I remarked to someone before tonight, er, last night’s game that if Chauncey Billups had a big game for Denver, it would be a good game story to write. However, this was before I knew the Nuggets’ star would take a side seat to his team getting to the free throw line 23 more times than the Wolves. Twenty-three times.

So you’ll read all about that in tomorrow, er, today’s Star Tribune.

Coach Wittman after the game was good not to knock all the whistles against his team. Instead, it was all about giving credit to Denver for being aggressive, driving to the hoop and getting the calls. With Al Jefferson double-teamed most of the night, the Wolves in turn didn’t penetrate the lane. Instead, they settled for jump shots. And it cost them. I would expect a lot of aggressive play Monday in Charlotte.

Randy Foye had a good night for Minnesota, as did Kevin Love. Perhaps I had something to do with Love’s night

I talked with the rookie before the game for an early notebook I had to file for Sunday’s paper. Love seemed kind of down. He admitted that the first 14 games of his pro career weren’t the greatest and that he is just hoping to learn as much as he can every day. This was about an hour before tip, and already Love seemed  to be a little beaten up. Emotionally, anyway. Well - maybe he was destined to turn it around. Nothing seemed to affect him once the game got going. He earned his first career double-double against the Nuggets, playing a particularly sound first half.

One quick observation: I know there is a book out there on this subject, but I wonder if anyone has ever looked at which NBA team has the most collective tattoos? I’ve only seen a handful of teams in my little bit of watching NBA teams this season. I would say Denver has to be in the running for tops (especially now that Dennis Rodman is out of the league; and even without A.I. on the team anymore). Chris Andersen and Kenyon Martin alone, I would bet, have more ink than the Timberwolves’ entire team.

Finally - even if he doesn’t read this blog, I would like to thank Rashad McCants for not spraying talc powder all over my computer. Prior to him checking into the game in the second quarter for the second time tonight, he got all set with a palm full. We had a brief stare-down, me covering a glass of diet Pepsi and he with a smirk. The smirk became a smile, though, and he simply wiped his hands on his jersey. Whew.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 12:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.