The last time the Minnesota Timberwolves took the court was six days ago vs. the Thunder in Oklahoma City (12/1). The result was a disappointing ten-point loss because of an epic fourth quarter collapse. Hopefully this time off will help the Wolves, because they'll need all they can get against the defending champions tonight. The Wolves haven't played in almost a week because the game vs. San Antonio in Mexico City was postponed due to a 'smoked out' arena. You can read all about that here: Smoked Out! The biggest news tonight is that the Wolves will be playing without Kevin Love. Love has been with his family the past couple days after the passing of his maternal grandmother. This will be the first game the two-time All-Star will miss this season. In 18 games this year he's leading the NBA in rebounds per game (13.6) and double-doubles (18). The Heat are the NBA's worst rebounding squad in the NBA averaging just 35.2 a game. That's a direct result of all the small-ball lineups they play. It really hurts that their starting "center" Chris Bosh averages less than 6 a game! The Timberwolves are sixth in the NBA in rebounding with 45.4 a game. That number will likely take a hit tonight with Kevin Love out. The Wolves will be relying on Nikola Peković as well as Dante Cunningham & Luc Richard Mbah a Moute on the boards. The Heat are coming off an 87-107 loss in Chicago on Thursday night. Chicago's big men went to work against the "small ball" Heat and found A LOT of success. Carlos Boozer finished with 27pts, Taj Gibson had 19pts, Joakim Noah added 17pts & 15reb and swingman Luol Deng chipped in another 20pts. The Heat have now lost two-straight games after dropping one to the Pistons on Tuesday night (97-107). The Heat were out-rebounded 49-27 in the loss to Chicago and outscored 44-34 in the paint. The Heat have been out-rebounded in their past seven games, including a 95-61 margin over their past two games (both losses). In their last two games they're allowing 107pts, 50.6% shooting and 17-for-35 from deep. The Heat are 14-5 on the year, but they've had a fairly easy schedule. Take into account that Miami has played just three games against the Western Conference this season! It's no secret how awful the Eastern Conference has been this season. There are currently just 3 teams over .500 in the East (Indiana, Miami & Atlanta). The Heat have faced the Hawks once and won that game, but their other 14 games have come against those terrible Eastern Conference teams. All five of their losses have come against the East all of which have records under .500 (Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, Detroit & Chicago). Miami's season hasn't been terrible, but it's less than an ideal start for the defending champs. The Heat are also 5-3 on the road (which means they've had 11 games at home), 3-0 vs. the West and 8-2 in their last ten games. The Timberwolves are 9-10 on the year, 6-3 at home, 5-3 vs. the East and 3-7 in their last ten games. The Wolves have had some serious defensive struggles in their last five games. Over that span the Wolves are allowing 109.2 points on 51.6% FG and 46.7% 3PT. They've lost four of their last five games. The Heat have won their last six meetings vs. the Wolves, which is wins for three seasons straight. The Wolves will be without Kevin Love (personal), Chase Budinger (knee) and Ronny Turiaf (elbow). Both of our injured reserves seem to be making progress and we should see them back on the court in a couple weeks. Assistant coach David Adelman and his wife had a baby yesterday, Rick & David were not at practice on Friday, but Rick is expected to be on the sidelines tonight (not sure about David, though). The Heat will be without Greg Oden (knee), the team says his legs are getting stronger and he should return to the court soon. Dwyane Wade didn't play in the Heat's last game (in Chicago) because of an "illness". He's struggled to stay on the court this year due in large part to his bad knees. Wade has played in just one-third of Miami's games this season. He'll be a gametime decision for this one. Big man Chris Andersen missed the game in Chicago for "personal reasons" but he joined the Heat in Minnesota on Friday and will be available for this one--he'll likely see some time against Big Pek tonight. With Wade in an out of the lineup, the Heat are reportedly looking at acquiring a shooting guard. The Heat have tried three different players (Roger Mason, Ray Allen & James Jones) with Wade out. That hasn't been met with a lot of success. Miami has been active in trade talks and are dangling seldom-used big man Joel Anthony. One player they're looking at is Boston's Courtney Lee (someone buried on the bench behind a lot of other wings). Let's take a look at tonight's probable starting lineups... Minnesota TimberwolvesPG: Ricky Rubio (8.7pts, 4.5reb, 8.5ast, 3stls); SG: Kevin Martin (23.2pts, 3.8reb, 2.3ast, 1.1stls); SF: Corey Brewer (14.1pts, 2.5reb, 2stls); PF: Dante Cunningham (5.5pts, 3.8reb, 0.8blks); C: Nikola Peković (15.5pts, 8.7reb, 1ast) Miami HeatPG: Mario Chalmers (8.7pts, 2.5reb, 4.9ast, 1.7stls); SG: Dwyane Wade (18.5pts, 4.6reb, 5.4ast, 2.1stls); SF: LeBron James (25.7pts, 5.7reb, 6.1ast, 1.2stls); PF: Shane Battier (4.7pts, 2reb, 0.7stls); C: Chris Bosh (14.3pts, 5.6reb, 0.8stls, 1.2blks) The Timberwolves will either turn to Dante Cunningham or Luc Richard Mbah a Moute as the starting power forward with Kevin Love out. I think Dante will draw the start in this one, but I would prefer Mbah a Moute. Corey Brewer vs. LeBron James isn't an ideal matchup considering how much bigger LBJ is than Corey. Having LRMAM guard James, you could have Brewer take on Battier. Dante is a great defender, but his foot speed against the NBA's best player is concerning. Considering the reason they brought in Mbah a Moute was to go head-to-head with these big athletic swingmen (LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Josh Smith, Paul George, Rudy Gay, etc). Nonetheless, I'll be very interested to see who Adelman starts at power forward and who he has matched up defensively with LBJ.
With no Kevin Love, the Wolves need Kevin Martin & Nikola Peković to carry the team. Martin is averaging 26.7 points per game in his last three outings and Pek is averaging 20.5 points & 10 rebounds in his last four games. This also means more scoring needs to come from guys like Dante, Corey, Luc, Rubio, JJ, etc. Obviously if Wade is able to play he'll start at shooting guard, but if not the Heat will look to one of those three shooting guards they've tried this season (Mason, Allen or Jones). Minnesota's biggest concern will be LeBron James. James has carried the Heat this season and he'll look to do the same tonight. Dating back to his time in Cleveland, LeBron has won 14-straight games over the Timberwolves. In his last eight games in Minnesota at the Target Center, he's averaging 31pts, 8.8reb & 6.5ast. The Wolves need to buckle down on defense, control the glass and limit Miami's transition opportunities if they want a chance in tonight's game. Tipoff is set for 7pmCST, enjoy the game and GO WOLVES!
