The Minnesota Timberwolves were finally able to end that five-game losing streak with a win over the Sacramento Kings last night. Tonight, they'll be facing the Los Angeles Clippers who are looking to avoid a five-game losing streak, after dropping their last four games. The Wolves are 6-7 on the year and 3-4 on the road. The Clippers are 8-6 this season and 5-3 at home. The Wolves & Clippers are both teams that got off to a hot start, but have gone through a rough stretch this past week and a half. The Clippers are coming off a 98-105 loss to the New Orleans Hornets on Monday night. A loss to one of the worst teams in the West and the entire NBA. Caron Butler had 33pts, 6reb, 2ast and shot 9-for-15 from deep; Chris Paul added 20pts, 4reb, 8ast and 4stls; the Hornets were able to hold Blake Griffin to just 4pts on 1-of-9 shooting, likely a key for the loss. The TWolves are coming off that 97-89 win over the Kings in Sacramento. The Wolves finally played four quarters and got some great offensive output from all five of their starters, who finished in double-digits. Kevin Love had 23pts, 24reb, 2ast, 2stls, 1blk; Ridnour finished with 18pts, 2reb, 5ast, 1stl, 1blk; Nikola threw in 16pts, 8reb, 4ast, 1blk and Kirilenko continued his solid all-around play with 14pts, 6reb, 5ast and 3blks. Let's take a look at each team's last five games...
The Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers met four times last season. The Wolves won the season series 3-1. They beat the Clippers on 1/20 in L.A., 101-98. That was the game K-Love hit that buzzer beater as time expired. They met again on 2/28, also in L.A. resulting in another TWolves win, 109-97. On 3/5 they met in Minnesota for a one-point Wolves win, 95-94. Their last meeting came on 4/12 when the Clippers won 95-82. The Wolves have won those last three matchups vs. the Clippers, WHEN Kevin Love plays. He didn't play in that last game because of the head injury that made him miss the last ten games or so. Let's take a look at the probable starting lineups...
Chauncey Billups will be making his season debut tonight. There'll always be concerns about the Wolves' starting backcourt, hopefully Luke & Malcolm can turn in another good game like last night in Sacramento. The biggest concern for me, however is Andrei Kirilenko, Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic. AK played 41 minutes last night, Love played 44 and Pek, another 36. Those are three players the Wolves need to have on the court for extended minutes if they want a chance to win ball games. We'll see if those big minutes in the win last night plays negatively into this one.
That's all for now, tipoff is set for 9:30pmCT and full gameday recap can be found on this site 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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