Wolves 109, Bulls 108: Don't forget Bassy

The easy angles are as follows:

1. Wolves miss their first 11 shots, trail by 16 points at one point and come back to beat the Bulls in OT. Heck the Bulls led by seven with less than five minutes to go.

2. Big Al was a total monster, going for 39 and nine. Helps solidify his case to be a Western Conference All-Star

3. K-Love continues to get better. He plays a career-high 33 minutes. His 19 points are one off of his rookie best. His 15 rebounds equal his best.

But I don't want to talk about any of that. Some of it is because there will be plenty of places where you can read about Big Al killing. But some of it is that the Wolves don't win this game without Sebastian Telfair.

No, I'm not crazy. Here's why:

Bassy played very good defense both at the end of the regulation and at the end of overtime. With the ball and a chance to win at both the end of the fourth and overtime, Bulls PG Derrick Rose had the ball on both occasions. And why not? Barring injury, Rose seems to be a lock for rookie of the year, he's super quick and is strong enough to get to the hole.

At the end of regulation, Bassy contested Rose's 17-footer. While he got some help on the play, Telfair had his had in Rose's face and forced the rookie to take an off-balance shot. At the end of overtime, the stronger Rose tried to post-up Bassy on the right block. Bassy forced him to go left where Rose had to deal at least a little with the backboard. The shot didn't fall and after the ball bounced around a little, the horn sounded and the Wolves won for the 10th time in their last 14 games.

But Bassy's contribution was about more than helping to hold Rose scoreless over the last 5:10 of regulation and all of overtime. He also kept them in the game early. Telfair scored all nine of his points in the first quarter and played a big role in keeping the Wolves in the game. He seemed to be the only guy who had any jump and without him, the initial hole would have been even deeper.

Big Al and K-Love were very good against the Bulls and deserve a ton of credit. But the Wolves probably don't win without Bassy.