0 Comments
The Minnesota Timberwolves were without their best player in tonight's bout with the defending champion Miami Heat. Despite his absence, had he suited up it may not have made much of a difference. There were just two players that shot 44% or better for the Wolves tonight. Robbie Hummel went 2-for-3 (67%) & Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (44%). Of the other ten players that saw the court--no one shot better than 39%. Minnesota's best players struggled the most: Kevin Martin went 5-for-16 from the field (31%) and 1-for-7 from deep (14%); Brewer shot 30% from the field and 33% from deep and Peković shot 39%. As a team the Timberwolves made a season-low 24 field goals and shot a season-low 29.3% from the field. Do you remember that game against the Indiana Pacers last month? Do you recall how dominate the Pacers were defensively and how terrible the Wolves looked in that one? This game was substantially worse. The Heat came into tonight's game as the NBA's worst rebounding squad and they were allowing opponents to score at will in the paint. Tonight, the Heat nearly out-rebounded the Wolves 45-44. Their 44 rebounds are +9 from their season average. The Heat also dominated in the paint with 56 points while holding the Wolves to a season-worst 28. Adelman said before tonight's game that he was worried that the Wolves would struggle to put points on the board without Love. The Wolves got plenty of shots up and had quite a few open looks, but they just couldn't hit them! After one quarter the Wolves led by one-point; 25-24, but the Heat took control in the second quarter outscoring the Wolves 17-31. Dwyane Wade returned from a two-game absence and thanks to the play of the MVP, Miami made short work of a floundering Timberwolves squad. I didn't think the Love-less Wolves would win tonight, but I definitely though they would've been more competitive in this one. Unlike in games past--Minnesota's offense was as bad as their defense has been. The Timberwolves have now allowed opponents to shoot 50% or better in five of their last six games (the lone game where they kept a team under 50% was the lone win in that set where the Mavs shot 48.9%). Miami's 55.1% field goal is the second-highest for a Timberwolves opponent this season (second only to the 56.3% OKC shot in Minnesota's previous outing). This was was over midway through the third quarter and that was proved when A.J. Price entered the game in the final few minutes of the third quarter. It was garbage time for the Wolves deep bench for the entire fourth quarter as the starters were forced to watch from the bench, hoping the reserves would at least break 80 points in this one. Minnesota's 82 points are still a new season-low. Let's take a look at tonight's box score... Not only did Minnesota shoot a season-low percentage from the field, but they also set a new season-low in assists with 13 and points in the paint with 28.
The Timberwolves reserves shot a combined 5-for-25 from the field just 20%. Take away Robbie Hummel's numbers from that and it's 3-for-22 just 14%! Dante Cunningham posted a dismal -29 and J.J. Barea pitched in with a -21. I pray that Chase Budinger and Ronny Turiaf are very near to a return to the floor, because despite what any numbers may say this is without a doubt the NBA's worst offensive bench unit! LeBron James finished just two assists shy of a triple-double, but he did have a double-double at halftime. LBJ had 13 points, 10 rebounds & 6 assists after two quarters. His 14 total rebounds is a new season-high, though those 10 rebounds he had at halftime would've also been a season-high! This was the first time in the last six games that the Heat have gone over 100 points as they hit 101 with under a minute to play. They broke a two-game losing streak while sending Minnesota to a two-game losing streak of their own. This is also Minnesota's fifth loss in their last six outings. Tonight's 19,888 in attendance at the Target Center was the first sellout of the year for the Timberwolves. That's all for now, the Timberwolves will be back in action on Tuesday night in Detroit, stay tuned for a preview of that one, thanks for reading and GO WOLVES! UPDATE (8:48pmCST): The game has been cancelled and as of right now, there is not a makeup game scheduled, though it sounds as though it will be played in Minnesota (the Wolves do get a home game vs. San Antonio this season!). The Spurs players have already left on a bus and the Timberwolves players are gathering their things from the arena and they'll be gone shortly as well. UPDATE (8:40pmCST): The official word from the NBA is that a generator malfunction produced the smoke in the arena. According to Zgoda, Flip Saunders told the team party that the game is off and they're to get their stuff to leave, the Wolves players went back into the arena shortly thereafter. Just before 8:40, the NBA on ESPN sent out a tweet that said the lights in the arena are back on and the key is to get the ventilators running to extract as much smoke as they can from the arena. An escalator has reportedly caught fire in the Mexico City arena where tonight's Timberwolves-Spurs game was supposed to take place. The cause of the fire sounds as though it was a short in one of the arena's escalators.
