This is the last game before the All Star break. Pek! will try to make it a go with a bum ankle, but how far down is Anthony Randolph in the doghouse? from the Stribs Jerry Zgoda
Jerry Zgoda @JerryZgoda
Expect Pekovic to give it a go and start tonight. Randolph and Lee are the inactives tonight vs. Jazz
Randolph's last game was Feb 2 when he played 12 minutes and scored 8 points
didnt see a game log so here is one. Mountain time start for the Wolves.
Corey Brewer and Kosta Koufos play for Denver.
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.
When it comes to quantifying what a player's contribution is to a team, baseball is king. With its discrete events, it is relatively speaking, pretty easy to determine, statistically, who is contributing the most to a team's victory. Football, not so much. Basketball is somewhere in between and I think a lot of fun to discuss. Where the rigidity of baseball (pitcher throws ball to batter) and football (ball is snapped to QB and five of eleven players on offense never touch the ball when it is live) dictates offensive flow, any player on offense can contribute at any time, depending on the circumstances.
There are a lot of numbers that I like to look at, but one of my favorite is ORtg and DRtg. ORtg is an estimation of the number of points a player (or a team) generates per 100 possessions. Let's look at a couple of players from this season. I have added a "Difference" column, which is simply the difference betwen the ORtg and the DRtg.
Continue reading The Game is About Scoring Points and Stopping the Other Team from Scoring Points
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.
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
Below is a make believe conversation that may or may not take place after the Wolves beat the Magic tonight.
Jerry Zgoda: Dwight, there has been a lot of speculation as to where you might end up this season.
Dwight Howard: Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio are really talented players, they really impressed me tonight. I could see myself playing in Minnesota.
Jerry Zgoda: Umm...
Dwight: I am committed to giving it my all in Orlando though. I would never ask for a trade
Jerry Zgoda: Sure...
Dwight: It is just that sometimes, you know, I want to win championships and I don't know that if the team I have here in Orlando will help me in accomplishing that goal.
Jerry Zgoda: ....
Dwight: But yeah, I think that New York, New Jersey, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Minnesota all present those opportunities.
Jerry Zgoda: So are you saying that you want to play in Minnesota?
Dwight: Look man, I don't know why you reporters keep asking me questions like this. I just want to play the game and help Orlando win a championship.
Tonight, watch Dwight Howard sullenly put up 20/13 while not interacting with his teammates in anyway what so ever.
I dont have much to say about this. Linsanity has taken over, so Ricky Rubio has become a has been. The Wolves have been horrible turning the ball over the last few games, and combine that with poor shooting, it has led to some ugly basketball.
No local tv tonight, so that means Pek! is going to score 50
Go Wolves
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
Tonight I will be heading to see the local sports team, the Buffalo Sabres and their 22-24-6 record as they continue to hover around the .500 mark. Now, I don't know if they are above .500 or below .500 but one thing I know for sure is the Wolves are one game over .500.
The Wolves are going to need another Pekovician performance out of Nikola tonight if they hope to compete in the second game of a back to back against Memphis without Kevin Love. This isn't last year's Grizzles team, for sure, in fact while I know it might be a little early to say this but the Grizz and the Wolves might be fighting for a playoff spot come the end of the season as only one game currently separates the two teams in the standings.
Vegas has Minnesota as 8.5 dogs tonight. Time to shock the world-- or something.