The Works: Where Is the Love?

by Bethlehem Shoals and Tom Ziller

Filed under: Kings, Nets, Nuggets, Pistons, Timberwolves, NBA Referees, Sports Business and Media, The Works

In The Works today: interrogating NBA finance; how the techs were won; the cool, cool world of Melo's free agency; and the League Pass Cup begins.

But first, the season's first big question about the Minnesota Timberwolves, featuring their one good player.

New Dawn Fades

The season is exactly one game old for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Kevin Love is already getting disrespected by his coach. Fitting that Love's new blog for GQ is called Love Will Tear Us Apart, because he's doing just that to the Twin Cities. Wolves coach Kurt Rambis sat Love for the final 8-1/2 minutes of Minnesota's tight opening night game against the Kings (who were without star guard Tyreke Evans). Why, pray tell?

He told reporters he liked what Anthony Tolliver was doing defensively. So he sat his best player.

The opponent Rambis needed Tolliver for was Carl Landry, who ended up dropping seven points in less than nine minutes in the fourth on Tolliver. The supposedly great defensive team Rambis wanted to put on the floor when Love came out allowed 18 points in 16 possessions (before the Wolves were forced to foul with 23 seconds left). Again, Landry had seven of those and rookie center DeMarcus Cousins added another five. That's 12 of the 18 points through the critical stretch of the game against Rambis' defensive frontline that Love is apparently too poor a defender to be featured in.

In the end, Tolliver played 28 minutes to Love's 24, and I'm sitting here wondering how long it will be until K-Love is run out of town the way Al Jefferson was. Think about it: Minnesota traded Big Al for two mid-to-low first-round picks and Kosta Koufos because Al and Love couldn't play together. In the first game of the post-Al era, Love is benched because he can't defend Carl Landry. Meanwhile, the replacement has trouble guarding Carl Landry because -- surprise! -- Carl Landry is a pretty good scorer.

 

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Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/10/28/the-works-where-is-the-love/

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