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The Wolves Now Have NBA's Worst Record After Loss To Marcin Gortat's Suns

For the best coverage of the Timberwolves you'll find anywhere, be sure to check out Canis Hoopus.

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22 Total Updates since March 15, 2011
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Depsite Wolves' Halftime Lead, Miami Heat Win By 19

The Minnesota Timberwolves actually looked like they might be able to hang with the league’s elite in the Miami Heat after leading 52-51 after the first two quarters of Friday night’s game.

Unfortunately, there are four quarters in NBA basketball and Dwyane Wade and his teammates decided they weren’t going to lose, resulting a 25-1 Heat run early in the third quarter to defeat the Wolves 111-92 at the Target Center.

Impressively, Dwyane Wade scored 32 points — 16 in the third quarter alone — while fellow Heat all-stars LeBron James and Chris Bosh chipped in double-doubles to keep the Heat in the mix for the top seed in the Eastern Conference with just six games left until the NBA playoffs begin. James scored 27 points and added 10 assists while Bosh had 24 points and 11 assists.

The Wolves surprisingly struggled in the rebounding department, losing that battle 55-39 thanks to a substandard seven rebounds from Kevin Love along with his 17 points. Martell Webster led the team in scoring with 22 points on 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc.

The Wolves left after the game to head to Memphis to play the Grizzlies on Saturday night.

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LeBron James Vs. Michael Beasley Will Be Match-Up To Watch As Heat Visit Minnesota

The Minnesota Timberwolves don’t have much to play for tonight as a team, but forward Michael Beasley probably has a bit to prove as he faces LeBron James and the Miami Heat — the team that drafted him — on his new homecourt.

Beasley, a 6-foot-10 forward and the former No. 2 overall pick by the Heat in the 2008 NBA Draft, is averaging 18.9 points and 5.5 rebounds in 66 starts for the Timberwolves this season after being traded by Miami to Minnesota during last summer’s Vegas Summer League for two future second round picks and cash considerations.

The reason Beasley was traded from the Heat was to make room for LeBron James in the starting lineup. With Miami this season, James is averaging 26.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 6.9 assists while helping Miami — along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — to the second best record in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

If the Wolves lose tonight, it will be the team’s ninth-straight loss.

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Kevin Love Expected To Return As Wolves Face Bulls Tonight

Kevin Love would probably be considered an MVP candidate if the Minnesota Timberwolves were able to muster more than 17 wins so far this season. Instead, it’s Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose — visiting the Target Center tonight — who is garnering quite a bit of attention when it comes to those discussing who might be the NBA’s most valuable player.

Tonight hopefully goes better than the last meeting between these two teams, which ended in a 31-point loss on December 11.

Love is listed as day-to-day on the team’s official injury report and could make his return tonight after missing the team’s previous three and a half games due to a groin injury. In his absence, Anthony Randolph and Anthony Tolliver were able to produce double-doubles, but having Love available again certainly helps the Wolves chances of winning.

While this game doesn’t mean anything for the Wolves — aside from a better chance at more lottery balls, I guess — the Bulls actually need to win this to stay atop the Eastern Conference to hold off the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics.

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Wolves Can't Quite Come Back Against Boston Celtics In 85-82 Loss

The Minnesota Timberwolves trailed 32-13 to the Boston Celtics on Sunday at the Target Center, but never gave up — and nearly came back — before eventually falling 85-82 to give the team its seventh-straight loss.

The Wolves actually led in the third quarter after putting together a 21-7 run, but Boston’s talent eventually took over as Paul Pierce scored 23 points and former Wolves player Kevin Garnett picked up a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds in 33 minutes.

For Minnesota, Anthony Randolph returned to earth. After averaging 27.5 points and 13.0 rebounds over the past two games, Kevin Love’s replacement scored three points, turned the ball over three times and grabbed for rebounds while missing all five of his field goal attempts.

Anthony Tolliver, the team’s other power forward (and other Anthony), was able to do a nice Love impression off the bench as he scored 16 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and added four blocks while spelling the ineffective Randolph. Michael Beasley also scored a game-high 28 points on 28 shots.

The bright side? The Wolves’ current losing streak isn’t quite as bad as the Minnesota Wild’s eight-game losing streak.

The dark side? Everything else.

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Wolves Look To End Losing Streak Against Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics

The Minnesota Timberwolves will look to discontinue their six-game losing streak this evening at the Target Center against the Boston Celtics, but if that doesn’t happen — and let’s face it, it isn’t likely — Anthony Randolph continuing a streak of his own would be a nice consolation prize for Wolves fans looking for positives.

