Dec 20, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love (42) drives to the basket in the second half past Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant (35) Thunder at Target Center. The Timberwolves won 99-93. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Love is out with what the ‘Wolves are calling an eye injury.

In Minnesota’s win over Oklahoma City on Thursday, Love grabbed a offensive rebound late in the fourth quarter

was inadvertently poked in the eye in the process. While Love attempted to grab the rebound against three smaller Thunder defenders, he was fouled on the play by Reggie Jackson and poked in the left eye by former UCLA teammate Russell Westbrook.

After the game, he told reporters he wasn’t sure how severe the eye injury was but he was going to have it checked out by the team’s training and medical staff shortly after. Minnesota’s PR department confirmed that Love wouldn’t play against the Knicks.

#Twolves @kevinlove did not practice today because of an eye injury sustained vs OKC. Will not make the trip to New York.

— Timberwolves PR (@Twolves_PR) December 22, 2012

That is huge news for the Knicks, who aren’t a very good rebounding team to begin with.

While I love to watch Love play, I definitely didn’t want to see another 30-30 type of game from him against the Knicks.

Minnesota head coach Rick Adelman hasn’t named a replacement in the starting lineup for Love but his two options are pretty much Dante Cunningham and Derrick Williams. Cunningham has one start in Love’s place this season and Williams has started nine games this season.

Love has missed 10 games so far this season due to a broken hand, the flu, and now his eye injury. The Wolves are 6-4 in games without Love and 7-7 when he does play.

Minnesota has been the most banged up team in the NBA this season, but won’t get any sympathy from the Knicks, who have had to deal with plenty of injuries of their own.

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Looking at the 110-63 final score, you would guess that Team USA owned Tunisia from the start, but that wasn’t the case at all, at least not until Coach K went to the bench.

After a surprisingly close first half that saw the Americans enter the locker room with only a 13-point lead, Coach K started his second unit to begin the second half. With the likes of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant on the bench, Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Andre Iguodala opened the third quarter with a 21-3 run that all but ended the game.

Anthony in particular was impressive, leading Team USA with 16 points, not missing a shot on the day. Melo went 6-for-6 from the floor, including knocking down both of his shots from behind the arc and both of his attempts from the charity stripe.

Led by Anthony and Love, who scored 16 apiece, Team USA’s bench outscored the starters 80-30.

Kevin Durant was the only American starter to reach double figures (13), while Anthony, Love, Westbrook, Anthony Davis (12), Westbrook (11) and James Harden (10), all reached double figures in scoring.

Team USA led by only five late in the first half, thanks to some awful perimeter shooting. The Americans missed all eight 3-pointers in the first, even worse than their 0-for-6 start Sunday, before Anthony drained one to open the second quarter. The Americans were 17 of 22 (77 percent) on 2-pointers in the first half, but missed 10 of their 12 3-point shots. They didn’t need to worry about 3s much in the second half as after the second unit opened the game up, it turned into the dunk-fest that many expected.

The Knicks were well represented in this one as in addition to Melo’s perfect day from the floor, Tyson Chandler made all three of his attempts from the floor and finished with six points and six rebounds.

Team USA will be back at it on Thursday when they face Nigeria.

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After the Cleveland game where I got another DNP – Coach’s decision, I have read – yet another time – that Mozgov is losing is losing the trust of the coach.

I’ll say this: on my part there’s no panic!

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Before Darko came to the Knicks last season, he worked on his "Blue Steel" look. This summer he decided instead to work on his game. Turns out that was more useful. Go figure.

Former bench boy Knick Darko Milicic returned to New York with his new team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, hoping to issue another beat down.  Antony Marino had this to say about it:

Just sixty minutes before one of the great disasters in American aviation history, the New York Knicks—victorious in nine out of ten games—prepared for payback against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Whether it is more obviously absurd that the Knicks had accomplished this brilliant feat or that any NBA team should have to avenge a loss to the hapless Wolves, I cannot say. Nevertheless, it was sure to be a winnable game, and with the soft underbelly of the 2010 schedule fading fast, it was a game the Knicks had to have.

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Blake Griffin had the game of his life, but the Knicks happily had the game. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

With two victories over the weekend against the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, the Knicks have managed to pull themselves up to being tied for seventh in the East.  Our 3-1 record on the road trip was, amazingly (and depressingly), the best we’ve done on the road since 1998.  Yes, during it we beat two of the league’s weaker teams (the Kings & Clips), and the Warriors were missing one of their best players (our former fan-fave, David Lee).  However, keep in mind that previously we had been losing to those weaker teams, even ones missing top players (the Sixers without Andre Iguodala, and the Rockets without Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks).  The results were so different than the early part of the season, that it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s Memorex.  So who are we?

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Is this the look Mike D'Antoni gives his players when they ask him a question about defense? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Another post from new Buckets writer Joshua Sage, saying we shouldn’t be blinded by our last three wins ‘cuz they only further proved we need a new coach who preaches defense:

The New York Knicks defeated the LA Clippers Saturday night, led by Danilo Gallinari and Amar’e Stoudemire in the final quarter. Now that bit of good news will be the only thing on most New Yorkers’ minds today. I, on the other hand, will be spending some time thinking of reasons why the Knicks haven’t fired Mike D’Antoni yet.

