Because you know you want to watch them back-to-back.
Archives For Ricky Rubio
Its not that the Wolves were listless or lackadaisical in the first quarter of this game. They were playing hard, conscientiously attempting to execute their offense and make solid rotations on defense. No, the word to use might be “uninspired”: the offense was stagnant and uncreative; they were bricking jumpers; they were allowing the Mavericks open looks in the midrange and in transition. It was pretty mediocre.
But that all changed when Ricky Rubio and his aura of great, oceanic positive vibes entered the game. He threaded a one-handed bounce-pass to a cutting J.J. Barea. He dropped a stomach-churning hesitation move on Elton Brand and then calmly dealt the ball behind his back to Derrick Williams in the corner (who missed the wide-open corner three, but thats cool). He denied passing lanes, frantically dug at ballhandlers and fought around screens. In traffic, surrounded by Mavericks, he bounced a pass through his own legs, past an astonished Elton Brand to a diving Greg Stiemsma. The building was stunned, ecstatic, then stunned again.
Ricky’s back:
The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that guard Ricky Rubio will be in uniform and is expected to make his season debut tonight when the Wolves take on the Dallas Mavericks at Target Center at 7:00 p.m.
“I’m excited to get back on the floor with my teammates and play in front of the best fans in the NBA at Target Center,” said Rubio. “After a long recovery, this is the first step in me getting back on the court and helping my teammates. Thank you to the fans for their support over the last nine months.”
This is going to be fun.
There should be pitchforks and torches headed toward #42 at the Target Center right now.
After “spouting off” in a national column that he assumed would include many of the positive things he allegedly said about the team, Kevin Love had a horrific night of basketball. The 3-of-17 from the field doesn’t really even begin to show the struggles Love had in this game against the Denver Nuggets. He got the shots you’d want him to get: spot-up jumpers, half hooks six feet from the basket against poor post defenders, basically everything he’s supposed to be good at.
The ball awkwardly came off his finger tips, often coming up short or looking like he was shooting the ball off of his wrist. His touch wasn’t there and he didn’t really know how to make up for it. He heard heckles from fans, although it was nothing to attempt to really write about. He was neutral about the things that were said to him, not giving in to prodding questions hoping for a sound byte. Continue Reading…
Ricky… you got some playing to do…
Our friend Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN is reporting that Ricky Rubio will return to action Saturday night at home against the Dallas Mavericks:
A league source told 1500ESPN.com that Rubio will play on Saturday at Target Center against Dallas.
Rubio is returning from torn anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments in his left knee that he suffered last March.
The source said the Wolves, while busy receiving trade calls, are reluctant to make any move before they see Rubio with the rest of the team.
I talked to a couple people after Wolfson’s story was posted and they’ve basically said as long as nothing bad happens with Ricky in the next couple of days, they’d be shocked if he didn’t make his debut against the Mavericks. So nothing is a given right now but it’s looking good.
With Ricky Rubio’s return from last season’s ACL injury growing ever more imminent (possibly as soon as Wednesday against the Nuggets), considerations about what it will mean for this team going forward have blossomed. One of the most exciting is the prospect of Rubio and Alexey Shved playing together in the backcourt. But that excitement doesn’t come without a healthy dose of trepidation. After all, pairing Rubio with a player like Kevin Love is a no-brainer as far as fit goes: One handles the ball and distributes, the other shoots and rebounds. There isn’t a lot of overlap in their games. But then you watch a clip like this of Shved’s highlights against the Bucks, and you might be forgiven for wondering how they’ll work together with games that can appear so similar.
But never fear: I’ve been listening to the Allman Brothers Band. Continue Reading…
The team with the best web presence in the NBA (and trust me, I waste a lot of time online so I know these kinds of things) has done it once again with a holiday video. The Wolves’ web team just continues to churn out fun videos that crack everybody up.
The video isn’t on YouTube yet so here’s a link to the video. Enjoy and happy holidays.
The NBA 3-point line has been around since the 1979-80 NBA season. Even the rule change was supposed to help usher in a new era of basketball from the 1970s to the 1980s, it wasn’t exactly an accepted practice to start chucking 3-pointers like we see teams doing today. Instead, it was a seldom-used arrow in the quiver for most NBA teams.
Because it wasn’t a widely practiced action in the NBA and used more for shooting games after practice than anything else, we saw some hilariously low 3-point production from NBA teams during the first 13 seasons of the 3-point arc. The 1982-83 Los Angeles Lakers have the lowest 3-point percentage in NBA history. They shot just 10.4% from the 3-point line that season. Sounds absurdly low, right? Well, they only took 96 attempts that season and made 10 of them. They also went on to win the Western Conference Finals because they had Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
From the 79-80 season through the 2011-12 season, there have been 171 teams in NBA history who have shot less than 29% from 3-point range in a season. But the problem with this statistic is the 3-pointer wasn’t really a thing until the 1992-93 season. In the first 13 years of the NBA 3-point line, only three teams (88-89 New York Knicks, 90-91 Denver Nuggets, 91-92 Milwaukee Bucks) took more than 1,000 3-point attempts in an NBA season. That total doubled after the Suns, Hawks, and Rockets all attempted over 1,000 3-pointers in the 92-93 season.
In the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, only seven teams DIDN’T attempt at least 1,000 3-pointers.
Why this little bit of 3-point history? Continue Reading…
From our Wolves:
The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that guard Ricky Rubio has been cleared to participate in full-contact practices with no limitations after consultation with Dr. Richard Steadman in Vail, Colorado. With the final medical hurdle being cleared, Rubio will now practice with the team. Rubio and the Wolves medical staff will assess his ability to participate in an NBA game after monitoring his progress during these practices.
But considering the intensity of his backyard wrestling bouts, this probably comes as no surprise. This means that we might just see Ricky Rubio in an NBA basketball game in the coming weeks. What version of himself he’ll be when that day comes remains to be seen.
This is actually just standard ACL tear rehab. Once you’re done strengthening with weights and before you can get on the court for basketball activities, they have you do backyard wrestling.
That’s just good doctoring.