The Minnesota Timberwolves are now 2-7 on the year and riding a five-game losing streak after consecutive losses to Southwest division opponents.
In New Orleans on Friday, the Wolves were dismantled by an upstart Pelicans team that's not only healthy (after a season of debilitating injuries to key players), but they've also added some key pieces (namely center Omer Asik). Led by superstar Anthony Davis the Pelicans had little trouble doing exactly what the Wolves did to them a season ago. It was the Minnesota Timberwolves that had little trouble with the Pelicans a season ago. They blew them out thanks to excellent play from the post-duo of Kevin Love & Nikola Pekovic. In Friday's matchup, the Wolves were without (Kevin Love of course and...) starters Ricky Rubio (ankle) and Thaddeus Young (personal). In their places, Zach LaVine and Gorgui Dieng started alongside Martin, Wiggins & Pekovic. The Pelicans pounced early scoring 43 points in the first quarter (to Minnesota's 19). They added another 37 in the second quarter and 38 more for good measure in the third to officially put the game out of reach well before the fourth quarter began. New Orleans shot an astounding 66.7% from the field (56-for-84), including 15-for-20 (75%) from deep. A combination of bad defense and missing key players, the Wolves just couldn't keep up. When a team scores the ball that well, there may not be any team in the League that can keep up with that type of scoring pace. The end result was a 91-139 win for the Pelicans--rocking the TWolves by 48 points! If I wasn't a Wolves fan, I might just jump on that Pelicans bandwagon. They have some terrific talent led by Anthony Davis & Jrue Holiday. If they can continue to round out their bench, they may have a perennial contender on their hands. Speaking of perennial contenders...the Minnesota Timberwolves travelled to Dallas following Friday's loss to take on the Mavericks on Saturday night. Again, if I wasn't a Wolves fan, I might be tempted to cheer on these Dallas Mavericks. Led by the quartet of Dirk Nowitzki, Monta Ellis, Tyson Chandler & Chandler Parsons; ran by the point head group of Jameer Nelson, Devin Harris, Raymond Felton & J.J. Barea; and aided by the immense depth provided by Richard Jefferson, Jae Crowder, Al-Faroq Aminu, Brandan Wright and Charlie Villanueva--the Mavericks have a lot of talent on this roster and I would be pretty shocked if they didn't return to their 50-win season ways. It was that depth and the ability to give the Timberwolves all kinds of different looks on both ends of the court that helped the Mavericks really run away with this victory. A night after getting blown out by the New Orleans Pelicans and still missing two of their starters (Rubio & Young) the Wolves looked like a team that had been on the road for far too long and simply wanted to get back home. The result ended up being a fifth-straight loss at the end of this six-game road trip. The Mavericks did it by committee. Led by Monta Ellis' 30pts, the Mavericks had eight players score in double figures and four players with at least five assists. And of course one of those players was former Wolf J.J. Barea who scored 14 points and added 5 assists off the bench in 21 minutes for the Mavs. The one bit of good news from tonight's game was the play from Kevin Martin & Mo Williams. Both players have struggled during this road trip, but both seemed to find their shooting touches in this loss. Martin especially as he scored a game-high 34 points on 12-for-17 shooting, including 4-for-6 from deep. The Timberwolves have three days off until their next game: Wednesday vs. the New York Knicks at the Target Center. That game tips at 7pmCST. Enjoy the game 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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