10/27 Sacramento @ Minnesota 7:00

[KF10]

GG you guys. I think you guys have to be patient with your team. From what I know, you are the youngest team in the L. Inexperience and growing pains will be constant all year long.

[Magic.City.23.]

Why does Rambis hate Love(no pun intended)?

[Calinks]

The number 100 is rolling over in it's grave right now.

[AQuintus]

Why does Rambis hate Love(no pun intended)?

Because he was playing terribly and Tolliver wasn't.

If Love was making shots and more active on defense, he would have played 30+ minutes.

[Esohny]

The number 100 is rolling over in it's grave right now.

Head shaking indeed.

[Cyborg21]

gotta be patient, gonna take some time to gel.

[LordBaldric]

Why does Rambis hate Love(no pun intended)?

Because he was playing terribly and Tolliver wasn't.

If Love was making shots and more active on defense, he would have played 30+ minutes.

So Love has to play consistently well over the course of the whole game in order to get minutes over guys he is clearly superior too? What a joke! Every player has ups and downs over a game. Hell, Beasley should have sat for the rest of the game after his terribad 1st quarter according to this "logic".

[Krapinsky]

Why does Rambis hate Love(no pun intended)?

Because he was playing terribly and Tolliver wasn't.

If Love was making shots and more active on defense, he would have played 30+ minutes.

Can't do either if he's not in the game. Maybe he lets somebody score easily one play, but every possession he's not in the game seems like an extra possession for the other team thanks to an offensive rebound. If Tolliver was hot, he could have brought Love in to replace Darko for at least a spell in the 4th.

[Krapinsky]

Love complaints aside, if anything, this game need more Silky J. + 14 in 18 minutes.

[The J Rocka]

Pretty good crowd tonight, won't expect all them to comeback cuz most of them are bandwagoners. Team just needs experience and chemistry (on-court). It will start to click soon.

P.S. We really need Webster.

[LordBaldric]

Why does Rambis hate Love(no pun intended)?

Because he was playing terribly and Tolliver wasn't.

If Love was making shots and more active on defense, he would have played 30+ minutes.

Can't do either if he's not in the game. Maybe he lets somebody score easily one play, but every possession he's not in the game seems like an extra possession for the other team thanks to an offensive rebound. If Tolliver was hot, he could have brought Love in to replace Darko for at least a spell in the 4th.

Thank you Krapinsky. Rambis is like a poker player who mucks a pair of kings because he lost with that hand on the previous deal. And it's not like we didn't see this all last year either. And not just with Love, but the whole wonky huge 11+ man rotations. He has no excuses this season...

[urinesane]

I think they were just a bit overhyped for the first game. Which caused a lot of defensive mistakes (too many guys trying to block a shot causing easy second chance points). Lot's of nervous energy that will work itself out. Once they get comfortable they will look a lot more like they did in preseason where they were hungry and confident.

[Winter Wonder]

Why we lost:
1.) Too many fouls called against us, some merited, some not so much.
2.) WAY too many put back and second chance opportunities against us.
3.) Not enough inside baskets out side of transition/too many jump shots.
4.) Not enough ball movement for those jumpers/too many contested jumpers.


Wayne was really overmatched by Garcia early and Wayne played like it was his first NBA start.
Beno hurt us early as well, then looked out of control but got a few calls
Landry needed to be controlled better. WAY too many rebounds and put backs.

Love could have helped on the boards more given minutes, though I understand Tolliver being left in for hustle and some "D" on Landry, still, I wonder if Love wouldn't have taken away some of those extra opportunities.

Brewer was brought in late for one thing, defense, and was caught sleeping as Omar slid past him for that late dunk. Brewer never looked "into it" enough and I think was low on confidence based on minutes.

Pek needs to get the ball inside more. Uber efficient and though early foul trouble slowed him down, he needs to be featured down low when he is in there. He is the main/only true inside presence and we need more points in the paint. Also, attacking the basket is a good thing, we need to do that and get to the FT line like we did early in pre-season.

Should have had Love in towards the end of the game. He has been one of our best 3 point shooters and would have done better on the high pick and pop in my opinion.

Anyhow, a disappointing loss to a team we should have beat. Too many mistakes and lost too many of the hustle plays, regardless of who was in there. I expected and expect better, in that game and in the future.

[Rolf]

Krapisnki's right. No matter how well Tolliver was playing, you've got to get your best player involved at the end of the game.

