Promoted FanPost

A few years ago I watched a Celtics Mavs game where Kevin Garnett just murdered Dirk Nowitzki. I mean no-regard-for-human-life destroyed him. But when the game was over, Dirk somehow had 18 points. Sure enough, when I watched Sportscenter that night, they gave KG credit for a good game but said that Dirk was right there with him in scoring even on an off night. And it bugged me, because I'd watched the game and KNEW that KG had dominated the match-up. It bugged me enough that I looked at the play-by-play, and what do you know, Garnett DID destroy him when they were on the court together (23 points on 11/17 FG for KG to 6 points on 2/9 FG for Dirk in 24 minutes), but when KG was on the bench Dirk had gone nuts on the back-ups to the tune of 12 points in 13 minutes.

After that, every so often, I'll check out the play-by-play to see how opponents are REALLY doing against KG. You may or may not remember that during the 2010 playoffs I posted about Garnett's Shutouts, how when he was on the court he was dominating his match-ups.

Well, after tonight's game against the Timberwolves when I once again witnessed Garnett demolish an opponent (Kevin Love) only to see all of the highlight reels pointing out Love ending up with 22 and 11, I decided to take another glance at the play-by-play to see how the game really went. And since this game came right on the heels of KG seemingly beating up on Al Jefferson, I decided to check out that one as well. The results? You can probably guess by now...

KG and Big Al were on-court together for 21 minutes and 54 seconds:

Jefferson: 8 points, 3/9 FG (40.5% TS%), 6 reb, -9

Garnett: 16 points, 7/11 FG (67.3% TS), 7 reb, +9

KG and Love were on-court together for 26 minutes and 33 seconds:

Love 8 points, 2/9 FG (38.8% TS), 8 reb, -11

Garnett: 18 points, 9/15 FG (60% TS), 9 reb, +11

Once again, Big Al and K-Love found ways to get their numbers when Garnett went to the bench and make it seem like they were somewhat respectable with double-doubles. That may fool the hosts on Sportscenter, but don't let it fool you. Garnett UNLOADED on his two younger counterparts in the last two games...and don't let anyone tell you different.

*(I did these numbers by hand from the play-by-play, so it's not official. I certainly welcome anyone going back and double-checking my work.)