There's certainly credit to be given for Brad Stevens and the Boston Celtics, however tonight's loss was more the Wolves losing than the Celtics winning. There's absolutely no way that the Wolves should lose that game and there's absolutely no way the Wolves should lose a game vs. an Eastern Conference opponent (not located in Miami or Indiana).
Tonight's loss is the first time the Wolves have lost a game in which they held an opponent under 45%. The Celtics shot 44.2% and the unfortunate news is that they didn't shoot a low percentage because the Wolves played good defense. They still allowed a lot of interior baskets on easy drives to the rim. Adelman played Gorgui Dieng for 13 minutes and during that time he definitely shored up some of those concerns. The questions continue, why doesn't he play more?! Especially with Ronny Turiaf still in his streets. That leads to another question...basically the same one, why doesn't Shabazz Muhammad ever play? I understand he struggled in the Vegas Summer League, but for a team that's in dire need of scoring, why can't we even get a look at him in non-garbage time minutes? That being said, the bench probably played their best game of the season tonight. Unfortunately it was overshadowed by the fact the Wolves were without Kevin Martin, that Rubio's offense has eluded him once more and Corey Brewer & Nikola Peković couldn't even finish off wide open dunks! As a result, Kevin Love was asked to do nearly everything and despite his 27 points & 14 rebounds, he shot just 35% from the field on 9-for-26 shooting. The Wolves bench scored a season-high 45 points, led by 12 from Dante & 10 apiece from Barea & Shved. Unfortunately, with the good comes the bad. With J.J. playing fairly well, that meant Ricky Rubio was on the bench when the game was on the line. Rubio played just 22 minutes to Barea's 27. Despite Rubio's poor shooting, I'd much rather have him on the floor than J.J. Because it has been proven time and time again--he just doesn't know how to play in the final minutes of a close game. Barea tries to play hero ball and we're all left shaking our heads! Tonight he jacked up a terrible leaning three-pointer with 24 seconds to play with the Wolves down 94-95. The Wolves had the defensive board on the previous possession with 41 seconds to play which meant that Barea burnt 17 seconds off the clock before jacking up that terrible shot. What he should have done was work quickly to get a shot at the rim and thus a 2-for-1 opportunity. Instead, J.J. missed, the corralled the rebound and the Wolves had to play the "foul game". That very rarely works in the Wolves favor and the end result was Boston going 6-for-8 from the line over those final 20 seconds for the 97-101 loss. Dante Cunningham went down with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter and did not return. Without Dante, Mbah a Moute & Dieng will likely see a bump in minutes and we could even see some of Robbie Hummel at the stretch four spot. One last thought: Tommy Heinsoln on the Celtics broadcast crew was absolutely ridiculous tonight. Every single time the Celtics had a foul called against them, Tommy would go on a rant about how terrible the officiating crew was. I don't understand how a guy in his position can get away with publicly berating the officials and when coaches or players do it, they're fined exorbitant amounts of money. Add to that the fact that this game was broadcast on NBA-TV nationally. It's not just because it was a rival broadcast team saying these things, if I heard Jim Peterson & Dave Benz saying the kinds of things he did, I would still be livid. If I ever have to watch a Heinsoln broadcast again, I guarantee I won't watch the game! The Wolves came into this game assuming they'd win. Assuming they'd easily take down the Celtics because they're the inferior opponent. The result, as is usually the case with that mindset, a loss. The Wolves really needed this win with a matchup vs. the Trailblazers, Lakers & Clippers on the horizon this week. That's all I've got tonight, thanks for reading.
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Exactly one month ago (Nov. 16th) the Minnesota Timberwolves' "Big Three" of Love, Martin & Pek dumped in 20+ points apiece en-route to a 106-88 win over the Celtics at the Target Center. They moved to 7-4 at that time with the win.
