The AP reports: Rashad McCants scored 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and Rodney Carney and Ryan Gomes hit consecutive 3s to help Minnesota spoil the Oklahoma City Thunder’s preseason debut with an 88-82 victory Wednesday night… Al Jefferson added 13 points and nine rebounds for the Wolves (2-0) and Corey Brewer finished with 11 points. Kevin Love and Carney each finished with 10. Damien Wilkins led the Thunder with 19 points, including a layup to tie the score at 78 with 3:04 to play. McCants fouled out on the play, but Wilkins missed the free throw. Wilcox added 17 points for the Thunder, Russell Westbrook had 13 and Kevin Durant finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Category: Minnesota T-Wolves Blog
Timberwolves blog – Minnesota Timberwolves blog
Wolves to sign David Harrison
The Rocky Mountain News (Chris Tomasson) reports: The Minnesota Timberwolves are coming to Denver, and center David Harrison will be with them. A source said Wednesday that Harrison, a former University of Colorado star, will sign with the Timberwolves (it’s for one year and nonguaranteed). But Harrison, a free agent who played the past four seasons with Indiana, won’t play in Friday’s preseason game against the Nuggets at the Pepsi Center.
InsideHoops.com editor says: Harrison must prove himself worthy of being in the league. Right now he’s right on the bubble of sticking around for a while or falling out in a season or two. He’s 26, looked somewhat decent as a rookie (like a good future backup center), then in four seasons doesn’t seem to have improved at all. Time to show something.
Oct 6: Wolves 117, Bucks 79
The AP reports: Rookie Kevin Love scored 13 points and Mike Miller added 12, lifting the Timberwolves to a 117-79 preseason victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night that made Minnesota’s draft day trade look promising. Al Jefferson chipped in 18 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes, and the new-look Timberwolves may have acquired enough offensive threats to improve on last season’s 22-60 mark. Love originally was credited with 16 points, but 1 hour, 15 minutes after the game, the official scoring crew took three points away from Love and added them to Corey Brewer’s total, giving him 12… Rashad McCants scored 22 points and Randy Foye 11 for Minnesota. Charlie Villanueva scored 14 points and Matt Freije and Ramon Sessions had 11 each for Milwaukee.
Big Kevin Love expectations
The St. Paul Pioneer Press (Don Seeholzer) reports: The Wolves believe Kevin Love’s shooting and passing ability will make opposing teams pay for double-teaming Jefferson, as they did all last season. As for the questions about Love’s athleticism, after what coach Randy Wittman saw in the Las Vegas summer league, he said it’s not a concern. “He’s really more agile than people think,” Wittman said. “Is he going to jump out of the gym? No. Is he going to outsprint everybody up and down the floor? No. But other things that go with that make him an enticing player. He’s a very high basketball IQ guy. You like playing with guys that know how to play the game, that know how to read situations and how to read cuts. I think people feed off that. I think it helps everybody.”
Al Jefferson out 2-3 weeks with MCL sprain
The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced forward Al Jefferson has suffered a mild sprain of the MCL (medial collateral ligament) in his right knee. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) exam taken yesterday at TRIA Orthopaedic Center in Bloomington, Minn. confirmed the injury. Jefferson is expected to be sidelined for 2-3 weeks and is expected to be ready by the start of the regular season.
In 2008, his first season with the Timberwolves, Jefferson averaged 21.0 ppg, 11.1 rpg, 1.4 apg and 1.5 bpg, all career highs. Jefferson was one of only four players in the NBA in 2007-08 to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds. In four seasons in the NBA, Jefferson holds career averages of 13.4 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 0.9 apg and 1.1 bpg.
Jason Collins out 8 weeks after elbow surgery
The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced center Jason Collins underwent successful surgery to repair a partial rupture of his triceps tendon in his right elbow. Dr. David Auerbach of the Southern California Orthopedic Institute (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) performed the surgery Monday evening. Collins is expected to be sidelined for the next eight weeks.