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Learn the Facts and Fiction behind the Knicks' failure, including the true key factor that took Kevin Love's game to the next level (nope, it wasn't his scoring or his rebounding). (Source: Yardbarker.com)

The Knicks’ slow start to the season seemed ripe for a turnaround over the weekend since they’d be playing against two teams (the Minnesota Timberwolves and Houston Rockets) that had only won two games each and had both looked pretty dang crappy so far.  The Twolves had lost their two starting point guards (Luke Ridnour and Jonny Flynn) to injury, plus for some reason coach Kurt Rambis had been refusing to play his best player (Kevin Love) for more than 24 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Rockets were struggling to form an identity with franchise player Yao Ming not playing in back-to-back games and only appearing in limited minutes.  Were they a group that played through the post in a slow-it-down half court approach, or a jump shooting squad?  With them also losing their starting point guard (Aaron Brooks) and their backup point (Kyle Lowry) having only played one game since returning from back injury, we couldn’t have wished for better set-ups.  On Friday night, the Knicks were up 21 points on the Twolves and it looked like everything would work out.  Less than 48 hours later it had become clear we are in serious crisis mode.

This being New York, of course, utter despair has kicked in, boos have been bombarded, and every little thing has been declared as “the problem.”  No doubt we have many issues, but let’s separate the Fact from the Fiction:

1.  Poor Defense – Fiction

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The Knicks may've lost to the TWolves, but Wilson Chandler may've proved his worth after his lackluster training camp performance. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Playing in Paris, the new-look Knicks’ first game against a NBA opponent, resulted in them coming in second place to the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves, 106-100.  Many people (including yours truly) feel that this year the TWolves could be the worst team in the league, so it ain’t a great sign that we lost to ‘em.  Still, as it is pre-season, just as one can’t read too much into our win on Monday against Milan, neither can ya read too much into a loss here.  Then again, we’ve got nuthin’ better to do, so let’s voice our concerns, knowing full well that by the next game they may be obsolete.

Except for the rooks (oh, and all the healthy players got minutes today), pretty much everyone else looked worse than in the first game.  Amar’e Stoudemire managed only 11 points on 36% shooting.  Will that bring back out all the nay-sayers who said he’d struggle without Steve Nash giving him easy feeds.  I hope not.  Two games does not a sample size make.

The turnovers were lower (19) than last game, but still not low enough.  The two other main issues I brought up also came back to haunt us in this outing:

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Derrick Rose helped the US escape today's game against Brazil with a win. What concerns lie ahead though? (Source: Yardbarker.com)

With the FIBA World Championship Tournament in Turkey now completing its third day, the US squad squeaked past Brazil to now be 3-0.  During the run-up to the tournament, the team had looked better and better as they scrimmaged against other countries.  The pitiful looking team that only barely scraped by against a seriously undermanned French team, managed to not only come out strong against co-favorite Spain, but to even maintain their cool and snatch the one-point win when things got tight in the end.  Before that game, although bookmakers had the US listed as the favorites, everyone in the know (including many big-time USA supporters) had Spain as the true team to beat.  So things look more hopeful now, but there are still 3 big issues to overcome.

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Andrew Bogut, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, David Lee, Kevin Love, Troy Murphy, Steve Nash, Joakim Noah, Chris Paul, Zach Randolph, Gerald Wallace and Deron Williams.

Me, I was surprised to learn that Gerald Wallace has averaged over 10 rebounds a game this season, but what surprised Ridiculous was the one player I hid:

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With a few of them likely to sit out this summer so they don’t injure themselves before they get a new contract (in other words the guys the Knicks would chase after: LeBron, Wade, Bosh, plus A’mare Stoudamire who made the pool too), it does provide some openings.  Not to mention that say a banged up Kobe might need to take the summer off to get his body healthy again.  Of course, included in those free agents-to-be are none other than David Lee, so he himself might have to bow out.  Oh, and another thing in Lee’s favor is that once again the Knicks’ coach Mike D’Antoni will be one of the assistant coaches on the USA team.  It’s always nice having someone on the inside to help plead your case.

Anyway, the remaining invitees include the Denver Nuggets’ Chauncey Billups, LA Lakers’ Lamar Odom, plus a who’s-who of all the young and upcoming players in the NBA according to ESPN: the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant (pretty much a lock to make the final roster since he almost made it last time and he’s only gotten better), Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose,

Minnesota‘s Al Jefferson and Kevin Love; Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo of Memphis; Philadelphia‘s Andre Iguodala; Boston‘s Kendrick Perkins; Indiana‘s Danny Granger; New York‘s David Lee; New Jersey center Brook Lopez; Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook; Portland‘s LaMarcus Aldridge; Charlotte‘s Gerald Wallace; and Clippers guard Eric Gordon.

The Americans will choose a group from the roster to take part in their minicamp in Las Vegas in July. They are expected to play an exhibition game in New York before heading to Turkey for the world championships, which they haven’t won since 1994.