Reports started to flood in around 7:30 this evening--one hour before the game was set to tip. Coupled with the fire, there was a power outage in the arena. Luckily they hadn't let fans into the 'bowl' and it was a quick evacuation. @WolvesRadio (Alan Horton the voice of the Wolves on WCCO) said via Twitter that the players had been rounded back onto the buses and the entire arena was being evacuated. The refs followed a short time later--up the loading ramps and out of the building. @JerryZgoda of the Star Tribune reported via Twitter that Adelman, Flip Saunders and Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich were huddled up together talking on the walkway to the ramp leading out of the arena. Shortly thereafter they left the arena towards the buses together. In a quote from Pop (via Zgoda): Nobody should be breathing what's in the arena, let alone players exerting themselves, says game should be played in Minny on off day. Zgoda reported a short time later that they're attempting to clear the smoke in the arena within 30 minutes--that was at 8:01pmCST. In a quote from TWolves CEO Chris Wright (via Zgoda), he says that the earliest the arena could be ready is 10:15, the other option is playing tomorrow night. Zgoda also added that he heard from an NBA official that David Stern really wants to play this game, tonight! Zgoda also added that he overheard the Spurs team doctors say that there's no way to play in the arena tonight. It sounds as though the teams are pushing hard to not play tonight. I'm writing this in the chronological order that the tweets are being sent out. As of 8:31, the only update is that the NBA wants to play, but it's obviously a matter of getting that smoke cleared. The Minnesota Timberwolves have spent the past couple days in Mexico City prior to Wednesday night's game vs. the San Antonio Spurs. Tonight's game in Mexico City is all about expanding the NBA's brand internationally and giving fans who don't live in the States a chance to see a live NBA game. This is the first time the Minnesota Timberwolves have played a game in Mexico City and the fifth time the Spurs have. This is the NBA's 21st game that's has been played 'south of the border' and the first game in the regular season since Dallas squared off against Houston on December 6, 1997. As if facing off against the defending Western Conference champs that were a Ray Allen three-pointer away from being crowned NBA Champions, the Wolves are playing in some VERY high altitude tonight. Denver is known as the "Mile High because it sits exactly one-mile or 5,280 feet above sea level. Mexico City is 7,943 feet above sea level. Adelman said that he's definitely going to make substitutions quicker and I wouldn't be surprised to see his rotation expand a little bit--may see a few more minutes from guys like Robbie Hummel and/or Gorgui Dieng. The Wolves and the Spurs play just three games this season. This game in Mexico City counts as a home game for the Wolves and the other two meetings with the Spurs will be in San Antonio. I don't understand why they wouldn't have one of those San Antonio games be in Minnesota...it doesn't seem very fair. These two teams will meet again in just nine days (12/13) in San Antonio and their last meeting will be a month after that (1/12) to round out the season series between these Western Conference foes. The Timberwolves are 9-10 on the year, 6-3 at home (though this is the equivalent of a road game where they're 3-7), 4-7 vs. the Western Conference and 3-7 in their last ten games. The Timberwolves have lost six of their last seven games. They began the season 5-2, but have dropped 4 of their last 5 games. During that five-game span the Wolves are allowing an average of 109.2 points per game on 51.6% FG & 46.7% 3PT for their opponents. The Spurs are 15-3 on the season, 7-2 on the road, 8-3 vs. the Western Conference and 8-2 in their last ten games. The Spurs are 2-2 in their last four games, prior to that they had won 11-straight and 13 of their first 14 outings. The Spurs have only allowed three of their eighteen opponents this season score 100 points or more. San Antonio is 1-2 in those games. Their lone win in that set came in their most recent outing. The Spurs defeated the Atlanta Hawks 102-100, Tim Duncan finished with 23 points and a season-high 21 rebounds. Timmy D hit the game-winning jumper with 0.4 seconds to play to secure the W for the Spurs. The Timberwolves split the season series with the Spurs a season ago. The Wolves dropped the first two meetings, but won the final two. In their most recent