I had the pleasure to be at Thursday night’s regular season finale for the Minnesota Timberwolves. I attended a pre-game reception where Team President Chris Wright talked as did Vice President of Basketball Operations David Kahn. I’ll have posts about what was said there later this weekend or early next week! I walked around the Target Center a bit and saw a few familiar faces. One of which was Minnesota Lynx Head Coach Cheryl Reeve, TWolves web editor Mark Remme, Star Tribune writer Jerry Zgoda, FSN sideline reporter Robby Incmikowski and of course the TWolves mascot, Crunch who was scootering around on a Segway. I also bought a new TWolves t-shirt: a Nikola Pekovic shirt, it’s pretty awesome. I sat in Section 130 about twenty rows up from just off mid-court. Although the game didn’t go the greatest, I still had a great time! I got to see 14-year veteran Brad Miller’s final game in the NBA and that was well worth it! Miller played 17 minutes, had 4pts, 4reb, 4ast and 2stls and got a heartfelt standing ovation from the scattered Target Center crowd. Miller did break down emotionally (as you can see to the left). As I was walking out, I heard some fans talking about how surprised they were that he starting crying. I didn’t find it surprising at all! After 14 years in the NBA, you’ve played your final minutes on an NBA court and you’ll never be back as a player! I’d say that’s reason for being as emotional as you’d like. Unfortunately he didn’t get to go out with a win or reach the postseason, once more. The first half of the game was a lot of fun to watch as it was actually a competitive game, but if you were at the game or watched on TV, you know it was just brutal. Guys just gave up and the Nuggets just continued to roll. The Nuggets’ 131 points is the second-most scored by a TWolves opponent (the first being that double overtime game vs. the Thunder back on 3/23 when OKC scored 149). It was disappointing to watch, an unfortunate way to end the season, but I don’t think you could find one TWolves fan out there that isn’t excited about the 2012-13 Minnesota Timberwolves. With a young nucleus of Ricky Rubio, Derrick Williams, Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic the TWolves will be must-see TV once again! Let’s take a look at some of tonight’s top performers for each team… Top Performers
HOT: The Denver Nuggets. As you can see above, Denver got contributions from almost every player on the roster. The Nuggets got double digit scoring from seven of their players (beyond the six above, Corey Brewer added 12 off the bench). NOT: The Minnesota Timberwolves second half defense. It was just rough to watch. Easy layup after easy layup and no one interested in even trying to stop their man, no one boxing anyone out, no closing out on the shooters and ultimately, no effort or energy…from anyone! Team Statistics
KEY STATS: The Nuggets shot a season-high percentage for a TWolves opponent, they dominated the Wolves on the boards (a +19!) had more assists, steals, points from their reserve players (a + 21), more fast break points (+5), more points in the paint (+32), the 80 points in the paint for Denver is a season-high for a TWolves opponent and although Denver had more turnovers for more Minnesota points, they made up for it, obviously—in a lot of other ways!
That’s all for this season folks! We obviously won’t be having any more posts in our gameday section until the first preseason games in October. We will continue to update our news section with all your TWolves news & rumors! We’ll also be updating the ‘Records’ pages in our “History” section. If you’re a Minnesota Lynx fan, you can visit my new site: www.mnlynx.weebly.com which has all the kind of information in a very similar format to HOWL! 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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