The Wolves are currently ranked second in the Western Conference (via Rube Chat).
Exhibition or not, the 7 p.m. game against the Chicago Bulls is the first for rookie forward Kevin Love and veteran guard/forward Mike Miller in their new Target Center home, and both are looking forward to it.
“It’s always fun to play in front of the home fans for the first time,” Miller said Tuesday. “It will be exciting to see. Hopefully, we’ll come out and put on a good show for them.”
…Fox Sports Net North will broadcast the Wolves’ final two exhibition games, tonight and Thursday.
Though coaches want to use these back-to-back games to get their last look at all players in game situations before it counts — especially Blake Ahearn and Kevin Ollie, both in contention for the team’s third point guard spot — candidates for the Timberwolves’ starting group already have emerged.
Sunday in Bismarck, N.D., against Denver, Minnesota went with forwards Ryan Gomes and Mark Madsen, guards Randy Foye and Mike Miller and center Al Jefferson for the opening tip. That’s the same staring group the Wolves used in the preseason opener Oct. 6 in Milwaukee.
For the other games, the starters have been different, yielding a mixed bag of results.
From BoilerStation.com:
Former Purdue basketball players Brian and Danielle Cardinal have donated $250,000 to the Mackey Arena renovation project.
Cardinal, who plays for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, and his wife, the former Danielle Bird, will have the arena’s new practice facility named in their honor.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor and eight members of his family are back after spending 12 days in Egypt, where they donated and disseminated 2,350 hearing aids to needy youngsters and adults.
Chris McCosky/The Detroit News on five players who are “not as bad as you might think”:
5. Ryan Gomes, Timberwolves: He can score without taking a ton of shots, he can defend and is efficient with the ball.