Kevin Love had a lot of people rushing to his defense — including us here at PBT — after he sat out the final eight minutes of a one-point loss to Sacramento Wednesday. Rambis took some hits for playing Anthony Tolliver over Love down the stretch.
But while the Internet was doing what the Internet does — overreacting to one game then watching a cat playing a piano — Love and Rambis were hugging it out.
Well, there may not have been actual hugs involved, but Rambis and Love talked and said it was all good between them, according to the Star Tribune.
“If he wasn’t frustrated, I would be significantly more concerned,” Rambis said. “I want players who believe they should be on the floor for all 48 minutes.”
“Defensively, we had lapses the whole game,” Love said. “In that situation, Anthony (Tolliver) was playing great down the stretch. You have to give credit to him and the rest of the guys on the floor.”
“I talked to Kurt,” Love said. “I’m fine with it. I don’t want to use this as a telling tale for the whole season. I know I forced and rushed a lot of shots. We all were trying to play great because it was opening night, but it didn’t work out for a lot of us.”
Love was not having a great game at either end of the floor, but the question was more a philosophical one about keeping your best player on the floor in crunch time, about giving he the chance to lead.
But this may be a moot issue going forward — Minnesota just lost at home to a Sacramento team playing without it’s best player (Tyreke Evans). The Wolves keep playing like that and there won’t be a lot of crunch time this season to worry about.