Collins was acquired via an eight-player draft night trade with the Memphis Grizzlies on June 26 that also brought Kevin Love, Mike Miller and Brian Cardinal to the Timberwolves. Collins was drafted by the Houston Rockets 18th overall in the first round of the 2001 NBA Draft and was traded to the New Jersey Nets on draft night. The center from Stanford appeared in 74 games for Memphis and New Jersey in 2007-08, posting 1.9 points (.469 FG%) and 2.4 rebounds in 15.8 minutes per game. For his career, Collins holds averages of 4.3 points (.414 FG%), and 4.8 rebounds per game.
Cousin says Marbury is selfish
A good way to sell a book is to write interesting details about someone famous. And when you’re actually related to that famous person, you probably have some decent stuff to share. Stephon Marbury for a long time has been known as a “me-first” kind of guy, and that’s probably sometimes been unfair. But his own cousin has joined in and shared stuff that helps solidify that reputation. Here’s the New York Daily News (Mark Lelinwalla):
Stephon Marbury has carried the stigma of being a selfish player for the majority of his 12-year NBA career. Now, his older cousin is saying Marbury is even more self-centered off the court and is dishing details on the Knicks point guard in his autobiography, “The Beautiful Struggle,” the Daily News has learned. The book, due out in late September from Xlibris Publishing, has former NBA pro and current overseas player Jamel Thomas alleging that Marbury ruined a potential deal for him with the Minnesota Timberwolves. In it, Thomas includes a conversation that he allegedly had with Kevin Garnett, in which Garnett tells him how Marbury’s presence on the team spoiled his cousin’s chances of signing with Minnesota.
For all you fans who watch every basketball movie that comes out, you’ve seen a little of Jamel Thomas already in the Sebastian Telfair documentary “Through the Fire,” which I really liked. Anyway, as someone who covers the NBA for a living who is also a New Yorker, I’ll definitely be checking the book out and will let you know how must-read it is.
–Jeff
Web viewing of NBA games may soon exist
The Oklahoman (Mel Bracht) reports: Say you’re working late and can’t make it to the Ford Center to watch Oklahoma City’s new NBA team play its game that night. Instead, you log on to your computer and watch streaming video of the team’s game broadcast. Sound far-fetched? Not if the NBA has its way. The league is aggresively promoting three new Internet elements — video streaming in home markets, interactive TV and video-on-demand — for the upcoming season. Ed Desser, a media consultant for Oklahoma City’s team, said many details have yet to be worked out, and didn’t expect the team to offer the Internet elements anytime soon.
Jerry Sloan 20th anniversary game to be on road
The Salt Lake Tribune (Ross Siler) reports: Twenty years after he took over for Frank Layden, Jerry Sloan will mark his anniversary as Jazz coach not with a celebration at EnergySolutions Arena, but with a road game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The location of the Dec. 9 anniversary game for the longest-tenured coach in American pro sports was the biggest surprise Wednesday as the NBA released its schedule for the 2008-09 season… NBA spokesman Mark Broussard didn’t know whether the Jazz had requested to play at home that date. “It really wasn’t anything that was on our radar screen as an anniversary date or anything,” Broussard said.
OJ Mayo wins InsideHoops fan poll
An InsideHoops.com fan poll asked, other than Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley and Greg Oden, which rookie will rock in 2008-09. Blowing away the competition was Grizzlies rookie OJ Mayo, receiving 44% of the votes. Over 2,700 fans participated in the poll.
We left Rose, Beasley and Oden out of the poll because they’ve received massive amounts of attention for a while now. Admittedly, Mayo has as well, but for the past year Rose and Beasley have been mentioned as the top picks, while Mayo was considered “in the lottery” but not a lock to go quite as high.
Finishing second in the poll with 17% of the votes was Trail Blazers rookie Jerryd Bayless, whose popularity rose after playing very well in summer league.
Third was Kevin Love at 13%. Anthony Randolph, Eric Gordon and Russell Westbrook also got nice support.