Game Preview: Timberwolves host Mavs

*Check out The Howl Podcast for everything Timberwolves HERE *

Timberwolves host Mavs

Monday, January 9th, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. at the Target Center

MATCHUP

New year, same Timberwolves. Minnesota has yet to win a game in the new year. They are currently on a 4 game losing streak, and the last two have been absolute gut punches. Minnesota looks to fend off an identical Mavericks team. Both Minnesota and Dallas are 11-26. Minnesota is dead last with the 15th spot in the Western Conference. Dallas is 14th in the Western Conference, but what’s the difference right?

Projected Starters

Timberwolves:

PG: Ricky Rubio #9

SG: Zach LaVine #8

SF: Andrew Wiggins #22

PF: Gorgui Dieng #5

C: Karl-Anthony Towns #32

Mavs:

PG: Deron Williams #8

SG: Wesley Matthews #23

SF: Harrison Barnes #40

PF: Dirk Nowitzki #41

C: Andrew Bogut #6

Injury Report

Timberwolves: 

Nikola Pekovic – out/season (recurring foot pain)

Mavs:

N/A

Last Meeting

The Timberwolves and Mavs faced off three times last year. The Mavs walked away with a win in all 3 games. The last time the two faced off was on April 3rd, 2016 in a pointless end-of-year game. Andrew Wiggins scored what seemed like half of Minnesota’s points with 30. J.J. Barea was back for revenge. He lead the Mavs in scoring with 21 points. Dallas defeats Minnesota 88-78.

Noteworthy

Match-up to watch tonight: Wesley Matthews and Zach LaVine. Now this is going to be fun. Two of the league’s top sharpshooters face off in Minneapolis. LaVine is an athletic shooter who can cause some trouble. Matthews is a knowledgeable veteran who simply knows how to play ball. Both are near the top of the league in 3 point shooting. I can already tell that some absolute bombs are going to be dropped.

Player to watch: Dorian Finney-Smith. Now I know what you’re thinking. Who?! Meet Dorian Finney-Smith, the un-drafted project out of Florida. As of late, he’s found a home in Dallas. He’s averaging over 22 minutes a game, and has been seen as a force on the court. His solid 6’8, 220 build could cause some problems for Minnesota. We’ll see how Minnesota reacts to the Dallas bench.

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)

[protected-iframe id=”a2daf81e0839e016c2601f8d68b3cc73-114320562-8484076″ info=”https://numberfire.com/external/widgets/nba/game-projections/minnesota-timberwolves/” width=”600″ height=”300″]