Category Archives: NBA

NBA

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

105 Comments

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!

NBA

Game 23: Timberwolves @ New Jersey. 6pm

123 Comments

*** 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.

Game Logs, NBA, WGOM

2012 Game Logs: Game 21 Pacers @ Wolves

157 Comments

If you haven't listened yet make a point to tune into listen to DK, cheaptoy, Stick, and myself , but mostly me, talk about the Wolves and the NBA in today's podcast. In the next NBA podcast cheaptoy, bjiggum, and myself will work out a three way trade involving Dwight Howard in our fantasy league. It might be more exciting that what you listened to today.

Onto tonight's game though-- we have Mag's Pacers facing off against everyone else's Minnesota Timberwolves. While I usually root for the Wolves to win by 30 points I'd be okay with the Wolves sending Mags off to the Prague without too much of a beating.  Normally, I would take some stats from covers.com to show why the Wolves are going to win tonight. However, as someone who follows historical trends and often times wagers I.O.U.'s for mowing a sportsbook's lawn based on those historical trends, I am not thrilled by this matchup. The Pacers are a good team and a victory tonight counts as a legitimate win against a good team.

Aww nuts, who am I kidding?  The Wolves will probably pop off for 113 points tonight.

Game Logs, NBA

2012 Game Logs: Game 21 Timberwolves @ Rockets

125 Comments

Tough loss last night followed by a tough opponent tonight.  The Wolves need to stop giving up giant leads in the first half if they want to win games consistently.  You can coast against teams like Charlotte, NOLA, and the Wizards but when you face off against teams like Houston, LAL, and the Heat you are going to have a really tough time winning games if you only show up for one half.

From SNP's twitter feed last night:

...and it was against a terrible road Lakers team with no bench and a terrible coach on the tail end of a b2b.

Anyone who looks for moral victories in this one needs to be punched in the face by Pek. This was their 1st crack at .500 since Casey...

Minny's guards were 8-40 from the floor.

The Wolves shot 104 fg tonight, turned it over only 4 times, equaled their opponent on the offensive boards and free throw line...and lost.

Wolves stunk up the joint against a team that lost to Milwaukee last night and was 1-7 on the road and with no bench #awfulloss

3rd game in team history with sub .385 fg%, sub .240 3p%, and with more than 100 fga. 1 of those was an ot game. tinyurl.com/7vtays2

Wolves had 17 more oreb, equal fta, and 4 to and they lost. That's equals some horrific shooting.

 

Let's hope the Wolves can put up points in the first two quarters tonight followed by more points in the third and fourth.  In theory the Rockets should be a good match up for Minnesota since they don't really have a dominant big man and the Wolves can play small ball. Plus the Wolves now have Brad Miller, which naturally should make up for the difference between the two teams last time they played.

Game Logs, NBA

2012 Game Logs: Game 20 Lakers @ Wolves

153 Comments

The Lakers franchise returns home tonight to find a Wolves team that is not the push over LA has been used to. Here is some facts about this game bullet point style

  • The Lakers have beaten the Wolves 15 games in a row.
  • The Wolves, with a win, will have a .500 record.
  • The Lakers are 1-7 on the road this season.
  • There probably isn't a more difficult place to play on the road than the Target Center.
  • Josh McRoberts is the third best player on the Lakers. He would be the 10th best player on the Wolves.
  • Last season the Wolves allowed 107.7 ppg. So far this season the Wolves have improved this number to 93.5ppg.
  • The Lakers have never won a game being played at the same time as the Pro Bowl when being played the week before the Super Bowl in their franchise history (0-1).
  • This will be the first match up between JJ Barea and Andrew Bynum since Bynum attempted to murder Barea in last year's playoffs. If you think JJ isn't gunning for Bynum, well, you've got another thing coming.
  • Vegas realizes all of these things and as a result have made the Lakers 1.5 underdogs to the giant killing Minnesota Timberwolves.

Today has the possibilty of being a really fun game, you guys.

NBA

Trade Tree of the Day

1 Comment

On August 2, 2005, there was a five team trade in the NBA. The Miami Heat traded Qyntel Woods, Albert Miralles, their 2006 2nd round pick, and their 2008 2nd round pick to the Boston Celtics, Eddie Jones to the Memphis Grizzlies, and Rasual Butler to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. The Boston Celtics traded Antoine Walker to the Miami Heat. The Memphis Grizzlies traded Andre Emmett, James Posey and Jason Williams to the Miami Heat and Greg Ostertag to the Utah Jazz. The New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets traded Roberto Duenas to the Miami Heat. The Utah Jazz traded Curtis Borchardt to the Boston Celtics, Raul Lopez to the Memphis Grizzlies, and Kirk Snyder to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.

On January 26, 2006, the Boston Celtics traded Marcus Banks, Mark Blount, Ricky Davis, Justin Reed, Miami's 2008 second round pick, and their 2006 2nd round draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Dwayne Jones, Michael Olowokandi, Wally Szczerbiak and the Timberwolves' 2009 1st round draft pick.

The 2006 second round pick traded to the Wolves became Craig Smith, a pretty good pick. The 2009 pick was traded back to the Wolves in the KG trade and is widely known as turning into Jonny Flynn. In actuality, however, that pick would never have gone to the Celtics until two years after the Clipper (now Hornet pick) that is unprotected in the 2012 draft. So, that pick will be the Wolves 2014 pick.

That Miami Heat 2008 pick (remember, Miami imploded after their Championship and went 15-67 making this the first pick of the second round) was used to select none other than Nikola Pekovic, who stayed in Europe until last season.

NBA

Spurs @ Timberwolves

155 Comments

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 Logs, NBA

2012 Game Logs: Game 18 Minnesota @ Dallas

83 Comments

Tonight the Wolves players will watch Dallas receive their championship rings for last season.  By all accounts this will be considered the turning point in the Wolves season that catapult them to 3 of the next 5 NBA Championships.  As of writing.  the Wolves have not signed Love to an extension yet. I imagine this will be rectified by game time.  Yep, today is going to be a pretty big day in Wolves history.

NBA

Game 17: Timberwolves hosting Houston 7pm.

118 Comments

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

Game Logs, NBA

2012 Game Logs: Game 16 Minnesota @ Utah

101 Comments

I had to take a small nap during half time last night that extended about 8 minutes into the third quarter but I watched the end of the game last night on East Coast time. I think I am really falling for this team. As many of you on the site know I have always considered myself and "NBA fan" but never really had an affiliation towards a team until I started hanging out in these parts. Seeing Stick's love of the Wolves, warts and all, was kind of contagious and I started to monitor the team a little more closely. And though I am still looking for proof, there are rumors that I said I would move to the Twin Cities if the Wolves drafted Rubio in 2009.  Well, the Wolves drafted Rubio and while I am still here in Buffalo, I am watching this team with much more interest than I have watched with any of my local teams in some time.

I know I volunteered myself to the Wolves last season when I made my formal decision to take my fandom to the Twin Cities. But I will admit, as the season wore on, my interest waned. I found myself watching more Oklahoma City, Trailblazers, or Heat games than anything else.. This season, well, I don't think I am going to run into that problem.

Bonus points for a Wolves win tonight as Minnesota has Utah's first round pick in the next draft!