A month later, the Timberwolves are sitting at .500 on the season (12-12) and are fresh off a good win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday evening that saw Kevin Love do a little bit of everything for the win. Love started the season REALLY hot and had some really terrific games, however after the first couple of weeks he started to run out of steam. He was still putting up 20-10 games, but he looked like a shell of the player we saw to start the season. He was still putting up great numbers, but it wasn't translating to team success and watching him on the court, it just didn't seem like he was playing with the same energy. Since Love's grandmother sadly passed away, he's been on a tear. He's playing with more energy and more heart and, at least last night in Memphis that was parlayed into a Timberwolves win. There's no doubt that Minnesota's nightly success will usually hinge on how Love plays, but as long as he continues to give it his all, the Wolves will be in very good shape going forward. That holds especially true considering the only other reliable offensive option this season has been his fellow big man Nikola Peković. Pek consistenly puts up his 15-20 points and 7-11 rebounds a night. Unfortunately fellow starters Ricky Rubio & Corey Brewer's offense seem to come and go. Fortunately, Rubio's offense has been 'on' as of late and we know Brewer will always get at least a couple easy fast break opportunities a night. The biggest problem the past few games has been the second half of the duo the "Kevins". Kevin Love has been fantastic lately, while his running mate Martin has been the complete antithesis. Martin has been B-A-D lately. His poor performances these past few games were nothing compared to the 'stinker' he unveiled last night in Memphis where he played just 19 minutes and finished with 0 points on 0-for-3 shooting. Adelman said after the game that Martin told him he was "hurting" and asked to come out in the second half. Rick ultimately decided with tonight's game in Boston to hold him out for the remainder of the game. The couple times that they showed Martin on the bench, it was clear he was "hurting" with what I would assume to be more of an illness than injury. No update on his condition as of this morning, but if he's unable to go, Robbie Hummel will likely draw another start and that'll also mean more time for Barea & Shved. A win in Boston tonight would be Minnesota's first since March of 2005 and it would also sweep the season series--something the Wolves have not done since the 1999-2000 season. A win tonight would also mean a three-game winning streak over the Celtics, which would be the longest since streak since the Wolves won five-straight over the Celtics during a span that stretched from the 1997-1998 season to the 2000-2001 season. At 11-14 the Boston Celtics are currently the fourth seed in the insanely horrible eastern conference (they're so bad they get no capitalization). If the Timberwolves were an eastern conference team their 12-12 record would have them tied with the Hawks for the three seed. Instead, they're tenth in the Western Conference and on the outside looking in at the Top 8 seeds. Despite being 3 games under .500 this is definitely overachieving for this Boston Celtics squad playing without their best player Rajon Rondo due to his continued rehab of his ACL surgery as well as the fact that they traded away Paul Pierce & Kevin Garnett this summer. One thing this Celtics squad has going for them is their defense. They allow just 95.7 points per game which is good enough for 5th in the NBA. However, if the Celtics win a game it's usually by a pretty close margin. Of Boston's 11 wins, just 4 have come by 10 points or more, highlighted by that big 41-point win over rival their rival New York Knicks a week ago. However when they lose it definitely varies. They've lost 6 of their 14 games by 10 points or more and 12 of their 14 by 7 points or more. The last time these two teams met it was the advantage in the frontcourt that decided the game. Kevin Love & Nikola Peković have been consistently good this past week and there's no reason to doubt that, that should change tonight in Boston against Jared Sullinger, Vitor Faverani, Kelly Olynyk & Kris Humphries. The last time these two teams met the Wolves held Boston's leading scorer Jeff Green to just 2 points on 0-for-6 shooting from the field. If they can replicate that kind of success with Brewer & (now) Mbah a Moute against Green defensively, there's a good chance they'll come out victorious in this one. Holding him in check will be a big key to a Timberwolves victory. Tonight's game will tip at a slightly earlier 6:30pmCST time, enjoy the game and GO WOLVES! Minnesota's major malfunction on Friday night in San Antonio was poor execution on both ends of the floor in the final few minutes. In those final minutes the Wolves blew a nine-point lead and wasted Love's incredible 42-point night. Tonight, was the antithesis of the loss to the Spurs. The Wolves were up against an undermanned Grizzlies squad that was already without Marc Gasol and Quincy Pondexter, but then lost Mike Conley in that final period. Despite Memphis' bigs Jon Leuer and Zach Randolph playing very well, they simply couldn't overcome K-Love, J.J. Barea and Nikola Peković. Pek scored Minnesota's six final points that sealed the 101-93 win, the final coming following a defensive stop and J.J. finding him in the paint with 26.3 seconds to play. Tonight's game also snaps an 11-game losing streak to the Memphis Grizzlies dating back to February 2010. In the gameday preview I gave J.J. all kinds of hell about how unproductive and terrible he's been this season. As such, he had one of his best games of the season. Barea was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field and 2-for-2 from deep after the first half. He ultimately finished shooting 50% (5-10) FG & 3-5 (60%) 3PT for 15 points along with a team-high 5 assists and 2 steals. This is J.J.'s 7th double-digit scoring game of the season and second only to the 21 he scored vs. the Denver Nuggets exactly one month ago (11/15). We can only hope that he can build off of that, but I've said that too many times to count this season. Kevin Martin had another terrible outing. He laid a goose egg in the scoring column, put up just 3 shots and played just 19 minutes. Adelman said after the game that he was "hurting" and asked to come out in the second half and Adelman ultimately decided not to put him back in the game with another game tomorrow in Boston. They showed him a couple times on the bench and he looked quite miserable! It remains to be seen whether or not he'll play tomorrow or if he has any type of injury/illness. The Memphis Grizzlies were in the Western Conference Finals just this past spring, but injuries have derailed their season, much like they did in Minnesota a season ago. The Grizz are without Gasol and with Conley hurting his knee in the fourth quarter tonight, it could be a "lottery" season in Memphis. The player I was most impressed with who was not wearing a Timberwolves uniform tonight was big man Jon Leuer. I had heard that he was having a good season, but tonight was my first time watching him this year and I was definitely impressed. It makes me a little more upset that the Wolves didn't get him when the Bucks waived him last season. Leuer finished with 15 points & 9 rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench. As much as I was intrigued with Leuer, I was surprised that (despite the injury to Gasol and Randolph's foul trouble) Ed Davis played just 7 minutes off the bench! Here's a look at tonight's box score... The Minnesota Timberwolves set a new season-high with 12 made threes (previous being 11). Their 9 turnovers are also the tied for the second-lowest on the year.
