Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 at 10:25 am  |  73 responses

Kevin Love: ‘This is My Time Right Now’


After taking down Blake Griffin and the visiting Los Angeles Clippeers last night, Timberwolves star forward Kevin Love was feelin’ himself, and with good reason. The Star Tribune explains: “This, Kevin Love said afterwards, is his time. But what does that mean? After he scored 39 points in a 95-94 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night at Target Center, in front of the Timberwolves’ sixth sellout crowd this season, Love explained. Others had played well for the Wolves coming out of the All-Star break. ‘The past two games, it’s been my time,’ he said. Guess so. Saturday, Love scored 42 at Portland. Monday, he fell a point short of becoming the first Wolves player with back-to-back 40-point games. Guess he’ll have to settle for his 13th game with 30 or more. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Love became the first player in NBA history to record 35 points, 10 rebounds and hit five three-pointers in consecutive games. In the continuing sage of Love’s ever-expanding game, we’re seeing another step — consistent crunch-time production, putting the team on his shoulders and bulling his way to victories. In a relentlessly physical game against a Clippers team that never quit, Love opened the game with 16 first-quarter points, then ended it with nine in the fourth quarter, including six of the Wolves’ final seven. The last two came on a drive into the lane with 43.4 seconds left that gave the Wolves a 95-90 lead.”

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  • charliewinning

    Superstardom is based on popularity, not play. It really isn’t that hard to grasp. Duncan is an all-time great, but he isn’t and wasn’t a superstar. Superstars are known even by non-fans. Yes, he was a vastly better player than Vince, Tmac, and Garnett but those guys were more marketable. In general superstardom doesn’t always mean superior talent. Basketball isn’t an exception. For every superstar singer, athlete, actor, and rapper there are far more talented people who do what superstars do better. Talent and skill don’t always equal superstardom. Unfortunately, substance is only a small part of massive popularity. Look at Yao Ming. International basketball superstar, but a very mediocre player. No company would have paid Duncan the $75 million Yao got from Reebok despite the fact that Yao couldn’t hold a candle to Duncan basketball wise.

  • Dingo Rob

    It wasn’t long ago Love and Bogut were on the same level so I’ve watched closely and admired the rise of Kevin Love. I hope this inspires Andrew also and gives him strength during these tough times.

  • dazzy

    Superstars make themselves and others a lot of money. That’s not always true of those great at their craft. Tom Cruise can light up the box office. Daniel Day Lewis can act circles around him. Rihanna sells records. Grab damn near any church choir broad and they’ll sing circles around her. Duncan has won rings and puts on viruoso performances at his position. Blake will likely end his career with less real achievments but more popularity amongst your average sports fan. Is it fair? Not really, but it’s reality.

  • logues

    Max: so i guess kobe wasn’t an elite player when the lakers were .500 for a few couple seasons

  • http://www.t-mac.com/tmac/index unf*ckwitable

    Tim Duncan is a superstar, if you try to tell me otherwise i will slap you.

  • RedRum

    I would like to see how many rings the supposed superstars like Griffin, Love, Lebron et al will have when they finish their career. I would also put kobe in that discussion, as although he has 5 rings, the first three are Shaq’s, not his.

  • startown

    Love is better than Aldridge

  • http://www.nba.com Red

    Lol @white people getting upset over the white superstar line. Lebron can play PF wtf. Do you not see him shutting Gasol down smh.

  • l2ising Phoenix

    Tim Duncan not/wasn’t a superstar? Are u kidding me? Back in his hayday EVERYONE KNEW WHO TIMMY WAS. I was a 10 year old kid when I became a timmy fan. The dude was a downright leader and was a beast.. offensively , defensively, FUNDAMENTALLY, sure he didn’t garner the fav player status as of the likes of iverson or Kobe, but nevertheless EVERYONE who knows ball, knows about TIMMY. And if u don’t, you gotta be at least 15 years old. Growing up, I didn’t want the handles/flashiness that iverson & Kobe had… I worked on my post game, modeled it after timmys. I was abusing kids down low and I was only 5 ’10 . My best TD memory was when he forced OT against the suns in the playoffs with a 3!

