One negative observation last night

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I was feeling a little euphoric last night after two great games at Staples, that I neglected to report one downer.

First, I was able to garner a great seat last night...right across from the Wolves bench so I could watch team interaction. On the positive side, Turiaf and AJ Price look like fabulous guys. Price rapping along with the timeout music and trying to get Hummel to rap with him was (ahem) price-less...there's an outside chance Robbie didn't know the lyrics! Plus it was interesting to observe Love, Rubio and Berea's leadership and intensity.

But a big negative was Shabazz. I know I reported surprising interaction by Muhammad on Sunday night, but Monday was a completely different story. During the pre-game shootaround, he was disinterested and spent his time clanking lazy three pointers. But during the game, his behavior really got bizarre. He watched almost none of the game, and spent most of it with his hand on his forehead looking down at the floor. He looked depressed. I wondered whether he was sick or had just received some really bad news. But I think it's more likely that he knew he wasn't going to get any playing time for a "home" game in front of friends and family, and he was showing his displeasure. Whatever it was, it was really odd. He might have been the only person in the arena not enjoying that game!

Part of me respects the side of Muhammad that won't accept being relegated to the bench. He has always been a star and has a burning desire to compete. But I worry that he has the potential to become a team cancer. I don't know, maybe it was just a bad night...but I'd be interested in hearing from Lip how Shabazz looks Wednesday night.

One other probably meaningless point: During the pre-game layup drill, the Wolves were having fun with a dunk fest...even Muhammad loosened up to show a couple flashy dunks. It was especially fun to see Rubio dunk, because I have never seen him do that before. Surprising hops! But the one guy (other than JJ) who didn't dunk was Pek, who instead just did a traditional layup every time. It occurred to me that I have never seen Pek dunk in a game, which can be especially frustrating when he misses a close in shot where a dunk was available to him. Is it possible that Pek can't dunk, or is it just that he doesn't? And if so, why not? Has anyone ever seen Pek dunk before?

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

There's plenty of times that I've seen Pek dunk. He can certainly do it. Two hand jams most of the time when he's the trailer on a fastbreak or even a simple play where he comes down with an offensive board and goes up strong with two hands to flush it down. You've seen it before LST, you've just forgotten. All it takes to find out is watch a Ricky Rubio highlight video on YouTube. I guess he'd prefer going with layups, however. I don't know his reason for not dunking more. There's times where I want a "Pek Smash" and he misses an easy layup. But on fastbreaks and he's got a running start, you'll see him take a funky hop step and throw it down. A guy that big dunking is crazy.

As for Shabazz, I'd assume he was disgruntled that he didn't get any minutes in front of the hometown crowd. Pair that with his tourettes and I can understand why he looked that way. Hopefully he just keeps trying to get better at basketball. Everything will come around after that.

[BloopOracle]

I'd be crabby too if Alexi got minutes and I didn't

[markkbu [enjin:6588958]]

I'd be crabby too if Alexi got minutes and I didn't

LOL....be nice!

[Eitan]

Long, Offcourse Pek can dunk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX0-nPOpXzM

and:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqke9iE19O0

I guess he was just trying to avoid unnecessary injuries during a pre-game.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

LOL. thanks for the reminders that Pek can indeed dunk. Does look familiar now! Just odd to see him in the JJ non-dunking group in practice, but he was probably just conserving his energy after a long night against the Lakers.

[WildWolf2813]

We really do have to be delicate regarding Muhammad. I'd rather have a guy upset he can't contribute than a player so happy he's goofing off. If anything, Muhammad's attitude is what this team has needed for a long time. As long as he gets to take it out on his opponent and not the team and so far nobody has had any complaints.