The Wolves finally held an opponent under 50% and what was the result? A win! The Timberwolves have played in nine games this season in which they've allowed their opponent to shoot 50% or better. They're 1-8 in those games with the lone win coming against the Sixers earlier this week. Alternatively, when the Wolves hold an opponent under 50% they're 11-4. When the Wolves hold an opponent under 45% they're a perfect 7-0 including tonight's win. Unfortunately, before tonight the last time the Wolves held an opponent under 45% was on November 22nd in that blowout 111-81 win over Brooklyn (39.7%). As much as I hope J.J. can string some decent games together, I pray the Timberwolves can put together a stretch of games in which they play some decent defense, because without it the Wolves have almost no chance to win. The Timberwolves will be back in action tomorrow night vs. the Celtics in Boston. We'll have a full gameday preview up before the 6:30pmCST tip, until then thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The last time out, it was obvious that Love is not all you need, he can only get by with a little help from his friends. Despite unloading 42 points on the defending Western Conference champions, Love & the Wolves blew a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter for their twelfth loss of the season to dip below .500 once again.
If the Wolves want to win and win consistently--and that means beating some elite teams, it was to be a full team effort. There's simply no way that the Wolves can win with the way Kevin Martin has played these past few outings, with Brewer's bad shot selection (which is a conflicting conundrum all its own) and the bench looking as though making shots would cause some sort of fatal reaction. Seriously, there is no one player off that bench who has had even a 'good' season. Dante Cunningham may be the closest, but my biggest gripe with Dante is that we need him to contribute more in the scoring column and round out his offensive game by going down into the post--unfortunately he's prone to shot 15-18 foot jumpers (which he makes a decent percentage of). Beyond Nikola Peković there really isn't a player that likes to attack the basket, get physical and draw fouls in the paint (except perhaps a slashing K-Mart). Coming into the 2013-14 season, I really had no idea that Chase Budinger would be missed this badly, I really thought we could maintain a record 2-3 wins over .500 until he returned, but we've blown a number of winnable games this season and the two biggest culprits have been: the bench & team defense. Minnesota's defense is a joke! There's no way you can expect to win games when you're allowing your opponents to shoot over 50% from the floor. With no rim protector, teams are able to waltz into the paint at will and score easy buckets with little to no resistance. For some inexplicable reason, shot-blocker/rim-protector rookie Gorgui Dieng can't get off the bench as Adelman instead decides to turn to Kevin Love at the five or Dante Cunningham. So, is Ronny Turiaf being REALLY missed too? You better believe it! I've shied away from ever criticizing Adelman because how can you argue with his elite membership in the 1000 wins club? However, I simply have not understood the rotations this season. Why is J.J. Barea still playing significant minutes?! Alexey Shved has been just as terrible and he's rightfully sat on the bench and picked up either DNP-CDs or garbage time minutes, however Barea continues to get his 17-25 minutes a night regardless of how terrible he plays. There's absolutely no reason that A.J. Price shouldn't get a look as the team's primary backup point guard--he proved he could do it last season in Washington and you've got to think that anything would be an improvement over the terrible shooting and defensive sieve that is Jose Juan Barea. What's most frustrating is that you know the talent is there! We know that 2011 NBA Finals J.J. is somewhere in there. Heck, I watched him in the games he played for Puerto Rico this summer and he played quite well paired with countryman Carlos Arroyo in the backcourt. Many thought that success would carry on into the NBA regular season, but I've only seen glimpses of it with the occasional drive to the rim or knocking down a three-pointer. I think J.J. is an important part of this team, but he simply just doesn't have 'it' right now. He needs to sit, because every minute he's out there is a minute of terrible basketball in which he busts open the doors and lets the opponents walk right in and erase any kind of lead the starters built. He's not the only one to blame and I understand that he's a lone offensive weapon in that second unit--but even when Adelman has mixed him in with the starters like he did in San Antonio (with him as the shooting guard), he still looked uncomfortable out there and bricked wide open shot after wide open shot. Oh...there is a game tonight. I suppose I should say something about the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies are a type of bear. Now back to the Wolves. The Timberwolves are 11-12 on the year and are struggling to defend even the worst teams in the League. Like everyone else I was tantalized with the idea of this team's offense when the pieces began to come together this summer. However we knew the team's defense would be below average. I certainly didn't expect what we've seen thus far, however. Tonight in Memphis the Wolves are going up against a team that's known more for their defense then their offense. That of course doesn't mean they don't know how