A Night at the Target Center

I was at the Target Center tonight covering the Timberwolves and Pistons game for the Minnesota News Network and I figured this would be a good enough event to base my first blog on. So let the blogging begin.

THE GAME ITSELF
It was a pretty tight game throughout, and a low scoring one. The Pistons were down by 11 at one point in the third quarter but came back and used a 15-3 run at the end of the game to split the season series with the Wolves. The key to their run in the fourth quarter, according to Allen Iverson, was "getting in the car with Rasheed and letting him drive".
Wallace hit the majority of shots during the deciding run for Detroit and they sealed it with some free throws to give them the win 98-89.

SIDELINES (the typical sports euphemism for other stuff)
Mark Madsen could have the best job in all of sports. He hardly ever gets in but the crowd loves him like he was a 30 points a night guy. He cheer leads, he looks around at the crowd, he drinks a ton of water, and collects a paycheck. Good gig if you can get it. It was his birthday tonight and he got a nice round of applause from the crowd.

Kevin Love will always be compared to O.J. Mayo in the Twin Cities because of the draft day trade that brought Love to the Wolves. So far that comparison has led many to criticize the trade because of Mayo's scoring ability thus far. It's too bad because Love is a different type of player than Mayo but I think he'll be a very valuable one for Minnesota.
He is a strong rebounder and his outlet passes are sharp, as advertised. He's starting to get the scoring touch, also. He scored 11 points in the second quarter tonight and finished with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds.
In the fourth quarter he had a nice behind the back dribble move to get to the basket and later had a great bounce pass through traffic in the lane to a fellow T-Wolf under the basket. Another nice move in the paint got him to the basket for a potential layup but he was fouled. If he would have dunked the crowd would have gone nuts. I'm starting to wonder if Love can dunk because there were a couple of opportunities for him that he never quite took advantage of.
Despite Love's growing status, he is still a rookie and still gets a fair amount of teasing (or hazing) from his teammates. The other night after a strong performance in a one point win over the Bulls, Love was getting an earful from Al Jefferson about getting dunked on in L.A.
Tonight, during warm-ups Brian Cardinal was throwing some alley oop passes to teammates and Kevin Love was ready for his. He looked pretty excited about it as he ran toward to hoop and as he left his feet Cardinal passed the ball...to a teammate standing on the three point line. Jefferson got a real good chuckle out of that and I still don't know if Love can dunk. I do know Love will be a factor in the Wolves success in the long run.

Allen Iverson has been around the league and what I'm about to say has been said already a million times, but I think it gets said a million times because when you see him in person it really is amazing.
He is still quick, he is still acrobatic, and he still can have an ice cold shooting night. Talking to him in the locker room afterwards, I was amazed at his size, or lack thereof. I am about the same size as Iverson, albeit with considerably less talent, hair, cash, and tattoos. The fact that he can do what he does in the NBA is incredible.
I used to despise Allen and considered him a thug and maybe that used to be true. When he became a Nugget and I saw how hard he worked I changed my tune. After hearing him in the locker room tonight I am now completely an Iverson fan and wish him the best of luck. Maybe he's matured or maybe he's just gotten smarter in terms of what he allows the media to see, but I think he is a team guy who will do whatever it takes to help his team get those 'W's'.

Gopher Men's Basketball Head Coach Tubby Smith was at the game, no doubt to catch up with Tayshaun Prince, whom he coached at Kentucky. But Alabama alum Antonio McDyess took the opportunity to chat up Coach Smith after the game. I wonder why?