Game Preview: Timberwolves at Hawks

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Timberwolves at Hawks

Wednesday, December 21st, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. at the Philips Arena

MATCHUP

Wow. What a game against the Suns right? It’s always good to protect home court. Especially against a team who is just as worse as you are. The Timberwolves come into Atlanta with a 8-19 record. They have surpassed the Suns and now hold the 13th spot in the Western Conference. Somehow, the Western Conference is wide open. Minnesota is only 5 games out of the playoff picture. The Hawks look to counter with a 14-14 record holding the 9th spot in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta is coming off of a 2 point win against the Thunder on Monday.

Projected Starters

Timberwolves:

PG: Ricky Rubio #9

SG: Zach LaVine #8

SF: Andrew Wiggins #22

PF: Gorgui Dieng #5

C: Karl-Anthony Towns #32

Hawks:

PG: Dennis Schroder #17

SG: Kent Bazemore #24

SF: Kyle Korver #26

PF: Paul Millsap #4

C: Dwight Howard #8

Injury Report

Timberwolves: 

Nikola Pekovic – out/season (recurring foot pain)

Hawks:

Dwight Howard – questionable (back)

Tiago Splitter – questionable (hamstring)

Last Meeting

The Timberwolves and Hawks faced off twice last year. Minnesota won both of those match-ups. One of them was in Atlanta on November 9th, and the other was on November 25th at the Target Center. Zach LaVine lead the way for Minnesota with 18 points. Atlanta’s Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap both had 22 points, but it wasn’t enough. Minnesota wins 99-95.

Noteworthy

Match-up to watch tonight: Andrew Wiggins and Kyle Korver. The new versus the old. The future versus the past. Wiggins is coming off of a good game against the Suns. I hope he can continue it. Korver is a 35 year old sharpshooter out of Creighton. He’s averaging 9.2 ppg so far this season, but don’t let those numbers stray you. He is one of the best pure shooters the NBA has ever seen. If you give him space, he’ll take it.

Player to watch: Kent Bazemore. Now I know what you’re thinking. Why Bazemore? Well, if you follow Timberwolves news closely, you would know that Bazemore was highly pursued by the Timberwolves in this past free agency. He’s averaging 10.6 ppg. He’s one of those guy who hasn’t been playing bad, but also hasn’t been playing spectacular either. It’ll be interesting to see what he does.

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)

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