to put points on the board. However, with the loss of Marc Gasol to an MCL sprain and Quincy Pondexter out for the season, the Grizz have struggled as of late. Memphis is 3-7 in their last ten games and 1-4 in their last five. They've missed their big man in the middle and their sharpshooter of the bench. They certainly haven't looked like a team that was battling in the Western Conference Finals last spring! With arguably their best player out (Gasol) they've relied heavily on Zach Randolph & Mike Conley. Beyond Tayshaun Prince, I really like the way this team is put together. They have a lot of really good pieces and I have to say, I'm really glad to see Mike Conley put it all together these past few seasons and emerge as one of the League's best floor generals (yes, he's also on my fantasy team). Despite being without Marc Gasol, the Grizzlies have a very capable big man to play center in his stead. That would be former Wolves big man Kosta Koufos, who was traded to Memphis this summer in a deal that sent Darrell Arthur to Denver. Koufos started the majority of games for George Karl's Nuggets last year and has really rounded out his game these past few seasons. Watching him during his time in Minnesota, I thought he was a guy who would probably hang around the NBA for 5-6 years or so simply because he was a 7-footer, before he'd been deemed not good enough by the time he was in his early 30's and be on his way out. Instead, he's become a decent interior defender, a good rebounder and a big with decent touch around the rim. As I said before, if the Wolves want a win here it's all about DEFENSE and offensive production from ALL! Minnesota needs to stop the easy penetrations and they need everyone donning the uni to get involved in one way or another on offense and be a little more aggressive! Tipoff is set for 5pmCST from the Fed-Ex Forum in Memphis, enjoy the game! In what should be their second meeting of the season, the Timberwolves will travel to San Antonio to take on the defending Western Conference champs on Friday night. These two teams were supposed to play last Wednesday in Mexico City, but a faulty generator caused the arena to fill with smoke and the game to be cancelled. So, the 11-11 Timberwolves will take on the 17-4 Spurs in tonight's action. The Wolves are 4-7 on the road, 4-7 vs. the Western Conference, winners of two-straight and 4-6 in their last ten games. The Spurs are 8-2 at home, 8-3 vs. the West, winners of two-straight and 7-3 in their last ten games. The Timberwolves struggled early in their last outing as they allowed the Sixers to score 39 first quarter points and take a commanding 19-point lead after twelve minutes. Fortunately the Wolves battled back over the final three quarters and thanks to a key contribution from Robbie Hummel (who scored 10 points in the final quarter) the Wolves were able to avoid the big mistake of allowing one of the NBA's worst defenses to beat them. If the Wolves want a win tonight, it's going to take a MUCH better effort on both ends of the floor. The Spurs are one of the NBA's premier defensive teams allowing just over 92 points a game. If the Wolves get down by a lot in the early stages of this game, I wouldn't bank on a big second half rally for the win. Not against Popovich, Parker, Duncan & the Spurs. The Wolves will be without Chase Budinger (knee) and Ronny Turiaf (elbow). Updates on both of them can be found on our Injury Report. The Spurs may be without their starting center Tiago Splitter. Splitter stay in San Antonio while the Spurs played their last two games away from home. He's currently dealing with a calf injury and is questionable for tonight's game. The Spurs had won 16-straight home games over the Timberwolves before that streak was snapped last April (17th) when the Wolves handed the Spurs a 108-95 loss. The Wolves also won the previous meeting (at the Target Center), which means they'll be going for their first three-game winning streak over San Antonio since they won all four meetings back in the 1996-97 season. The Spurs have been very good this season, but they've struggled recently at home dropping two of their last three games--with a win over Atlanta and losses to the Pacers and the Rockets. They have won their last two games (both on the road) over Toronto and Milwaukee. They absolutely embarrassed the Bucks in their last outing handing them a 109-77 loss. Let's take a look at tonight's probable starting lineups... Minnesota TimberwolvesPG: Ricky Rubio (9.2pts, 4.5reb, 8.4ast, 2.9stls); SG: Kevin Martin (21.9pts, 3.5reb, 2.1ast, 1.4stls); SF: Corey Brewer (13.7pts, 2.6reb, 1.7stls); PF: Kevin Love (23.9pts, 13.8reb, 4.2ast, 0.8stls); C: Nikola Peković (16pts, 8.8reb, 1ast) San Antonio SpursPG: Tony Parker (17.6pts, 2.5reb, 6ast); SG: Danny Green (7.9pts, 3.2reb, 1.2stls); SF: Kawhi Leonard (11.4pts, 6.1reb, 1.9stls); PF: Tim Duncan (13.4pts, 8.3reb, 2.8ast, 1.7blks); C: Tiago Splitter (8.4pts, 6.6reb, 1.1ast) Tonight features an epic battle at the power forward position. The NBA's best power forward against a future Hall-of-Famer! Kevin Love is one of the NBA's very best and yet he still has yet to reach the postseason. Something Tim Duncan has done many times en-route to four championship rings. Love is one of the best, but Duncan is one of the greatest of all-time! Timmy has 770 career double-doubles under his belt, Love has 211. I'm sure we'd all like Kevin Love to have the kind of career Duncan has. That means numerous trips to the postseason, championship rings, individual awards and playing for one team his entire career.
