After Monday night's dramatic 95-94 win over the L.A. Clippers, the Minnesota Timberwolves sit one game outside of the eighth and final spot in the West. This comes as a surprise to most fans of the NBA considering the Timberwolves finished dead last a season ago with a 17-65 record. This team is much different though. Ricky Rubio arrived and met all expectations; Derrick Williams (the Wolves #2 pick in 2011) has lived up to the hype, especially as of late; and Kevin Love has another year under his belt. That additional year has Love putting up, dare I say, MVP numbers. Alright, barring a catastrophic meltdown in the second half of the season, either LeBron James or Kevin Durant is going to win the MVP, but K-Love has got to be in the conversation out of respect.
Monday night marked the second consecutive game where Love posted 35+ points and 10+ rebounds. During both of those games, Love has had moments where he took control of the game. In Monday night's game, he hit a runner in the lane with just seconds remaining and it turned out to be the game winner. If nothing else, Kevin Love has arguably become the league's premier power forward and overshadowing the likes of Dirk Nowitzki, Blake Griffin, LeMarcus Aldridge, and Pau Gasol in head-to-head match-ups. The season, although shortened this year, is long and the "dog days" of March are here. The Timberwolves lead the league in attendance improvement, averaging 2,000 more fans per home game than they did last year and for good reason. At this point last year, Minnesota had already been mathematically eliminated, but this year is a different story, and for the first time in quite a while, fans are excited to see it play out.
Sources: ESPN.com, Timberwolves.com
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