  • l2ising Phoenix

    On topic: k love is the best pf in the league, aldrige is a close second, I say this because Love straight up abused the blazers frontcourt a couple nights ago. Proud of this man. Commin out of UCLA , Nobody seen this progression comming. The wolves is serious.

  • hushabomb

    LeBron is a brand name 1st, basketball player 2nd. Duncan is a basketball player 1st, brand name 2nd. The same can be said for Kevin Love. And working out with Rose and Westbrook means that this type of progress was coming. All 3 have had great seasons so far. Let’s not get into colour. Let’s call Kevin Love an up and coming player who deserves all this praise due to hard work and diligence (not to mention Rubio)

  • http://slamonline.com Tae

    Best PF ever? Honestly, rings aside how many people thinks Duncan is better than Malone?

  • Da-Meat-Hook

    I don’t get how people try to group KLove with Dwight and then casually throw in the “minus the defensive dominance”. Living in Toronto, I can’t tell you how often I hear “Bargnani is a top 3 center in the league, minus the defense and rebounding and help defense”. Or the “Steve Nash is a top 5 pg of all time, minus the whole defensive liability thing”. I’m not sure if i’m just old school, but I find way to many individual place little if any emphasis on the defensive side of the ball as criteria for measuring greatness.

  • manu

    duncan got a near quadruple double in the winning game in the nba finals….hes a superstar

    and klove is better than griffin. people hate on him yet hes leading the wolves with a bunch of no name young guns into the playoffs….

    griffin had a bunchh of youngns last year…they almost finished last

  • manu

    klove is 3-0 against griffin this year…hit a game winner on his azz…outperformed him every time and still gets no love…this is dumb hes clearly the best pf in the game

  • http://dsjfkl.com Jukai

    Tae: Skill wise, Duncan gets the edge because of his massively superior defense. But it’s close. Obviously, when you factor in stuff like team success, Duncan skyrockets.

  • will

    heck, he is still highly underrated and does not get anywhere near the attention he deserves. i think mainly because of the t-wolves record and he isnt a showpony.. but definitely the best and most versatile PF out at the moment. 3 point shootout winner proves this

  • http://www.nesn.com/2012/02/kobe-bryant-says-hes-better-than-michael-jordan-second-to-wilt-chamberlain-as-best-nba-player-ever-v.html shutup

    I think Duncan is better than Malone hands down, and many people might disagree but I feel McHale was better than Malone and Barkley is right there with him.

  • RedRum

    The problem with evaluating Duncan is that people see only one side of the court and forget how good of a defender Duncan was. He was probably the best post defender ever. And before people start crying, you have to see Duncan play live to understand what he did for defence. Not only he could block, shut down his man, probably play the best help defense the game has ever seen, he was the main communicator, directing the defense non-stop, telling players where to go, how to move, where to back up. And each call was the absolutely correct, he could see two-three plays ahead what was going to happen. I have only seen Jordan do that this efficiently. As a coach, a player like that would be my wet dream.

  • RedRum

    I have also seen Malone, Barcley and McHale play. Let me just tell you that they do not even come close to what TD did. If anything, they are probably the PF who are considered stars and have played the worst defense I have ever seen… so no, it is not even close how much better TD is than all them. As for the KLove issue. Same applies. Great rebounder, great scorer, plays absolutely no defense. Griffin I would say is a better defender, so at this point I would take Griff over KLove.

  • The Truth

    One of the most underrated players in the NBA, he’s a straight BEAST!!!!

  • http://www.optimabbc.be Max

    Logues cmon now, The Wolves from now without Love are clearly better than the Lakers were without Kobe. If next year the Wolves win 50 I’ll consider him elite.

  • http://www.nesn.com/2012/02/kobe-bryant-says-hes-better-than-michael-jordan-second-to-wilt-chamberlain-as-best-nba-player-ever-v.html shutup

    @redrum I agree 100% that Duncan is head and shoulders ahead of the pack, but to put Malone at #2 is just wrong I think McHale is #2 Malone and Barkley share 3/4

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