The Wolves need to stay engaged on defense. San Antonio is the NBA's very best in assists, which means they have terrific ball movement. If the Wolves want to win they have to put in the work on defense, because they second you slack--they'll find the open man for any easy bucket. If the Wolves want any chance of winning tonight, they're going to need A LOT more from Kevin Martin. K-Mart finished with a season-low 5 points on Wednesday vs. the Sixers to go along with 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 fouls, 1-for-9 from the field, 0-for-3 from deep and 3-for-4 at the line in 28 minutes. There's no way he can produce another dud like that tonight if the Wolves want to win this game against one of the NBA's best. That's all for now, this one is set to tip at 7:30pmCST, enjoy the game and GO WOLVES! It was a back-and-forth game all night, but the San Antonio Spurs rallied in the final few minutes to go on a 10-3 run to escape with the seven-point victory. It was the play of San Antonio's future Hall-of-Famers: Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili & Tim Duncan propelled the Spurs to the win. Kevin Love was absolutely fantastic! He scored 42 points and set a new franchise record with 8 made three-pointers. He was simply incredible and it was a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately it was all for naught because the Wolves lost and I'm sure that's exactly what he said at the final buzzer with the media huddled around his locker. Unfortunately the Spurs defense locked down on him in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. From 5:34 on, Love didn't attempt a field goal until a last-second heave with nine seconds to play. Locking him down over those final minutes was key in this San Antonio W. These two teams certainly battled as evident by the 20 lead changes. The Wolves' interior defense was a sieve tonight as the Spurs went off for 62 points in the paint thanks in large part to slashers Tony Parker & Manu Ginobili along with some 'bunnies' from Tim Duncan & Boris Diaw. While watching Tony Parker drive the lane for layups possession after possession, I was stunned that Adelman didn't turn to Gorgui Dieng to try and defend the rim a little bit. He tried Dante Cunningham a bit, but while he is a solid versatile defender, he's no shot-blocker. Dieng is still a very raw player, but his greatest strength could've been put to good use tonight and there's no doubt that he needs to see some court time for development. The Spurs are a terrific defense team that came into the game allowing teams to score just over 92 points a night. The Wolves had 89 points after three quarters so they were having little trouble with the Spurs defense, however their own defense was incredibly porous. Yet again, the Wolves allowed another opponent to shoot over 50% from the field and score a lot of easy buckets. In both meetings with Denver this season the Wolves allowed the Nuggets to get to the rim at will for easy baskets, tonight's game was more the same, the only difference being that the Timberwolves offense was running pretty well. Let's take a look at tonight's box score... The Spurs did a terrific job of moving the ball, getting open looks and locking down their shots. San Antonio came into the game as the NBA's leader in assists and their 32 on the night is a new season-high for a Timberwolves opponent.
Kevin Martin struggled once again. He started the game 0-for-2 from deep, but then came alive for a stretch in that first quarter where he hit a three, snagged a rebound, registered a steal, sliced down the lane for a layup and sunk two free throws. After that stretch that lasted a few minutes it seemed as though he was back on track, but he ultimately just kind of faded into the background. That's in part because of Love's offensive explosion, but with Love struggling in the final quarter to even get a shot attempt, Martin didn't take control to keep the Wolves in this one. Martin needs to get back on track if the Wolves want to move back over .500 at any point this season. The biggest takeaway from tonight's game should be that the Timberwolves need to find a way to improve the team defense. We know they're not going to be an elite defensive squad, but they have to find a way to limit opponents shot attempts at the rim and quit allowing such high opponent shooting percentages. The offense can be absolutely lethal, but if they can't get stops they aren't going to beat the cream of the crop in the NBA! Minnesota's next outing is in Memphis on Sunday, stay tuned for the preview, thanks for reading and GO WOLVES! The Minnesota Timberwolves played one of their worst first quarters this season. The Sixers outscored the Wolves 39-20. Philadelphia went on a 20-3 run to end the quarter and shot 77.3% overall. The Sixers came into tonight as one of the worst first quarter offenses in the NBA against one of the best (Minnesota). The result was the complete opposite. With such a big deficit, the Timberwolves had get back into the game with steady play and realize that they wouldn't be able to cut such a big lead down in a two-minute stretch. They battled for the final 36 minutes and thanks to a huge contribution from a somewhat unlikely source--the Timberwolves had their biggest comeback since Kevin Love went for that 31-31 game vs. the Knicks. The Timberwolves outscored the Sixers over the final three quarters (28-22, 30-20 & 28-18). This is Minnesota's first win of the year without leading heading into the fourth quarter (they were down 78-81), the first win when trailing by more than five points in a game this season, the first time this year that the Wolves have won back-to-back games and the first time Minnesota has won two-straight games overall in a month. The unlikely contributor tonight was Robbie Hummel! Hummel had fallen out of the rotation thanks to a poor shooting stretch and the acquisition of Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. These past few games he's gotten back into the rotation. It started with some garbage time vs. Miami in which he scored 8 points, he added another 8 points last night in Detroit. Tonight vs. the Sixers he scored 10 in the fourth quarter as he hit a number of key baskets. His hot shooting came early in the fourth with the starters (sans Pek) on the bench. Robbie finished the game with 10 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal, he also shot 4-for-6 from the field and 2-for-3 from deep in 12 minutes. With his play he's certainly earned some more playing time and we will likely see a bit more of him assuming he can continue his hot shooting. Let's take a look at tonight's box score... The Timberwolves allowed the Sixers to shoot 52.7% from the field, 45% from deep and 85.7% from the line. If I saw those stats, I would assume that the Sixers absolutely blew out the Wolves. Minnesota made up for it by forcing Philly into 26 turnovers for 27 points and out-rebounded them by a +8.