Kind of funny - I was at the game, across the court from the Wolves bench. After the time out with about 2 minutes left, when it became clear Love wasn't going back in the game, he sat down and looked genuinely pissed. Pek was sitting next to him, and he turned to Love, shrugged, and gave him this big, it's-gonna-be-alright-just-cry-on-my-shoulder bear hug. After the timeout with 30 something seconds left, when neither of them went in the game, Love and Pek looked at each other, dropped their heads, and shared another overly dramatic embrace on the bench. It was pretty hilarious.

[urinesane]

Why we lost:
Wayne was really overmatched by Garcia early and Wayne played like it was his first NBA start.

It was his second.

[Winter Wonder]

Why we lost:
Wayne was really overmatched by Garcia early and Wayne played like it was his first NBA start.

It was his second.

Yes, but he played like it was his first

[urinesane]

I thought he played well on offense, made some solid plays. I think he has improved a lot over last year, and can now create his shot and slash more.

Let's not over analyze one game, I think our expectations were a bit inflated from the nice preseason record. There will be some growing pains, but they will be ok.

[jade_hippo]

Pek needs to play more, I am compltely ok if he fouls out of every game. As long as we are milking every ounce of his manliness, then we did something to try to win. Let him do his thing, he'll figure out how not to get fouls or kill someone trying.

[AQuintus]

Can't do either if he's not in the game.

The guy played minutes. It's not like Rambis pulled him out after a couple of misses 30 seconds in and never put him back in. He had his chances to get more minutes and he didn't earn them over Tolliver. He'll still be the starter and he'll have his chance to do better next game.

Maybe he lets somebody score easily one play, but every possession he's not in the game seems like an extra possession for the other team thanks to an offensive rebound.

Even without Love, we still out rebounded them. 14 offensive boards is a lot, but I don't think that it was the difference in this game.

If Tolliver was hot, he could have brought Love in to replace Darko for at least a spell in the 4th.

They did try to play Love at the 5 a little in the first half and he didn't look so hot.

Edit:

With all of that said, though, Rambis' rotations were pretty bad. I don't mind the minutes so much (outside of Johnson, who might have been limited by his hamstring), but Rambis was subbing guys in and out way too much. They need to be given a chance to get into the flow of the game a little bit (the starters especially).

Edit 2:

And not just with Love, but the whole wonky huge 11+ man rotations. He has no excuses this season...

I say give Rambis a few games before throwing him under the bus for the size of his rotations. A few guys (Koufos and Brewer (potentially)) got more minutes then they should have due to foul trouble.

[LOBO 7]

Let me preface this rant by saying that I love Kevin Love, and am pulling for him to reach his potential as much as anyone....

Love hit a couple 3's and grabbed a lot of rebounds in the first half. Other than that, he was TERRIBLE. Rambis did exactly what he should have done, and it was for Love's own good. If Love wants to be a leader on this team, or on any team in the future, playing the way he did tonight is unacceptable. Its fine to have a bad shooting night, but to act as lazy as I do on a Sunday afternoon, for the entire game, is unacceptable. One way or the other, Love is going to have a huge impact on this team this year. Whether or not it is a positive or negative impact is entirely between his ears. He can walk the walk and have the attitude of a leader, or he can singlehandedly ruin the chemistry on this team. Tolliver said it all in his post-game interview, saying that it is scrappy games like this when you find out a lot about your teammates, find out who is really willing to fight for you. I don't think he was taking a shot at Love, but Tolliver walked the walk out there and earned the minutes he got. Love showed that he wasn't at all willing to fight for his teammates. I don't know how long it will take Rambis to pound this lesson through Kevin's head, but he's going to keep on trying, and for his sake I hope Kevin learns that lesson soon. Until he learns that lesson he will never be the best player, or a leader, on this team or any other.
On the other hand, Its just one game. Maybe all his talk of a professional attitude this offseason is true, and maybe he just had a bad game and knew it, and had no problem with Rambis benching him in favor of Tolliver. But he has to prove that to us, or this will be a long season. If he returns to his old antics of sulking around like a 5 year old when things get tough, Tolliver may get more minutes than him all season long. Kevin owes all of us more than that, and I for one feel personally offended when he acts like this, and I imagine his teammates feel the same way.

Dig deep Kevin, stay patient Kurt.