Game Preview: Timberwolves vs. Cavaliers

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Game Preview: Timberwolves vs. Cavs

Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

MATCHUP

Tonight’s Valentines Day meeting follows an exceptional routing of the Chicago Bulls by our very own Timberwolves this past Sunday. The team demolished a decimated Bulls team 89-117 behind strong play from Wiggins and Towns. With the much needed emergence of Shabazz Muhammed on the offensive end, the hole created by the injured Zach Lavine hasn’t been as dire as previously thought. They face a Cleveland squad that seemed to be righting the ship after inconsistent play to start off the month until an extended Kevin Love injury puts the fate of the team’s status in the East in question. This meeting follows a decisive win against the Denver Nuggets on behalf of the Cavs this Saturday.

A win tonight would make the Wolves 7-15 for the month of February. Minnesota is 4 games behind Denver for the 8th spot in the Western Conference.

PROJECTED STARTERS:

Timberwolves:

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

Cavs

PG: Kyrie Irving #2
SG: Iman Shumpert #4
SF: DeAndre Liggins #14
PF: Lebron James #23
C: Tristan Thompson #13

INJURY REPORT:

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

Cavs: Chris Anderson – out/season (knee), Kevin Love – out (knee), Iman Shumpert – questionable (ankle)

LAST MEETING

Minnesota and Cleveland faced off once earlier this month already. Minnesota played well early, and a close contest was shaping up as the two teams entered the locker room at the half. The Cavs led 63-60, unable to hold Wiggins who began cooking in the second quarter after a disappointing start. He scored 10 in the second to go along with Karl-Anthony Towns 13 in the half.

The second half was one of the bigger disasters for the Timberwolves this season, however. The Wolves were unable to score 20 points as a team in the third and fourth quarter, playing collective team defense like a series of turnstyles against an extremely aggressive Lebron James. Lebron would finish the game with 27-12-8 on .786 shooting. Clevelands newest addition in Kyle Korver also came alive against the Wolves, scoring 20 points on 4-7 shooting from beyond the arc while coming off the bench. Cleveland would finish the game with an offensive rating of 131 and nine players ended the night in double figures in the +/- column. Shabazz Muhammed and Zach Lavine were the biggest blackholes on offense. The two would finish the game with a combined 11-34 from the field and -49 in the +/- column. Yikes.

NOTEWORTHY

Andrew Wiggins has a history of performing exceptionally well against the team that took him first overall in 2014. Over the course of five games, Wiggins has averaged 25-2-2 on 0.557. He’s entering this game following a dominating performance against the Chicago Bulls. Hopefully some of his mojo from the previous game carries over into tonight. Go Timberwolves.

BROADCAST INFORMATION:

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

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

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