Despite Minnesota shooting just 38.5% from the field & 35% from deep, they made up for it by shooting 15 more free throws and making 13 more. Kevin Love had another terrific outing, despite going just 1-for-6 from deep, he still finished with 26pts, 15reb, 5ast & 2stls. Pek had his 10th double-double of the year and tied with Hummel for the highest +/- of +16. Rubio's solid offense last night in Detroit carried over to tonight. Martin & Barea had great offensive nights yesterday in Detroit, too, but unlike Ricky it didn't carry over tonight. They both struggled mightily. Barea didn't make a field goal and Martin didn't do much better making just 1-of-9. Martin was on the bench in the fourth quarter with the game still up for grabs in favor of Hummel. K-Mart's 5 points are his lowest-scoring night of the season. The Timberwolves will be back in action on Friday night vs. the Spurs in San Antonio. We'll have a preview up Friday morning, stay tuned for that, until then thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The Minnesota Timberwolves earned a much needed win last night in Detroit vs. the Pistons (121-94). The Timberwolves have had their hands full the past couple weeks with the level of talent they were facing: Houston, Indiana, Oklahoma City & Miami. Last night's opponent and tonight's matchup are a bit of a break in a tough schedule, but then it's back against the best of the West with upcoming opponents: San Antonio, Memphis & Portland. The Sixers began the season 3-0, but have since gone 4-14. There's no doubt that the Sixers aren't looking to win right now as they're focused on the future--getting a high lottery selections in one of the best drafts in a long time this summer. The Timberwolves are 10-11 on the year, 6-4 at home, 6-4 vs. the Eastern Conference and 3-7 in their last ten games. They'll have a chance to get back to .500 on the season tonight vs. the Sixers. Tonight's game at the Target Center is their lone home game in their next four outings. The Sixers are 7-15 on the year, 1-8 on the road, 1-7 vs. the Western Conference, losers of three-straight and 2-8 in their last ten games. The Sixers have also dropped 11 of their last 13 games. Over that span where they've gone 2-11, losing all 11 of thos games by double-digits and their two wins came in overtime contests. It's not a surprise considering how this team was constructed--you knew that early-season success wasn't sustainable for a Sixers team that ultimately lacks a lot of proven NBA talent. The Sixers have lost three-straight games to Minnesota and 10 of the last 12 at the Target Center. TWolves draftee Lorenzo Brown was waived prior to the start of the regular season by Minnesota and as such they no longer held his 'rights'. He went to the D-League, but didn't spend a whole lot of time there before being called up to the Sixers. Brown has played nine games for the Sixers and his playing time has increased the past few outings (with the injury to fellow rookie Michael Carter-Williams). In nine games he's averaging 2.6 points, 1 rebound, 1.1 assist, 0.4 steals and 0.1 turnovers in 7.7 minutes per game. The Wolves faced the Sixers in the preseason this October and didn't have much trouble defeating them 125-102. After watching that game and then a week or so later hearing the Sixers defeated the defending champion Miami Heat, it was certainly...surprising. The Wolves will be without Chase Budinger (knee) and Ronny Turiaf (elbow). Both are traveling with the team now which means their returns are likely in the not too distant future. Updates on both of them can be found in the Injury Report page on this site. The Sixers will be without: Michael Carter-Williams (knee infection) will miss his fourth-straight game--he's been traveling with the team, but won't play until the infection clears up; Elliot Williams has been dealing with some back issues, but is expected to play; Arnett Moultrie (ankle) and Jason Richardson (knee) are recovering from surgeries and are both targeting an early-January return; rookie big man Nerlens Noel is still recovering from ACL surgery and is questionable to return this season. Let's take a look at tonight's probable starting lineups... Minnesota TimberwolvesPhiladelphia 76ersThe key will be containing the "Big Three" of Philly: Evan Turner, Thaddeus Young and Spencer Hawes. With no true superstar in Philly they've been asked to do a lot more on both ends of the floor. They're all having great individual seasons. I actually have both Turner & Young on my fantasy team so I've kept close tabs on the both of them. Young's season has been a bit of up-and-down, but there's no question he's a solid combo forward in this league. Turner has really been fantastic this year, he's had a lot of very big games and hasn't had too many rough outings. The only demerit to his game would be all the turnovers (averaging 3.6 a game--in the Top 10 with Houston's James Harden leading the NBA with 4.0).