meeting (April 17, 2013) the Wolves snapped a 16-game losing streak to the Spurs in San Antonio with a 108-95 win. They also defeated the Spurs in Minnesota on March 12, 2013 in a game that the Spurs were without Tony Parker. Of course, the Timberwolves were without their superstar Kevin Love for all four meetings last season. In his last seven meetings with the Spurs, Love is averaging 22pts & 17.1reb. One of Minnesota's best players a season ago was Nikola Peković, however the Wolves went 0-2 vs. the Spurs with him and 2-0 without him. If the Spurs lose tonight, it will be San Antonio's first three-game losing streak to the Wolves since 1997! A big key to that will be Tony Parker. In games where he scores 20 or more vs. the TWolves, the Spurs are a perfect 9-0. The Wolves will be without Chase Budinger (knee) and Ronny Turiaf (elbow) for this one. Both have made strides over the past couple weeks, the expectation is that they'll both be back before the holidays. Minnesota TimberwolvesPG: Ricky Rubio (8.7pts, 4.5reb, 8.5ast, 3stls); SG: Kevin Martin (23.2pts, 3.8reb, 2.3ast, 1.1stls); SF: Corey Brewer (14.1pts, 2.5reb, 2stls); PF: Kevin Love (23.7pts, 13.6reb, 4.1ast, 0.8stls); C: Nikola Peković (15.5pts, 8.7reb, 1ast) San Antonio SpursPG: Tony Parker (18.1pts, 2.5reb, 6.4ast); SG: Danny Green (7.8pts, 3.3reb, 1.2stls); SF: Kawhi Leonard (11.2pts, 6.3reb, 2.1stls); PF: Tim Duncan (13.1pts, 8.1reb, 2.9ast, 1.9blks); Tiago Splitter (8.8pts, 6.8reb, 1.1ast) The Spurs are 2nd in the NBA in defensive rating with 96.4 points allowed per 100 possessions. They've allowed opponents to score an average of 92.1 points per game which is 3rd in the NBA. They don't have a high-octane offense like the Wolves, but they still score an average of 101.9 a game.
The Timberwolves have the 6th & 7th Top scorers in the NBA right now with Love & Martin. The 'Kevins' are the only two teammates in the Top 14 in scoring. The next two are Golden State's starting backcourt of Curry (9th) & Thompson (15th). However, Love has been struggling lately--shooting just 34% from the field in his last four games. They'll need a whole lot more from him if they want to steal this win! Tonight's game will be about finding a way to score on this defense while slowing down Tony Parker on offense and pressuring San Antonio's bevy of three-point gunners. That's all for now, tipoff tonight is a late 8:30pmCST from Mexico City, enjoy the game and GO WOLVES! The Timberwolves entered tonight's game 9-0 when they led after three quarters. The Thunder entered tonight's game with a 4-0 record at home when they've trailed after three quarters. It was the Thunder whose record remains unblemished though. Minnesota was outscored 35-20 in the final period. The Timberwolves held the lead through all three quarters, however the Thunder began the final period on an 8-0 run to take their first lead of the game with just over 10 minutes to play. They didn't give the lead back and that was thanks in large part to Minnesota's stone cold offense and reserve Reggie Jackson. Jackson finished the night with 18 points, 11 of which came in the final period. He wasn't even close to the most impressive player in tonight's contest. Kevin Durant finished tonight with the fourth triple-double of his career. The last time these two teams met he finished with just 13 points on 4-11 shooting. He had 11 points after the first period and didn't slow down after that. The Timberwolves led by three points (58-55) at halftime, despite allowing the Thunder to shoot 58.1% from the field. The Timberwolves made up for that high opponent shooting percentage thanks in large part to the 10 turnovers they forced the Thunder into and scoring 15 points off of them. In addition, they turned the ball over just six times in the first quarter for two made Thunder baskets. Minnesota also made six threes in comparison to OKC's two made threes. The Timberwolves are now 1-4 vs. the Northwest division and 1-1 vs. the Thunder. They'll have two more opportunities against the Thunder this season, both coming in 2014. Let's take a look at tonight's box score... Kevin Love's recent struggles continued tonight as he finished with just 16 points on 29% shooting. Love was good in the first quarter where he scored 9 of his 16 total points on 3-4 shooting. He didn't make a field goal in the second quarter and went 1-for-8 in the second half to finish with those 16 points. If the Wolves are going to have any chance in their upcoming games against the Spurs & Heat, Love needs to find that success he had earlier this season offensively.
