DON’T MONKEY WITH THE OREGON GRINDER

Duck Calls to Love’s cel inspire him to score 26 and get 18 Rebounds, as Bruins make throbbing Oregon go limp in Love’s Homecoming, 80-75

Like the Incredible Hulk, you don’t want to get Kevin Love mad.  Love’s Father welcomed the obscene taunts from the Oregon Student Section at The Pit, because he knew that trying to get under Kevin’s skin is a bad strategy.   But not only did the Duck fans torment KLove at the game, they also got his cel phone number off the Internet, and harassed him off the Court as well, with non-stop threatening “Duck U.” calls and texts.

And then, Kevin Love proved his Dad right.

Love put on the performance of his career, scoring 26 Points, grabbing 18 Rebounds (a UCLA Freshman Record), and dominating the Paint throughout.  The Bruins started slowly, falling behind 7-0, but Love scored 7 of the game’s next 11 Points to bring the Bruins even.

The game stayed close, but the Ducks eeked out a lead going down the stretch.  Unlike the Bruins’ previous game, this game saw the Bruins RESPOND to adversity.  Darren Collison was the catalyst, with a Career-High 22 Points;  Russell Westbrook bounced back from his worst game ever with 15, and Nikola Dragovic hit a huge three-pointer that cut a late Duck 4-point lead down to 1.  Then a Westbrook Shot Block and Fast Break Lay-up gave the Bruins the lead, with 2 and a half minutes to go, and they never trailed again.

What made this win special?  Three things.  1.  It buried the demons of the previous loss at Oregon (as #1) and of the last game at Pauley;  2. It came in an intense atmosphere comparable to a Final Four in hostile territory;  3. The Bruins did it without Luc, Mata-Real, and Roll.  The well-conditioned Bruins were able to pull this off with basically only 7 Players (Stanback played, but for only 3 minutes, and didn’t score or get a Board).  The two Reserves who did contribute were Dragovic and James Keefe (who also hit a three), who BOTH were much-improved on Defense.

The win over the Ducks was the definition of “hard-fought,” with a 16-6 closing spurt being the diference between a happy ending, and another painful loss.  That, and the 1-and-Done-type performance by KLove, proving that juvenile pranks just roll off him like water off a Duck’s back.