The past few meetings the Timberwolves seem to catch fire offensively against the Sixers, they did it last season in Philly, they did it when they met in the preseason a couple months ago and I'm hoping for it tonight too! Tipoff is set for 7pmCST from the Target Center, enjoy the game and GO WOLVES! The return of Kevin Love certainly aided the Minnesota Timberwolves in this one. Kevin missed Minnesota's bout with Miami--a game in which the Wolves shot a franchise-low 29.3% from the field. With Love's return tonight in Detroit, Minnesota's offense returned to "juggernaut" status. Kevin went for 26 points, 16 rebounds and 7 assists on the night in just 30 minutes of action as he sat for the entire fourth quarter with the game well in hand. This is Love's sixth 20-point/15-rebound game of the season. The other 450+ players in the NBA have a total of 10 combined this season! Love also shot 6-for-15 (40%) from the field, 4-of-6 from deep (67%) and a perfect 10-for-10 (100%) at the line. The Timberwolves' lowest scoring quarter of the night came in the fourth where Nikola Peković was the only starter to see the court. Despite it being Minny's lowest-scoring quarter they still tallied 25 points (to Detroit's 17) to close out the 121-94 victory. Minnesota scored 31+ in each of the first three quarters (34, 31, 32) outscoring the Pistons in each quarter. Love had a terrific game, but he wasn't alone. Guards Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin & J.J. Barea played some terrific basketball on both ends. Between the three guards they tallied 43 points, 8 rebounds, 16 assists, 6 steals, 1 turnover and shot 14-for-26 (54%) from the field, 5-for-10 (50%) from deep and 10-for-11 from the line (91%). Barea had a great game off the bench leading the reserves and we're all hoping that this is a performance he can build off of and finally string together some consistent productive outings. The big concern heading into tonight was containing the Pistons' big starting frontcourt of Josh Smith, Greg Monroe & Andre Drummond. Josh Smith scored 16 points in the first half (9 in the first quarter), but was limited to just 1 point in the second half. Monroe had 6 of his 10 at halftime and Drummond who is averaging over 13 points & 13 rebounds a game, finished with just 8 & 8. I really like the idea of this starting frontcourt in Detroit, but it certainly seems to sound better on paper than it produces on the court. The Timberwolves still allowed a high shooting percentage for the Pistons (47%), but that's actually the lowest opponent shooting percentage since the Wolves faced the Nets on November 22nd in that blowout 111-81 win where the Nets shot 39.7%. In the six games between that win over Brooklyn and tonight's win over the Pistons, the Wolves have allowed just one opponent to shoot under 50% over that span--the Mavericks on November 30th in a 112-106 win (the only win in that six game span). So, while the Timberwolves defense still wasn't 'great', it is much improved from the 55.1% they allowed Miami to shoot on Saturday. When you couple that with the Timberwolves' bounce-back offensively--it leads to a blowout win over a Pistons squad who had won four of their previous five coming into tonight's game. The Timberwolves are now just one game below .500 on the season at 10-11 and they'll have a great opportunity to even that record up tomorrow night vs. the Sixers--back at the Target Center. We'll have more on that matchup in our preview tomorrow morning! Let's take a look at tonight's box score... The Wolves shot 17 more free throws than the Pistons and were a +20 in free throws made. That was one of the biggest difference makers in tonight's contest! At halftime the Wolves were 17-for-21 from the line while Detroit had gone just 1-for-3.
