If you turned off the Wolves' game shortly after halftime Monday night -- when the Wolves led by as many as 15 points and seemingly were headed to their fifth consecutive victory -- well, good for you...
Everything turned in a third quarter when the Wolves suddenly missed every shot from the paint that went them in the first half, when Big Baby Davis scored 12 of his game-high 28 points in the quarter, when the Magic turned the game with a 21-4 run over nearly eight minutes of that third quarter.
Just a few quick things for tonight:
* Here's the game story from Monday's game.
* Included in that game story -- and post-game locker room video that should be up by morning: Reality hit for Ricky Rubio, who played 16 1/2 minutes without having the big, loud Target Center to lift him up and he admittedly didn't feel -- or look -- nearly as he did the other night.
This time, he missed all three shots he attempted from the field, went scoreless, had four assists, three turnovers, two fouls and a steal on a night when the Wolves guards other than Luke Ridnour went 5-for-24.
Ridnour went 4-for-7, Alexey Shved 1-for-8 and J.J. Barea 4-for-13 in addition to Rubio's 0-for-3.
* Nikola Pekovic got looked at by Orlando doctors in the training room after the game, and a team spokesman said it was because of a sore back.
He played nearly 36 minutes on a night when the Wolves big dominated in the first half and Big Baby turned everything around in the second half by releasing every time the Wolves missed a shot -- which was often -- and beat everyone back down the floor for layups and dunks galore while Pekovic, Kevin Love and Andrei Kirilenko all were trying to hit the offensive glass.
* Love followed his 7-for-35 shooting performances the last two games by going 10-for-20 tonight for a 23-point, 15-rebound double-double, but only six of those 23 points came in a second half that Davis -- the bulkiest guy on the court, -- turned into a track meet.
* If you wondered by Shved barely in the fourth quarter while Barea played the entire 12 minutes, well, Shved's 1-for-8 shooting numbers probably played a factor even though Barea chucked up eight shots alone in the fourth himself and made only three.
* This was a game the Wolves needed because after tonight, they head into Christmas by playing the defending champion Heat Tuesday night in Miami, streaking Oklahoma City on Thursday and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
That four-game winning streak could turn into an equal losing one in a hurry.
* And remember, barring something unexpected, Rubio will not play Tuesday in Miami in an NBA TV game that fan voting picked for Tuesday fan night.
That's all from Orlando.
I'll be back tomorrow from Miami.
