Pencil them in as the sixth or seventh seed. Too much youth and skill to be denied in a shortened seasons. The NBA is back BABY!! And thankfully we were able to watch five games on Christmas. Nothing spells C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S like NBA, they just go hand-in-hand. When I think Christmas I think family, friends, tree smell, good eats, wine, beer, brandy, vodka and NBA. The condensed schedule will help the Wolves because of their young legs. Rubio will be an all star, if not this year, then next, and every year after that. If Beasely can buy into a team concept idea we will be fine. He's the wild card. But they returned just in time, because the Wild are crashing back to earth and I'm sick of watching a sport in which I don't know the rules.

Pooh Richardson will help them in the playoffs.

A little family outing put me in Fitzgerald Gymnasium last night, home of the Loyola Crusaders girls basketball game, for first round action in the Crusader Classic. So the other team shows with only four players (seriously), and they play two 18-minute halves of running time.

So I get to the car and tune to the Wolves radio network. After all, never before has a narrow season opening defeat against a team that played the night before and traveled overnight from Oklahoma to Minnesota generated so much positivity. And what does the prouncer pronounce? I tune in at the end of a stretch in which Milwaukee finished turning a 12-point halftime lead into a 20-point lead. The Wolves had 21 turnovers at the time 35 minutes into the game, that's 2 turnovers every 3.5 minutes, for a professional basketball team.

Anyone agree we should have Evolution stop production of the "Minnesota Timberwolves 2011-12 Playoff Qualifier" t-shirts? And don't come on here with the lame moral victory BS about how they cut it to three and had a chance to tie.

OK, I stayed up last night to catch some of the Wolves game. Did anybody see the display Beasely put on in the fourth quarter? the Wolves bench outscored the Clippers bench 72-9 or something like that. For real. Derrick Williams (rookie?) and this Beasely were amazing. It was a perfect demonstration of what I love and hate about pro basketball. Wolves trail for much of game, but Williams and Beasely spark about a 40-18 run to end the game, Love was out with a back twist and Rubio was to the bench after struggling to throw the ball through a hoola hoop. It was laughable, the performance of Beasely (and Rubio's attempts to shoot, I suppose). Trade deadline in two weeks, be interesting to see what happens to Beasely. Must've scored some chronic out there on the West Coast.

From the NBA website -

HOT: Williams, a 6-foot-8 rookie forward who played at La Mirada High School in southern L.A. county, nearly doubled his previous season high of 15 points. He finished 9-for-10 from the floor, including 4-for-4 from 3-point range and sank all five free-throw attempts. Beasley was 11-for-15 from the floor. Williams and Beasley each scored 13 points in the deciding fourth quarter and were a combined 8-for-8 from the floor ... Blake Griffin scored 30 points for the Clippers, including 24 in the first half, the best half of any player on the Clippers this season.