Two straight back to back's on the road will create a fatigued team, and the Wolves are leaving the best for last heading into LA tonight to battle Vinny Del Negro and the equally struggling Clippers.
Talk about the game here as you wish. Some thoughts:
-CP3. Do we put Malcolm Lee on him? How to contain the man? It is no mystery that all opposing teams are attacking from the perimeter and exploiting the porous defense of the Wolves' back court "defenders." Chris Paul is arguably the best PG in the league and is probably eating a wholesome lunch today thinking about how he is going to make mincemeat of Luke Ridnour tonight. The key will be preventing the lobs and providing ample help on the penetration. Luckily ace defender Kevin Love is back in the lineup to help out there.
-West Woes. Both the Wolves and the Clippers have recently come back to earth. As we all know, the Wolves are losers of 6 of 8 games (hello Rhombus era!) and the Clippers have dropped four in a row themselves. That being said, the Clippers are very unlikely to coast through this game and a bounceback effort at home should be fully expected. Furthermore, Blake Griffin, off to a slow start this year, scored a career low 4 points the other night against the Hornets. Against Ryan Anderson. He is not going to take this game lightly and is sure to have one of those nights that just makes your blood boil. Have we seen a player become so unlikable so quickly in this league?
-Getting used to Love. Against the Kings, the Wolves generally looked a lot smoother on offense. An offense tends to when playing the Kings. Most notable was that Adelman tightened his rotation considerably, relied more on the starters, and the Wolves' actually got some real offense from both starting guard spots for the first time this season. Love seemed more eager to move the ball, and was more active in running the offense outside of the left elbow, as he did ad-nauseum against the Warriors over the weekend. As a result, better ball movement created better shots and looks all around, as production and scoring was well-balanced throughout the roster. What has really plagued the Wolves thus far has been perimeter shooting. Love sans hand brace will help this over time. Now, should the Wolves' guards come up flat again tonight vs. the Clippers, we are in for an ugly night.
-Prediction. The Clippers are a playoff team, and a highly seeded one at that. With Rubio last year, the Wolves sunk this team a few times but marginal improvements from the guards will not be enough to withstand the depth of the Clippers. Sadly, the Wolves will likely head back home tonight with their tails between their legs, especially coming off a back to back in which the starters logged huge minutes. The Wolves will get 3 more attempts later on this year to right the ship.
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