Minnesota allowed the Thunder to shoot 56.3% on 49 made field goals both of which are new season-highs for a Timberwolves opponent. This marks the fifth straight game the Wolves have allowed an opponent to shoot 48.9% from the field or better. Dallas shot 48.9% in the Wolves win last night, but the other four opponents (Houston, Indiana, Denver & OKC) all shot 50% or better. It's no surprise that in these four games, the Wolves are 0-4. Tonight was also the fourth time in the last five games that the Wolves have allowed an opponent to shoot 47.4% or better from three-point. Tonight's 47.4% for OKC is the lowest of those four total games with the other four being 50%+. Minnesota's defense needs a serious kick in the pants. There's absolutely no way they're going to make the playoffs if they're allowing their opponents to shoot such high percentages. There needs to be some resistance on the defensive end! Minnesota's offense has been good, now if their defense could be even half as good as their offense, they'd be a lot better than 9-10 on the year. The bench scored 23 points tonight which is the highest since the 35 points the reserves scored in that blowout win over Brooklyn a little over a week ago. J.J. Barea had 9 points, which is his best scoring output since he had 12 vs. the Wizards on 11/19. But, make no mistake Barea was as awful tonight as he has been all season. I really can't believe how bad J.J. has been this season. Coming into the year, I was talking about how he could potentially be part of the "Sixth Man of the Year" race. I was dead wrong! Part of it may be playing with a second unit where he's the only real threat on the floor, but Adelman has often times mixed him in with different starters and Barea hasn't looked any better! I think I speak for many Wolves fans when I say that, maybe it's time to reduce J.J.'s minutes and give A.J. Price some more run. Adelman has (justifiably) bench Alexey Shved because of his poor shooting and terrible play on both ends of the court. Barea hasn't been much better and yet he still gets 15-20 minutes a game. I really don't understand it. That's all for now, the Timberwolves have the next two days off. Minnesota's next game will be in Mexico City where they'll face the San Antonio Spurs. We'll have full gameday preview of that one up before Wednesday afternoon, until then thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The Timberwolves ended a five-game road losing streak and a three-game losing streak overall when they defeated the Mavericks last night in Dallas, 112-106. They'll hope to build off of that tonight when they take on the Thunder in OKC. That'll be easier said than done, however. The Thunder are undefeated at home, a perfect 8-0. The Thunder are 11-3 on the season, 3-1 vs. the Northwest division, 8-3 vs. the Western Conference, winners of six-straight games and 8-2 in their last ten games. The Thunder are also 7-0 in their last seven meetings with the Timberwolves in OKC. Tonight's game will be the sixth in the Thunder's six-game homestand, with an undefeated record at home, they've obviously gone 5-0 in this homestand thus far. The Timberwolves are at .500 on the year, 9-9; 3-6 on the road, 1-2 vs. the Northwest division, 4-6 vs. the Western Conference and 4-6 in their last ten games. The Timberwolves' lone win in the division came against the Thunder (with the other two games being losses to Denver). These two teams met on November 1st. It was Minnesota's second game of the season. They were coming off of an overtime victory in their season opener over the Orlando Magic. They followed that up by absolutely pounding the Thunder. The one caveat: the Thunder were without Russell Westbrook. Without their second-best player, the Thunder lost 111-88. Minnesota led by as many as 34 points and sat their starters for the final period. The Thunder shot a putrid 34.9% from the field in that loss. A big key to that victory was holding the NBA's leading scorer to just 13 points on 4-of-11 shooting. That is Durant's worst offensive