Kevin Love Says “F*** Him” In Response To Tyson Chandler’s Criticism Of His D

On Wednesday this week, the Knicks finally snapped a seven-game losing streak when they went into Minnesota and beat the ‘Wolves, 118-106. But at halftime of that game, Tyson Chandler informed a reporter Kevin Love “Can’t play D.” While many of our readers agreed with the sentiment, Love had some pretty harsh words when asked about it today.

Here’s what Love said, by way of Fox Sports North’s Phil Ervin:

Kevin Love, in response to Tyson Chandler's comments about his defense: “F*** him. I don't give a s***.”

— Phil Ervin (@PhilErvin) March 7, 2014

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

But before you freak out about the roiling beef escalating between the former Olympic teammates, Ervin had this to add:

Again, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler are friends, guys. There's probably at least a little jest behind both men's words.

— Phil Ervin (@PhilErvin) March 7, 2014

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

So, yeah, we’re pretty sure Love was just messing around when he cursed Chandler out. Or, maybe, he really did take it personally.

We looked at Love’s defense a couple weeks ago when we were trying to figure out if he needed new teammates more than Carmelo Anthony. He is not the defensive rim presence that Chandler is, that’s for sure. Chandler was the NBA’s 2012 DPOY primarily because of his ability to protect the iron, but that’s not all a big man must do on defense. As a whole, as we showed, the ‘Wolves get scored on less when Love is on the court and Love’s ability to rebound on the defensive end is a big part of any successes the ‘Wolves have encountered this year on the court.

Without a more reliable individual defensive metric, you have to go to the eye test, too, which Love can sometimes fail. But Kevin gives a crap on the defensive end, and that’s 75 percent of the battle for offensive-intensive players at the NBA level.

But, again, Tyson and Kevin are buddies, so this little back-and-forth is them just messing with each other and, as a result, us.