Game Preview: Wolves at 76ers

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Game Preview: Timberwolves vs. Sixers

Tuesday, Jan. 3rd, 2017 at 6 p.m. at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Matchup

The Minnesota Timberwolves (11-23) will look to right the ship against a wounded Philadelphia team following a disappointing loss to a Trailblazers team lacking superstar Damien Lillard. The Wolves are slowly finding their footing in the Western Conference, winning five of the last ten and looking to finish the year with a hopeful .500 record to match the more realistic expectations after the bubble seemingly burst following an achingly disappointing 3-10 start

Philadelphia has continued to perform around preseason projections: a confusingly flawed and frustrating team that becomes sneakily competitive when rookie stand-out Joel Embiid is on the court, and a near-fatal trainwreck when he’s forced to watch the action from the bench. They will suit up against the Wolves following a two-point win against the Denver Nuggets. Prior to that, they’d lost seven of their last eight.

Projected Starters

Timberwolves

PG: Ricky Rubio #9
SG: Zach Lavine #8
SF: Andrew Wiggins #22
PF: Gorgui Dieng #5
C: Karl-Anthony Towns #32

76ers

PG: T.J. McConnell #1
SG: Nik Stauskas #11
SF: Robert Covington #33
PF: Ersan Ilyasova #7
C: Joel Embiid #21

Injury Report

Timberwolves: Nikola Pekovic – out/season (recurring ankle pain)

76ers: Ben Simmons – out (foot), Gerald Henderson – day-to-day (hip), Richaun Holmes – out (concussion), Sergio Rodriguez – day-to-day (ankle), Jerryd Bayless – out/season (wrist)

Last Meeting

The Wolves and Sixers last faced off in mid November where Minnesota absolutely decimated the young Philadelphia squad. Gerald Henderson made a 3-pointer to start things off, and it was the only lead the 76ers would hold for the rest of the game. During the opening moments of the third, the Wolves were able to extend the lead to an eye-popping 33 points. Andrew Wiggins was a monster on the offensive side of the ball, scoring a gamehigh 35 points on 14-20 shooting. Three Timberwolves players were able to pull down ten rebounds, and the team was able to out perform the Sixers on the glass 48-40.

Nothing the Sixers shot seemed able to go in. Robert Covington was a black hole on offense. He shot 1-12, including 0-7 from 3, and finished the game -17 in his 28 minutes. The two Philly rookies in Joel Embiid and Dario Saric were the only shining bright spots for the Sixers squad. Saric finished with a team high 16 points on 6-11 shooting from the bench, and Embiid was able to muscle his way to ten points and four offensive rebounds while spending most of the night being guarded by Gorgui Dieng.

Noteworthy

Philly’s big men tandem of Ilyasova and Embiid can be crushing when the two players are shooting well. Both stretch the floor, shooting .401 and .388 respectively. In the Sixers recent win against Denver, Ilyasova shot 5-6 from beyond the arc and would go on to score 23 points. Embiid relied on his scoring from beneath the basket, showing impressive patience and timing for a player his age. He shot 12-14 from the free throw line, bullying his way to 23. Towns and Dieng will have to play the two bigs tightly, closing out on the perimeter and forcing Philadelphia to score with their trigger-happy wing players.

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 from nba.com and basketball-reference.com)