Wolves win two in a row
It’s nothing to get too excited about just yet, but the Timberwolves won back-to-back games this weekend, defeating the LA Clippers and the New York Knicks, by margins of 14 and 21 points respectively. The wins were sparked by some lineup shuffling by coach Kurt Rambis, who sent Kevin Love and Damien Wilkins to the bench in favor of Ryan Gomes and Ryan Hollins.
The double-Ryan attack paid off, snapping the Wolves’ recent losing streak against the Clippers, then stuck with the change against the Knicks to take advantage of the mismatch created by the shift, and the team rode that energy to a second win, bringing their season total to 11 wins and 38 losses.
Love was undeterred by the benching, scoring 25 points in nearly 32 minutes of play. Wilkins scored 11 against the Knicks. Gomes and Hollins, meanwhile combined for 26 points and seven boards, compared to 36 points and 18 board for Love and Wilkins, playing against Knicks reserves.
How long Rambis will stick with this strategy is unclear, but so far it seems to be working. And since I’m about to lose my desktop for the next 2-3 weeks for servicing and testing, and I’ll be doing my updates from an old, slow laptop computer, I figured I better mention all this while it’s still a pleasant task!