Randolph, a potential-laden power forward that has yet to make his mark in pro basketball, was inserted into the starting lineup for the Wolves past two games against the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder because Kevin Love was out with a groin injury and responded with back-to-back double-doubles. It pales in comparison to Love’s 53-game streak, but at least it shows that the Wolves might have something to build on off of their bench.

Boston, the former top seed in East, has lost six of its last 10 games and is in danger of falling further behind the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls so a win against the Wolves is much needed.

the most meaningful Minnesotan match-up to watch would be former franchise player Kevin Garnett squaring off against current franchise player Kevin Love in a Battle of the Kevins. That seems unlikely due to Love’s injury, however, though he was listed as questionable on the Wolves’ injury report.

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Timberwolves Visit Mavericks Tonight Sans Kevin Love

The Minnesota Timberwolves will look a bit different — and not in a good way — as they begin their two-game road trip tonight with a game against the Dallas Mavericks. Instead of reliable employee No. 42, Kevin Love of the 53-game double-double streak, the Wolves will instead insert Anthony Randolph into the starting lineup.

Randolph, acquired at the trade deadline from the New York Knicks, will be making the 31st start of his career but just his first start this season. Thus far with the Wolves, Randolph is averaging 7.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in a bit more than 15 minutes per game.

On the other side of the spectrum, Peja Stojakovic is making a bit of a career resurgence with Dallas. In the veteran’s last game — his first since returning from injury — he shot 5-of-8 from beyond the arc to finish with 17 points in 19 minutes.

It won’t be easy without Love tonight, but I guess nothing is impossible.

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Kevin Love's Groin Injury Will Force Him To Miss Next Two Games

Not a lot of good things have happened to Kevin Love recently: his double-double has ended, his team has lost seven of its last nine games and he had to leave in the second quarter of the Minnesota Timberwolves game against the Sacramento Kings due to a groin injury.

It’s not getting any better, either.

It was announced today that Love will miss Minnesota’s upcoming two-game road trip which begins Thursday. The injury apparently happened last week against the Utah Jazz when Love had 22 points and 11 rebounds despite shooting 8-of-18 from the field.

This means the Timberwolves will be without the power forward’s services for against both the Dallas Mavericks tomorrow night as well as Friday night’s game against Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

In Love’s absence, Anthony Randolph will start at power forward according to
Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.

On the season, Love is averaging 20.3 points and 15.4 rebounds while starting all 71 of the Wolves games thus far.

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VIDEO: Andrew Bynum's Flagrant Foul Caused Michael Beasley To Leave Game

The Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers shouldn't really have anything that constitutes a rivalry as the Lakers were able to defeat the Wolves for the fifteenth straight time on Friday night, but one might not be able to tell after watching the following video of Andrew Bynum as he slams Michael Beasley to the floor in the fourth quarter with the scored tied at 87 apiece.

Bynum was assessed a "flagrant foul type 2" on the play, which means that it involved  a foul "committed against a player, with or without the ball, is interpreted to be unnecessary and excessive" according to the official NBA rulebook. The biggest difference between the flagrant foul 2 and the flagrant foul 1 is that the type 2 also causes the player who committed the offense to be automatically ejected from the game.

Beasley, who scored 18 points prior to the collision, had to leave the game with what was being described as a "bruised right hip."

As you can see in the above video -- and as reported by ESPN LA's Dave McMenamin -- players from both teams had to be separated after the foul and Beasley was called for a technical for his confrontation with Lakers forward Matt Barnes.

This isn't the first time Bynum has done something like this, either. In 2009, Bynum hit Gerald Wallace on his way to the basket that led to Wallace going to the hospital due to a collapsed lung and broken ribs.

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Wolves Fall To Lakers As Wesley Johnson Scores Career-High 29 Points

The Timberwolves led the Lakers 94-93 with less than four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, but when all was said and done, Los Angeles was able to pick up its 15th straight victory over Minnesota with Friday night’s 106-98 victory.

The Wolves actually led for the majority of the first three quarters, but lost all momentum when Lakers center Andrew Bynum was hit for a flagrant-two foul after nailing Michael Beasley as he drove to the hoop in the fourth quarter that eventually resulted in Beasley and Matt Barnes jawing before they were separated.

The Lakers (49-20), spurred by Kobe Bryant, went on a 13-5 run after the incident to seal the Wolves’ fate.

Surprisingly enough, rookie wingman Wesley Johnson scored a career-high 29 points for the Timberwolves at STAPLES Center for his second nice game against Los Angeles as he scored 20 points and added eight rebounds in the Wolves last meeting with the Lakers.

Other leaders for the Wolves included Beasley, who scored 18 points before leaving due to an injury that seemingly stemmed from Bynum’s foul, and Kevin Love with 15 points and 13 rebounds for his second straight double-double.

