Through one win in the first four games, Wolves coach Randy Wittman had been alternately pleased, unhappy and generally positive, but never had he been so transparently furious as he was after Friday night’s 121-109 loss in Sacramento.
So it was that the team took the unusual step of holding a morning walk-through today before the second of back-to-back games at Portland.
From Melody Gutierrez/Sacramento Bee, Kings coach Reggie Theus on Kevin Love:
“I actually worked him out when he was in eighth grade,” said Theus, who coached the Southern California All-Stars, a 17-and-under Amateur Athletic Union team, before joining the college coaching ranks.
Asked what the 6-foot-10, 260-pounder looked like then, Theus said Love was a “big boy.”
“He’s just big-boned,” Theus said. “I know a couple (similar) players. One that comes to mind is (Hall of Famer) Wes Unseld. He was a heck of a player, too.”
The Target Center game-night staff had it easy when Al Jefferson arrived from Boston last season. They simply play the theme song from the 1970s sitcom featuring George and Wheezy over the sound system whenever he excels.
Kevin Love’s presence is something different altogether. An Internet database lists 3,321 songs with Love in the title. The Timberwolves chose the B52s’ “Love Shack” for the first preseason game, but the rookie forward objected — “Sorry, but I can’t stand that song,” he said — so now they play the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love,” an obvious, uninspired choice…
Moving Kevin Love and Sebastian Telfair into the starting five, didn’t stop another bad start (10-2 this time), but Love continues to impress, this time with a 20-point, eight-rebound, 30-minute game that included some second-half foul trouble. He already has lost as many games (four) in nine days as he did all last season at UCLA, but when you consider how fast a guy who just turned 20 in September is beginning to figure out this pro game…
Already Wittman is suggesting if players don’t change their ways defensively, either he won’t play them or his bosses will deal them, but you know what you usually happens first in pro sports…
The Portland Tribune on Kevin Love:
He’s averaging 25 minutes, 11.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.2 blocks. Love, listed at 6-10 and 260 pounds, is shooting .514 from the floor, .923 (12 of 13) from the free-throw line and .200 (1 of 5) from 3-point range.
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