Game Preview: Timberwolves at Nuggets

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Game Preview: Timberwolves at Nuggets

Wednesday, December 28, 2016 at 8 p.m. At the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.

MATCHUP:

The Timberwolves are coming off an impressive 104-90 victory over the Atlanta Hawks Monday night at home. After being beaten pretty badly on the national stage Christmas day, the Wolves had a solid bounce-back game, as Karl-Anthony Towns led the charge with 22 points and 11 rebounds in the win.

Minnesota shot the lights out of Target Center, knocking down 15 three-pointers as a team. Zach LaVine continued his hot shooting, hitting six from deep on his way to 21 points. If the Wolves want to keep impressing, they will need to shoot at a good clip from here on out, as it will help keep them in games when their bench doesn’t inevitably produce like an average NBA bench should.

Denver is fresh off a 106-102 win over the injury-plagued Los Angeles Clippers Monday night. Nikola Jokic had himself a game down-low, scoring 24 points and snagging 10 rebounds as well. Denver now sits at 13-18 on the season, and will be a tough out tonight.

PROJECTED STARTERS:

Timberwolves:

PG: Ricky Rubio #9

SG: Zach LaVine #8

SF: Andrew Wiggins #22

PF: Gorgui Dieng #5

C: Karl-Anthony Towns #32

Nuggets:

PG: Emmanuel Mudiay #0

SG: Gary Harris #14

SF: Danilo Gallinari #8

PF: Kenneth Faried #35

C: Nikola Jokic #15

INJURY REPORT:

Timberwolves: Nikola Pekovic – out (recurring ankle pain)

Nuggets: none

LAST MEETING:

The last meeting between these two came November 3 in Minneapolis, as the Nuggets walked away victorious, 102-99. Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari gave the Timberwolves fits, scoring 19 points each. Veteran guard Jameer Nelson also was a key part in the Nuggets win, contributing in all areas, compiling 14 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists.

Karl-Anthony Towns had a big game in the close loss, scoring 32 points to go along with 14 rebounds. Andrew Wiggins also had a nice night, scoring 25 points while gathering three rebounds. Gorgui Dieng struggled all game due to early foul trouble, and only managed two points and four rebounds.

NOTEWORTHY:

Ricky Rubio has been playing some of his best basketball of the year as of late. Over his last 67:40 minutes played, he has zero turnovers while compiling 22 assists.

Karl-Anthony Towns is also up to his usual antics, playing extremely effective offensive basketball for a big man. In their recent win against the Hawks, KAT was perfect from all levels on offense. He went 8/8 from the field, 3/3 from deep, and 3/3from the charity stripe. Against the tough and big Denver big men, Towns will have to have another solid game for the Wolves to secure the rare back-to-back win

BROADCAST INFORMATION:

TV: Fox Sports North – Dave Benz (play-by-play), Jim Peterson (analyst)

Radio: 830 WCCO-AM – Alan Horton (play-by-play)

(All stats found on nba.com, basketball-reference.com, and Timberwolves PR)

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