Game Preview: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks

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Game Preview: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks

Friday, February 24 2017 at 7:00 p.m. at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

MATCHUP:

Minnesota hosts Dallas in their first game following the all star break. The current crop of Timberwolves remains intact following some trade rumors involving Ricky Rubio and Shabazz Muhammad. Minnesota enters tonight’s matchup after last playing February 15th, in an exciting clobbering of the Denver Nuggets. They sit at a disappointing 3-8 since the start of February, including a unfortunate 4 game skid following an exciting 5-1 run to close out January.

The Mavs have righted the ship somewhat following their catastrophic 2-13 start to open the season. The team is 6-4 over the course of their last 10 games, including back-to-back wins against San Antonio and Cleveland. The Wolves shouldn’t take tonight’s game lightly.

PROJECTED STARTERS:

Timberwolves:

PG: Ricky Rubio #9
SG: Brandon Rush #4
SF: Andrew Wiggins #22
PF: Gorgui Dieng #5
C: Karl-Anthony Towns #32

Mavericks

PG: Yogi Ferrell #11
SG:  Seth Curry #30
SF: Wesley Matthews #23
PF: Harrison Barnes #40
C: Dirk Nowitzki #41

INJURY REPORT:

Timberwolves: Nikola Pekovic – out/season (recurring ankle pain), Zach LaVine – out/season – (Torn left ACL)

Mavericks: Nerlens Noel – day-to-day (coach’s decision), J.J. Barea – out (calf)

LAST MEETING:

The Mavericks and Timberwolves faced-off twice in the month of January, splitting the series 1-1. Minnesota was able to win the first meeting behind the excellent offensive play of Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished the night going 34-11-4, shooting 0.789 from the field. Dallas just didn’t have anyone with the defensive ability who could stop him. Dirk Nowitzki played 31 minutes and finished the game -20 despite scoring 26 points on 8-16 shooting. Nobody on either team had a +/- that was even close to as bad. The power of KAT shall make opposing forwards tremble.

Unfortunately, the following meeting acted as the previous one’s inverse. Nobody in a Minnesota uniform could get their shot to fall, and poor bench play absolutely demolished any chance the Timberwolves had at winning. The entire bench unit finished the game shooting 4-19, with all 4 makes coming solely from Nemanja Bjelica. In fact, all of the Wolves starters finished positively in the +/- column with the exception of Zach Lavine (-1), but the Mavs bench was able to tear through the lesser Wolves back up unit like a hot knife through butter. In just 16 minutes, both Dwight Powell, J.J. Barea, and Devin Harris were able to all finish the night +17 or better. Let’s hope Thibs takes note and adjusts his lineups accordingly, better staggering the starters in and out of the bench units.

NOTEWORTHY

Dallas plays a war of attrition style basketball, rarely pushing the pace and running in the open floor. They rank 29th in pace and 30th in pts/g, but can score with an arsenal of players. Harrison Barnes is the Mav’s go-to offensive weapon this season, and it may be tough for Towns to keep up with Barnes spry speed coming off screens, but the undersized forwards sleight build will look to get absolutely pummeled in the post by the bigger, stronger Minnesota player. Expect Towns to get a lot of action down low tonight, with the Mavs most likely having to rely on double teams if they wish to have any hope at stopping the Wolves big.

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, and basketball-reference.com)