Frustration levels came to a boiling point in the Timberwolves’ last-second loss to the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night at Target Center. Gerald Green, who spent the 2007-08 season with the Wolves drained the winning shot with 3.9 seconds left to play.
”We can’t have two guys sitting at the end of the bench that play good minutes just sitting there and not getting up during timeouts,” Love said after the game. ”We all need to be in this together. That kind of (ticks) me off. We’re supposed to be a team.”
Love didn’t name names, but he was clearly referring to J.J. Barea and Dante Cunningham. According to 1500 ESPN, Barea was visibly frustrated after he was sent to the bench midway through the fourth quarter.
“It’s to a point that where those two guys, if and when I did that last year when maybe I didn’t sit out for the game for 48 minutes and so on and so forth, they would have killed me,” Love said. “They would have aired me out. It’s two guys we expect more from them, and I think they expect more from themselves.”
“I’m not trying to single anybody out, and I don’t want to make it bigger than it is. That was a team we needed to beat tonight. Even guys that didn’t play any minutes, we need to have a team on the bench that’s really in it together.”
Jon Krawczynski writes that the Wolves are “anything but a team right now.”
Rubio didn’t have any answers for a late turnover he committed, telling FOX Sports North after the game, “I wish I knew what happened at the end.”
Minnesota will try to get back to .500 Friday against the Bobcats.
