All posts by davidwatts

76ers @ Wolves 6:oo pm

The Wolves have a 15-16 record, but are only 8-10 at home. I guess the record could change if some of the bad bounces early in the season went the Wolves way. Tonight the Wolves face a tough Eastern Conference team in Philadelphia. They are a bit of a surprise with a 20-11 records and a bigger surprise (to me at least) is that Doug Collins is their coach and they havent completely flamed out. Thats probably a bit too harsh on Collins. He has a career .527 winning mark, but most of that can be traced to coaching Jordan and Pippen in Chicago in the 80's.

Looking at Philly's roster, they have a 'Wow, this guy is still around' player in Elton Brand and maybe Tony Battie (he hasnt played since Feb 2 though so he may be in a doghouse or something). The Wolves also catch a break because it looks like big man Spencer Hawes is still hurt. The way Pek! has been dominating lately, it could spell bad news for the visitors.

Game 31 7:oo pm. Hey look! We play Houston again!

I dont have much to say about this because I am sick of seeing Houston. The other day, Wolves Radio play by play man Alan Horton tweeted some good Pek! stats

1st 11g of the year N.Pekovic played 4min total. Last 13g (MIN 7-6) he's averaging 29min 16pts 10rbs 62% FG with 3+ FTA/g. #twolves

Pek is shooting 61.3%, would rank 3rd in the #nba if qualified. But he's averaging 7 FGM/g in Feb, at that rate will qualify in 3gms.

Game 30: Charlotte Bobcats @ Minnesota Timberwolves

The Charlotte Bobcats are a bad team. They are 3-25 on the year and are on a 15 game losing streak and their last win was a month ago. They havent scored a 100 points since that win, and have only score 90+ twice on this losing streak. But, the Timberwolves are playing a stretch of bad basketball (4 straight losses) with tons of turnovers (20.5 p/g in that streak) and relatively poor shooting (41% down from their 42% season average...I was shocked that its 41%, but I am guessing Pek!'s high shooting percentage makes up for what seems like 100 misses from outside of 10 feet).

I guess my point is that the Wolves should win this one easily, but the Wolves are not a good enough team to commit 25 turnovers and win the game, even against the crappiest team in the league. Also, you might need a roster list because a bunch of their players are 'really, they are still in the league?!' and Kemba Walker

Game 27: Dallas @ Timberwolves 7pm

It seems like the Wolves schedule is composed of playing Houston 20 times, playing Dallas 20 times, and the rest of the league 26 times. There are downsides to the compressed 66 game schedule. but the upside is that the Wolves are playing a lot of games per week, and when you have a fun or a winning team its nice. Its almost like MLB. Who know how long the players can keep up the pace? The Wolves have been shooting horribly from outside of 10 feet the last couple of games, and its a 50/50 chance the ball goes in the bucket from inside 10. In fact, the Wolves as a team are shooting .429 this season, which ranks them 22nd in the league. Its it tired legs, or are the Wolves composed of a bunch of poor shooters...its probably a little of both.

The Wolves get a rested Kevin Love back after his 2 game mandatory vacation, and Pek! gets the starting nod again because Darko is out with a sprained right ankle and bruised ego.

*note* tomorrows Wolves-Knicks (Linsanity!) tilt is not of FSN. Last year Kevin Love had his 30-30 game against the Knicks and that game was not on tv...might have to scoop up a ducat or two for that

Game 24: .500 is in sight: the search for Curly’s gold

last night, there was no local tv coverage for our beloved Pups. Instead, FSNorth airs college hockey. No, not the Gophers, or any of the other WCHA Minnesota teams. (an aside: notice FSN never shows St. Cloud, Duluth, Bemidji, or Mankato hockey? Its like the Gophers are the only college hockey team in the state #bitterOutstater) They show Michigan-Miami (OH). Really? Heck, they could of showed North Dakota hockey and it would of made more sense.

Well tonight, once again there is no local tv for the most exciting team in market. FSNorth has got Wild hockey on the air, and I wont be bothered to watch that because they play at Dallas and the Wild hasnt won at Dallas since Manny Fernandez was the netminder (Im guestimating there, its been a long time) so once again I'll be monitoring the game on WCCO. The move from KFAN to WCCO seemed odd at the time. Why would the mighty Good Neighbor join up with a pack of misfits like the Wolves? Its not like they are going to bring in the ratings. Anyways, Im glad they are on there because out here in the southern hinterlands 'CCO comes in fine at night where KFAN (AM)dropped signal strength at sundown.

The Houston Rockets are back in town for the 7pm game. Kevin McHale was booed hard last time they were here. Did he deserve it? Probably not, but I just think it was the loyal fans of the team letting out years and years of frustration on inept draft picks and stupid coaching hirings and firings. Maybe the boos will be gone tonight.

Pek! had a monster night last night with 27 and 11 and should replace Darko in the starting lineup. Rubio is freaking awesome. @WolvesRadio tweeted some great numbers about Rubio

@rickyrubio9 becomes the 4th player in #twolves history to have a Pt/Ast Db-Db and have 6+ steals. #nba

In the last 5 2nd halves, @rickyrubio9 has 28 assists and 2 turnovers. #twolves #nba

@rickyrubio9 leads the #nba in 4th quarter assists with 56. #twolves

lets get that .500 mark!

Game 23: Timberwolves @ New Jersey. 6pm

*** ALERT ALERT *** SIX pm East Coast start

There is no local TV for this game, so once again I will follow the action on the radio with Alan Horton ( @WolvesRadio on the Twitter machine! He is actually a good follow because he throws out awesome stats during timeouts/halftime of the game and post game stats afterward).

I gotta be honest, I dont know a whole lot about the Nets. They have a bunch of injuries and Kris Humphries plays for them. I also thought they were moving to Brooklyn and they are owned by a Russian billionaire who might run for President of Russia (good luck beating Putin!). Daron Williams plays for them and is the leading scorer at 20 per, and hasnt run coach Avery Johnson out of town (yet). The Nets are also rated 3rd to last in points given up (98.8 p/g)

The Wolves are looking for a victory after getting the snot kicked out of them by the Pacers. I hope Pek! starts tonight.

Spurs @ Timberwolves

The Spurs come to Target Center with a 12-6 record, but only 2-6 on the road. The Wolves are 8-10 on the year and 4-6 at home. The last time these two teams met the Wolves were on the winning end, but also had Michael Beasley scoring points. Good news for the Wolves is that it sounds like the team is getting healthier now with Ridnour expected back and we might see Martell Webster and Brad Miller play some minutes. Beas is a game time decision.

Go Wolves

- davidwatts

Game 17: Timberwolves hosting Houston 7pm.

What are you more excited for: the return of Kevin McHale or the return of Johnny Flynn?

The Wolves are having a good year, even though they have a below .500 record (7-9). It feels like they should be 13-3. Ok, maybe Im a little overboard, but the excitement for this team skews things out of proportion. Basketball Reference says we should be 9-7.

I was looking at the standing in the Sunday paper and was surprised to see our improved hoopsters are still last in the division and in 11th place (out of 15) in the Western Conference. So, even when the Wolves are playing semi-winning basketball they are still out of the playoffs. Go figure! But there is still a lot of season left to sneak into an 8th position.

Earlier today, Coach Rick Adelman said that he thinks JJ Barea and Michael Beasley wont play this week and Martell Webster and Brad Miller will practice some this week.

Enjoy the game! Go Wolves!

-davidwatts