outing of the season. Corey Brewer & newcomer Mbah a Moute will be tasked with defending this 28 points per game scorer. Brewer was definitely up to the task the last time these two teams met and LRMAM will most certainly help in this department. Ricky Rubio is currently leading the NBA in steals per game with 3 a game. He'll take on the other half of OKC's "Big Two" in this one. The Wolves played last night in Dallas and the Thunder also played last night--in Golden State. That game went into overtime and the result was a one-point Thunder win. Head coach Scott Brooks came out of a timeout with a play designed to get Kevin Durant a shot to tie the game up to send it to a second overtime. Durant missed a floater with 12 seconds to play. The ball was tipped out of bounds by the Warriors and after the officials reviewed it, it was Thunder ball. OKC inbounded the ball to Serge Ibaka who missed a 15-footer, but a diving Thabo Sefelosha saved the ball from going out of bounds as he found Russell Westbrook who pulled up for the three-pointer over Harrison Barnes and nailed the triple with 0.1 seconds to play. Tonight will mark Kevin Martin's first return to OKC since signing with the Timberwolves in the offseason. As a reserve with the Thunder, Martin averaged 14 points per game. He's clearly more comfortable in Minnesota with Rick Adelman & Kevin Love. He's also the Wolves' secondary (and often primary) option on offense and he's delivered as he's averaging 23.1 points per game (7th in the NBA). Martin had just 9 points (a season-low) in the meeting on 11/1 between these two teams. If the Wolves want a win tonight they're going to need a lot more from him! Let's take a look at tonight's probable starting lineups... Minnesota TimberwolvesPG: Ricky Rubio (8.8pts, 4.6reb, 8.6ast, 3stls); SG: Kevin Martin (23.1pts, 3.6reb, 2.4ast, 1.1stls); SF: Corey Brewer (14.3pts, 2.4reb, 1.9stls); PF: Kevin Love (24.1pts, 13.7reb, 4.2ast, 0.8stls); C: Nikola Peković (15.2pts, 8.7reb, 0.6stls). Oklahoma City ThunderPG: Russell Westbrook (21.3pts, 4.7reb, 5.5ast, 1.9stls); SG: Thabo Sefelosha (7.3pts, 4.8reb, 1.4stls); SF: Kevin Durant (28pts, 7.9reb, 5.1ast, 1.2stls); PF: Serge Ibaka (14.9pts, 10.4reb, 2.6blks); C: Kendrick Perkins (3.2pts, 3.6reb, 1.3ast) Kevin Durant leads the NBA in scoring, however over his last three games he's averaging only 22.7 points per game on 37% shooting from the field. The Wolves have a number of different defenders to throw at him (Brewer, Mbah a Moute, Cunningham) which should keep things interesting.
Year after year I don't understand why the Thunder don't amnesty Kendrick Perkins. Had they done so and instead kept James Harden...can you imagine how unstoppable this team would be?! Of course, to re-sign Harden, they likely couldn't have re-signed Ibaka, either. Perkins' replacement was drafted this season and in almost identical minutes per game, Steven Adams is out-performing Perk in nearly every statistical category. It will be interesting to see if Brooks continues to start Perkins despite having a much more talented and capable player ready to take his spot in the starting lineup (of course, if that player isn't Adams it could be Nick Collison). Minnesota made some improvements on defense last night in Dallas and they'll have to continue to build off of that tonight. It's no secret that Durant & Westbrook are far superior to Monta Ellis & Dirk Nowitzki. Minnesota has serious offensive firepower of their own, but it's never a good idea to engage in an offensive showdown with Durant & the OKC Thunder. The Wolves play on without Chase Budinger (knee) and Ronny Turiaf (elbow). Updates on them can be found under the Team Report header in the navigation menu on the page titled "Injury Report". The Thunder will have a full roster of healthy players for this one. That's all for now, this one tips slightly early: 6pmCST this evening, enjoy the game and GO WOLVES! |
Cody D. AndersonA Wolves fan bringing you Gameday Recaps all season long! 2014-15 Game ArchivesGameday Archives
December 2015
|