Los Angeles was led by Pau Gasol’s 25 points while Bryant chipped in 18 on 17 shot attempts.

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Lakers Will Look To Beat Wolves For 15th Straight Time Tonight

The Minnesota Timberwolves have been unable to beat the Lakers for over four years — March 6, 2007, to be exact — and have lost nine straight in the series at Staples Center, but the team will be looking to change that tonight in their last meeting of the season with Los Angeles.

The Wolves (17-52) really don’t have much to play for at this juncture of the season with Kevin Love’s record-breaking double-double streak recently ended and their chances at making the playoffs a distant memory, but, like most seasons, the Lakers do.

If the Lakers (48-20) win tonight, they’ll clinch the Pacific Division once again. With 14 games left in the season, however, that’s not much of a concern for L.A. tonight.

“Winning your division means you are on top but we have bigger goals in mind,” forward Pau Gasol told NBA.com.

I don’t know what those bigger goals might be in the regular season so I’ll go ahead and venture a guess — holding Kevin Love without a double-double. Lamar Odom was referred to as a Love-stopper prior to the last match-up between these two teams and Andrew Bynum hasn’t been given a challenge like Love recently as the Lakers center is averaging 15.8 rebounds per game over his last six.

Oh, and Kobe Bryant is expected to be available despite not practicing all week due to a sprained ankle. Everyone should be healthy enough for the Wolves.

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Timberwolves Fall To Jazz, 119-104

The Minnesota Timberwolves had hoped to repeat their victory of five days ago this evening against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City, but were unable to do so, falling to the Jazz by a score of 119-104. C.J. Miles. . .yes, I had to look him up, too. . .scored forty points for Utah tonight, while Kevin Love's double-double streak now stands at one after he scored 22 points and brought in 11 rebounds in tonight's loss.

The folks over at Canis Hoopus have come to a conclusion. . .it's time for Kurt Rambis to go.

Dwane Casey was a better coach than Kurt Rambis and he was axed for FAR less than what the Zen Apprentice has gotten away with during his embarrassing tenure with the Wolves.  Casey has the 2nd highest coaching win percentage in team history (.434).  He got the most out of a squad that gave him nothing in terms of respect from the get-go and was not backed up in his efforts by the front office, ownership, or the local press.  Kurt Rambis has the 2nd lowest coaching win percentage in team history (.213).  His team runs a nonsensical offense that has not only failed to produce results on the court, but has also led the equally inept POBO to create a roster ("these are Kurt's guys") for what doesn't work.  Long, athletic, triangle, whatever. Rambis has now coached in 151 games at the head of the Wolves bench and he's won 32 of them.  He  shouldn't be allowed back on the plane. Then again, the Wolves do not seem to have any standards so I'm sure he'll be with us the rest of the season, maybe longer.  

When McHale made his comment about inconsistency, the Wolves were 20-20.  It's been downhill ever since.  They've gone from 32 to 22 to 24 to 15 (15!) wins to likely another sub-20 win season.  The reasons for them doing so have been obvious and, amazingly, consistent (the predictability of their failure has been the only consistent thing in the post-KG era).  This is the reason why most games look exactly like all of the other ones and why all of the game wraps seem to point in one direction: It's because that's what the team does and to ignore it is insane...probably just as insane as continuing to pay money to follow a franchise that refuses to do anything different in order to win.  The reason for all the negativity is because the team has consistently declining standards and they continue to push any chance of winning further and further and further off into the future.  Any talk of a non Kevin Love silver lining at this point should be placed in a Fan Post called Mrs. Lincoln's Play.  

With what we've seen from the Wolves recently, it's pretty hard to disagree.

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Timberwolves Vs. Jazz: Kevin Love Looks To Start New Double-Double Streak

Since the last time the Minnesota Timberwolves played the Utah Jazz, a lot has changed — power forward Kevin Love’s NBA record 53-game double-double streak has ended and the Timberwolves fourth winning-streak of the season (two games!) has also came to a close.

Oddly enough, that all happened in the past five days as the Jazz visited the Wolves just last Friday night.

In that game, the Wolves were once again led by Love as he scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Minnesota to a 122-101 victory over Utah. After the game, Darko Milicic made a joking comment about the Wolves winning the rest of their games by 20 points — something the basketball gods apparently frowned upon — and the Wolves put up just 77 points against the Golden State Warriors in a 23-point loss on Sunday night.

That was all last week, though, and tonight starts a new week for the Timberwolves. And, if last week’s result was any indication, there’s a good chance at least one streak (either Wolves winning or Kevin Love finishing with a double-double) will begin again tonight.

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Photographs by Micah Taylor, clairity, and Fibonacci Blue used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.