Rubio, Love and the resurgence of the Minnesota Timberwolves

Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves in action against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Alexey, change this face. Be happy. Enjoy!”

Those were the words Ricky Rubio said to Alexey Shved when he was having a bad night on the court, having converted just one of his eight shots in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers last season. Shved, a rookie guard already burdened by the fact that he had to carry the Timberwolves last season while Rubio took his time to recover from an ACL tear, was not exactly having a great season.

It didn’t help as much as he’d have liked, as the Lakers beat the Timberwolves 116-94. Rubio’s words of encouragement, in their literal translation from Spanish to English, may have been skewed a little in meaning. But there’s no denying what he was trying to convey to his team-mate.

In a dog-eat-dog, result-oriented world of professional sport, there is almost no time to relax and enjoy the game with so much at stake. But it’s not like the Timberwolves were having a great season anyway. Nor had they had a winning one in the years before that. But here was a youngster who was willing to put all that aside and try and urge his team to work hard and have fun at the same time.

Introducing Ricard ‘Ricky’ Rubio – the Spanish basketball star who crossed the Atlantic and got drafted in the NBA in the 2009 draft, thereby making him the first player born in the 1990s to be drafted.

Not since the days of Kevin Garnett has a player been so revered and respected by the fans in Minnesota. And to think that Rubio is only 23 years old; there are a lot of expectations on his young shoulders. But the early signs looked promising and he certainly has lived up to the expectations of many.

The Timberwolves have been dreadfully unlucky in the past couple of seasons. Apart from Kevin Love and Rubio, they haven’t had the firepower to compete in the NBA. They finished dead last in the Western Conference for two years in a row, and the ‘losses’ column was updated more often than the ‘wins’. Things reached a nadir in July 2011 when head coach Kurt Rambis was fired after a dismal 32-132 record with the team.

Rick Adelman took over and an early look revealed that he was slowly building this team into a reasonably competitive unit. But as luck would have it, the ACL and LCL tear to Rubio (again, in a game against the Lakers) destroyed their chances of making the Playoffs. Even the 2012-13 season saw Kevin Love break his shooting hand not once but twice. He played only 18 games that season. Andrei Kirilenko too had problems with his calf, Chase Budinger was missing for months and so was Brandon Roy.

It came as no surprise when they finished the season last in their division and 22nd overall. But they now had the time to rebuild the squad. During the off-season, the Timberwolves signed Kevin Martin after stiff competition from three other teams – Oklahoma City Thunder, Milwaukee Bucks and the New Orleans Pelicans.

And this season, the Timberwolves are on a mission. Led by Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio, the team is starting to turn heads. They are currently sixth in the Western Conference and look good to land a Playoff spot by the end of the regular season.

Kevin Love is racking up double-doubles.

Kevin Love is leading the line with 26.4 points per game and 15 rebounds per game. Kevin Martin is not far behind with 24.6 points per game, including a free throw percentage over 92%. They’ve been ably supported by Nikola Pekovic and Corey Brewer who are both scoring more than 13 points per game. Pekovic himself averages almost 10 rebounds a game.

But the man in the middle of it all is Ricky Rubio. Although not the best when it comes to scoring, his 9 assists per game coupled with 3.4 steals per game provide the Timberwolves with the necessary energy and drive on the court. In 8 games, he has more assists than points – 71 assists and 69 points.

And this time, fate wasn’t as cruel when the Timberwolves faced the Los Angeles Lakers. The Timberwolves arrived in Los Angeles on the back of a 22-match losing streak to the Lakers – the longest active streak between two teams in the NBA. The last time they’d beaten the storied franchise was way back in the 2006-07 season, and the Lakers fans knew it. And even though the Bryant-less Lakers are in rebuilding mode, they were confident.

What happened next was unprecedented in the history of the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise.

The Lakers did not know what hit them as a rampaging pack of Wolves took a 28-point lead. This included a 27-2 run! By the end of the first quarter, the Lakers had 23 points while the Timberwolves had 47 – a franchise record which came very close to breaking the Nuggets’ mark of 48 against the SuperSonics in 2008. The Lakers tried to claw their way back but the damage was already done. The final score read 113-90, finally snapping the streak in a rather quiet and by then half-empty Staples Center.

“Everybody was making shots,” said Rubio. “We knew we’d lost the last 22 or something like that. It was a good game for us to end it.”

Martin had scored 27 points, Love had 25 and Brewer had 17. But the story of the night was Ricky Rubio – 12 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists and 5 steals – a triple-double! The last time anyone recorded a triple-double against the Lakers was LeBron James in 2010.

After the game, Rick Adelman said, “We were on fire, we were very active, plus we shot the heck out of it. I don’t think they really knew what hit them.” He was right.

The Timberwolves are certainly in a strong position to fight for a Playoff spot, although one might point to their bench to see a significant lack of contributions. But the foundation has been set and if the key players can remain injury free for the rest of the season, the Timberwolves will be a handful in the post season – a team nobody would want to come up against in the first couple of rounds.

“Forty-seven points in one quarter. It’s outrageous,” Pau Gasol had said after the game.

Nobody saw it coming. Not even the Timberwolves.