The Minnesota Timberwolves continue their preseason action, Saturday night vs. the Rose-less Chicago Bulls. Minnesota is coming off a loss to the Indiana Pacers on Friday night. A game in which they played mostly their "second" and "third unit". The Wolves played Roy just 8 minutes, Pekovic & Love 12 minutes each, Barea for 16 minutes and Andrei Kirilenko didn't play at all. It wasn't a physical issue for AK, the training staff just told Adelman he'd be better to rest for the night. The Chicago Bulls also played on Friday night. That one ended in an 83-86 loss for the Bulls, moving them to 1-1 this preseason. The Chicago Bulls may be without Derrick Rose for the majority of the season, but they're still projected to be a playoff team out East. In his place, Kirk Hinrich will be the Bulls' starting point guard. The Bulls have had a bit of a makeover to their second unit this offseason. Gone are C.J. Watson (Brooklyn), John Lucas (Toronto), Ronnie Brewer (New York), Kyle Korver (Atlanta), Brian Scalabrine (retirement) and Omer Asik (Houston). The Bulls welcome Kirk Hinrich, Nate Robinson, Marquis Teague (29th pick in 2012 Draft), Marco Belinelli, Vladimir Radmanovic and Nazr Mohammed. I don't think there's any doubting that's a serious 'downgrade' from last year. Let's take a look at the projected starting lineups...
Both team's will be without their star point guards. However both teams posses more than capable backups. The Wolves should have Ridnour back. He's missed Minnesota's first two preseason games with back spasms. It sounded as though he could've played on Friday, but sat out so he would definitely be ready for this game vs. the Bulls.
I'm sure we'll see more of the starters than we did in the loss to the Pacers on Friday, how much more, I don't know. 25-30 minutes; I assume. Some very good matchups in this one. Deng vs. AK47, Booz vs. Love and Pek vs. Noah. Joakim is pegged as being a Top 5 center in this League. Apparently Pekovic hasn't earned that kind of respect...yet...Saturday's game will be a great test and I fully expect him to pass, with flying colors. Tipoff is set for 7pmCT from the Target Center. A full gameday recap can be found, right here, following the final horn. Until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES!
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Cody D. AndersonA Wolves fan bringing you Gameday Recaps all season long! 2014-15 Game ArchivesGameday Archives
December 2015
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