"Bad night ... Tough game."
That was how Ricky Rubio began his tweet after the Timberwolves lost to Memphis Wednesday night.
It was a bad night and a tough game ... for Rubio, in particular. He had only one assist in the loss. That's the fewest assists of his young career.
Chances are, there will not be many games like that -- not as long as Kevin Love is in the lineup. Love makes Rubio better. And Rubio makes Love better.
And both of them make the Wolves better.
Love didn't play against Memphis. He didn't play against Sacramento the previous night, either. He was serving a two-game suspension for stepping on a Houston player's face.
What Love did was, obviously, a bad thing.
Out of that bad thing, though, came somewhat of a good thing: While Rubio struggled against Memphis, others had decent games and many of the Wolves learned against Sacramento they can pull together and win without Love.
Knowing how important Love is to the Wolves, nobody would have been surprised to see them lose both games during his suspension. But players such as Derrick Williams and Nikola Pekovic stepped up, especially against Sacramento.
And that was an important step in the development of this team.
There will be games when Love will struggle and others will need to take on bigger roles. That win over Sacramento let the Wolves know they can function and be successful without Love. And even that loss to Memphis showed they can be competitive without Love.
You watch what happens from here on out. The Wolves will be better because many of them had to be when their most important player couldn't play.
