the biggest break of all....but it wasn't to be, sadly.

Minnesota, however, coped and played brilliantly without its best player.

(Much Later...)

I started writing this post very early this morning and then held off writing the rest as I wanted to see what damage Ricky Rubio had suffered to his knee.

I'll be back!

The apparent loss of the Unicorn is a huge blow to Minnesota basketball.

I feel really bad for the kid but know that he'll return even stronger than before. It seems eerie that the comment made by Rick Adelman regarding  Malcolm Lee only being "used in real emergencies" seems to have turned into a prophesy. Barea is in street clothes. That leaves Luke and although I have an unhealthy affection for Mr. Ridnour he shouldn't be running the point for long stretches...every now and again...fine.

Interesting days ahead.

Hopefully K-Love will get back in harness tonight and The Nikola Pekovic Cleansing Dept will continue to to sanitize the offensive glass (What a massive...and I mean MA-SSIVE....performance against the posturing, idiocy of Bynum).

No Hornets preview....I'm all out of synch....good game to have, they are dreadful and have a longer injury list than us.