The Wolves move up to #16 in Marc Stein’s weekly power rankings.
So do you think Al Jefferson, with help from Kevin Love, was trying to send a message to the keepers of the Weekend Dime with that 39-point eruption Sunday night that took down Chicago in overtime? Us, too.
The only major difference is that Jefferson is on the court 42 percent more often. Using O’Neal’s average of 30 minutes per game, he’s played 15 Shaq-games more than Shaq in the first half of the season — that’s out of a 42-game season. Project over a full year and the difference is 30 games.
So while it would be a hoot to have Shaq in Phoenix for the game, I don’t think that’s a good reason to exclude a player who is so abundantly more deserving. The coaches’ long-standing bias against players with losing records is well known and has been taken to a ridiculous extent in the past few seasons, but it would be a huge mistake to leave Jefferson off the West roster.
I understand the push for Jefferson to be in the All Star game, especially after his monster game tonight. But there remains too much indifference in his defense. It is curious to me that Kevin Love has to pass some threshold to earn the starting lineup assignment while Jefferson–who has exhibited minimal improvement on D–needs no such threshold in that regard to become an All Star. The best argument for Jefferson to make it is the inclusion of Amare Stoudamire, who may in fact be among the ten worst low post defenders in the league. Boris Diaw was one of the latest to toast Amare, getting 26 and 11 against his old team the other night.
The headline is both true and unbelievable. Minnesota is 9-2 in January, the latest triumph an overtime victory against Chicago. Al Jefferson registered as the only Wolves starter in double figures. Luckily, he made them count: 39 points on 16-29 shooting, nine rebounds and just one turnover.

Al’s superhuman effort countered balanced play from the Bulls, which had six players with double-digit scoring. Joakim Noah might have had the best game of his pro career, notching 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks. Obviously, Jefferson scored on the Bulls bigs at will. But Noah got his, y’all.

 

Jonah Ballow/Timberwolves site previews tonight’s game at Milwaukee. Click here for the forum’s game thread.

 

Much has been made about how coaching isn’t something McHale really wants to do, and about the fact this situation seemed a lot like Glen Taylor saying you built this team, you coach it, but the recent play of this young team seems to indicate there is a decent amount of talent on the roster. On top of that, it also shows whatever McHale is doing it’s starting to work, although apparently at the expense of shooting star Mike Miller. The system would indicate a perfect fit for Miller’s talents – outside shooting, running the floor – but it hasn’t yet clicked for him.