The Timberwolves also shot high percentages in each shooting category, out-rebounded the Pistons by a +7, a +9 in assists and committed just 13 turnovers to Detroit's 20. One thing I highlighted in the preview was that this matchup featured the NBA's team leader in steals (Detroit) vs. the NBA's #2 team in steals (Minnesota)--each averaging just under 10 a game. The Timberwolves finished the night with 12 to Detroit's 4. Thanks in large part to Martin (4), Cunningham (3) & Rubio (2). Martin's 4 steals ties a season-high (which he had just set on Saturday vs. the Heat). The Timberwolves are back in action tomorrow night at the Target Center where they'll host Evan Turner & the Philadelphia 76ers, tipoff is set for 7pmCST, stay tuned for a full gameday preview. Until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The Minnesota Timberwolves have been floundering lately. After a solid 5-2 start to the season, the Wolves have gone 4-9 over their last 13 games. Minnesota has also dropped 7 of their last 9 games and 6 of their last 7 on the road. Their play on the defensive end is a BIG reason for their problems. That being said, it was some terrible offense in their most recent outing that doomed them. The Wolves shot a franchise-worst 29.3% from the field vs. the Heat on Saturday and lost 82-103. In five of Minnesota's last six games where they've gone 1-5, they've allowed their opponents to shoot 50% or better. The Heat shot 55.1% on Saturday. In Minnesota's lone win during this six-game span, the Mavericks shot 48.9% (still far too high). In Minnesota's last six games they're allowing opponents to score 108.2 points on 52.2% from the field. While the Timberwolves have been struggling, the Pistons have been on a hot streak. Detroit is coming off a loss to the Heat of their own--despite defeating them a few days earlier in Miami. The Pistons have won 4 of their last 5 outings. Over those last five games the Pistons are limiting opponents to 42.6% shooting with a +11.2 rebounding advantage. The Wolves are 9-11 on the year, 3-7 on the road and 3-7 in their last ten games. They currently have the 4th best offense (104.7pts), 6th best rebounding squad (45.4), 2nd in steals (9.5); but 30th in blocks (3.3), 27th in FG% (42.3%), 26th in 3PT% (32.3%) and 24th in points allowed (101.9). The Pistons are 10-11 on the season, 5-6 at home and 6-4 in their last ten games. They currently have the 8th-best rebounding squad (44.4), 1st in steals (9.8), 13th in points allowed (99.3) and 11th in blocks (5.0); but are 22nd in assists (20.1), 30th in FT% (67.7%) and 27th in 3PT% (32%). The Timberwolves have won the last six meetings vs. the Pistons. Let's take a look at tonight's probable starting lineups... Minnesota TimberwolvesPG: Ricky Rubio (8.4pts, 4.6reb, 8.4ast, 3stls); SG: Kevin Martin (22.9pts, 3.8reb, 2.2ast, 1.3stls); SF: Corey Brewer (14pts, 2.7reb, 1.9stls); PF: Kevin Love (23.7pts, 13.6reb, 4.1ast, 0.8stls); C: Nikola Peković (15.7pts, 8.9reb, 1ast) Detroit PistonsPG: Brandon Jennings (17pts, 3.3reb, 8.1ast, 1.6stls); SG: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (7.3pts, 2.1reb, 0.9stls); SF: Josh Smith (13.9pts, 6.8reb, 3.4ast, 1.6stls, 1.5blks); PF: Greg Monroe (14.2pts, 9reb, 2.2ast, 1.3stls); C: Andre Drummond (13.5pts, 13reb, 1.9stls, 1.4blks) Andre Drummond is having a terrific season and proving that he is undoubtedly the franchise cornerstone in the Motor City! It will be a great battle with Andre & Pek in the paint. Nikola has been playing quite well lately averaging 20.5 points & 10.3 rebounds in his last four outings. He did finish with 18 points & 12 rebounds in that loss to Miami, but he shot just 7-for-18 from the field (39%).
The return of Kevin Love will most certainly help, too. Kevin missed the most recent outing after the passing of his maternal grandmother. He practiced on Monday and will be back in the lineup tonight in Detroit. Love missed the three most recent matchups with Detroit in the regular season, but in the previous three games the NBA's best rebounder (13.6) is averaging 18.3 vs. the Pistons. The NBA's frontcourt will have their hands full with Detroit's big three of Smith, Monroe & Drummond. Three very athletic and very physical players. Add to that the solid play of late from former-Buck Brandon Jennings and it's pretty clear why the Pistons have found success in the month of December (4-1). Minnesota's big men have to remain physical in the paint, keep Monroe & Drummond more out towards the mid-range and deny those alley-oop attempts to Dre. Brewer will likely begin the game matched up against Smith (though Mbah a Moute will see time vs. him as well) and you want to give him those three-point & mid-range shots he inexplicably loves. The Wolves will be without Chase Budinger (knee) & Ronny Turiaf (elbow)--both continue to make progress towards that pre-Christmas timetable return. The Pistons will be without: Chauncey Billups (knee)--he practiced on Friday, is close to a return, but it won't be tonight; Will Bynum (hamstring)--who has no timetable for a return; and Rodney Stuckey (knee) who may play, but didn't on Sunday vs. Miami. Tipoff is set for 6:30pmCST from the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! |
Cody D. AndersonA Wolves fan bringing you Gameday Recaps all season long! 2014-15 Game ArchivesGameday Archives
December 2015
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