A record night for Kevin Love
by Achilles on Mar 8, 2011 9:49 AM PST
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PrintA milestone night from Kevin Love was not enough for the Timberwolves to overcome the Mavericks, who held on for a 108-105 victory Monday in Minnesota.
Love scored 23 points and pulled down 17 boards to post his 51st double-double in a row, which is tied with Moses Malone in 1978-79 for the longest streak since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976. The Target Center was about as loud as it has gotten all season in the third quarter when Love extended his streak. He received a standing ovation and loud chants of "M-V-P! M-V-P!" as he shot free throws.
"I'd be jumping for joy if we were winning and everybody was playing great, including myself," Love said. "I'm just going out there and playing hard, and it is just kind of happening for me. But it is kind of an afterthought because we aren't winning."
Love’s feat is impressive, he’s racked up the numbers, but it’s questionable how meaningful it is.
Love’s feat is a testament to him being the league’s best rebounder — he is grabbing 23.7 percent of all rebounds when he is on the floor, the highest percentage in the league this season. Rebounds are about want and Love wants to get the ball.
Love’s feat is a testament to a fundamentally sound offensive game. He can drain the three — as he did to tie Malone’s record — but he has tremendous footwork that can get him buckets around the basket.
It’s a testament to consistency, bringing it every night.
Congratulations to big fella. Too bad he is playing for a terrible basketball team. May be he will get to join a better team in the future.
All of this is a great for UCLA basketball if UCLA chooses to market the daily success of Love and other Howland coached NBA players we are getting used to see shine on ESPN. Good luck to Kevin. Hope he gets the record tomorrow night when he takes on Darren Collison's Indiana.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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AWESOME
I am so happy for him. I wish they were winning more, but what an accomplishment. And he can break the record against a former teamate. I will have to TIVO that contest!
GO BRUINS!!!
"The entire world that bleeds blue and gold ... they have been dying for this." - Coach Rick Neuheisel
Keyword in that last paragraph is
“if”. We won’t, however. Because UCLA doesn’t market itself.
"Every day was a good day at UCLA." -Coach John Wooden
Bad basketball team
Good point about how utterly bad the T Wolfs are. Today (Tuesday) on Rome is Smoldering or Burning or Whatever, Jim Rome said some of KL’s detractors say sure he gets a rebounds, he’s the only player on his “team” who can or words to that effect. Rome counters with so what , KL gets the job done and has to fight through triple teams to score. Rome, who is not everybody’s cup o’ tea, is right on that.
Prediction (I’m never any good at these so hold your nose): KL and Clipper (and University of Oklahoma) star Blake Griffin will play together 3 years from now for the Lakers after Kobe hangs them up.
Look, I said just hold your nose—no reason to barf onto your computer screen. I’m no Nestor nor do I play him on TV but a KL-Griffin hookup makes sense and would be great to watch.
I agree with Rome
I think Love gets more points because he plays on a bad team, but his rebounding totals are all about effort.
I have seen some people argue that no one else on the Twolves can rebound. If that were so, I think it is fair to assume that the Twolves would lose the battle of the boards regularly. In actuality, the Twolves are outrebounding their opponents 45.2 vs. 42.4 rebounds per game. This the 4th highest rebounding differential in the league at +2.9.
If you gave 2nd leading rebounder Dwight Howard two more rebounds (to match Love’s 15.8), Orlando would still rebound less than Minnesota by 0.1. This just shows that just because the team has one phenomenal rebounder in Kevin Love, it doesn’t mean the other players aren’t doing their part on the boards as well.
If the bad team argument were true
Chris Bosh would have had 45 and 30 a night with the Raptors and Brook Lopez would be getting 30 and 30 every night. The “bad team” fallacy does not mitigate hard work.
"Every day was a good day at UCLA." -Coach John Wooden
Yeah bad team argument is crap.
If it held true, the record would already be broken, tons of bad teams every year.
I saw this this morning on ESPN, and I'm proud of the guy.
I know he doesn’t need my approval, but how awesome is that? That is a long standing record. Forget the detractors, whenever someone can break a record that has stood as long as this one has it is a major accomplishment.
Go Bruins!
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
+1
The whole argument that he broke the record b/c his team is bad needs to go away asap. It should be even harder to break the record on a losing team when there is more focus on a the few good players. The Lakers for one, really tried to keep hi off the boards, but his effort is incredible!
Grats Kevin, this record isn’t a joke, awesome work!
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