Come chat with us about tonight’s game in the TWolvesBlog Forum Game Thread!
As all/many/some of you are aware, the Wolves take on The Three Um… Ah, Egos tonight in Miami. I honestly don’t enjoy going all cynical pessimist on ya’ll, but this game could be brutally ugly. So far the Wolves haven’t been able to play any defense or stop anybody (Milwaukee didn’t score a ton of points because it was Jennings and Drew Gooden shooting most of their shots), and we’ve been turning the ball over like crazy. Clearly now, the aforementioned is not a good combination when facing the best defense in the league.*
Did anyone else see the Heat dismantle the Magic last Friday night and the Nyets Sunday afternoon? The games were brutal in the tenor of their destruction; their team defense was just insanity. Good luck to anyone when the cHeat (see what I did there?) are playing like that. Oh, and the Magic were supposed to be a team that could easily vanquish the Heat, especially in the interior, yet still lost by 26.
Let’s Preview Tonight’s Squads:
(You guys already know what our players look like, so no need for pictures of our homely collection of players.)
PG: Luke Ridnour – vs- Carlos Arroyo
Advantage: T-Wolves
Assuming of course that Carlos actually plays more than 5 minutes of PG. It will probably just be LeBron abusing our guards by playing point, as we have no one that can stop, slow, or even hope to contain him.
Frodo Ridnour, on the other hand, is like Oscar Robertson-lite out there so far this year, averaging 13/5/5.
SG: Wayne Ellington – vs- D-Wade
Advantage: Definitely NOT the T-Wolves
Let’s just move along here…
SF: Michael Beasley – vs- LeBron
Advantage: The T-Wolves… never in a million years.
On second thought, maybe I should be putting pictures of the T-Wolves so that our dear readers can see the faces of the players who will be getting posterized tonight…
PF: Kevin Love – vs- Chris Bosh
Advantage: The Heat, but not astronomically like the last two.
Anyone that says K-Love is better than Chris Bosh is either Kevin Love’s mother, S-N-P, or delusional.
C: Darko – vs- Joel Anthony
Advantage: T-Wolves!
Darko’s offensive game isn’t much to write home about, but at least he’s averaging more than the 0.8 points per game that Anthony is… ummm, contributing? Darko, on the other hand, plays solid D, takes up space, blocks shots, rebounds some, and definitely facilitates offense/makes passes. Plus Darko is Serbian, which is waaaaay cooler than being Canadian, like Joel. And his name is pronounced “Joe-el”, which is just completely unstraight.
With all that said and done, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wolves have another 20+ point blowout loss on their hands. We are going to get absolutely destroyed on the wings. Beasley can’t play defense if his life depended on it (he’s amazingly much worse on the wing than KLove is at defense on the interior), Ellington is overmatched, Brewer just doesn’t have it, and Wes Johnson… well, he’s still just a rookie and has hamstring issues. The cHeat are on a mission this year and highly motivated to prove their haterz wrong. When properly motivated, LeBron and Wade are among the best defenders in the league. I don’t see them letting up all game long, only to actually try (and win) in the 4th quarter (cough cough LA Fakers cough cough.) I also wouldn’t be surprised if LeBron drops a trip-dub and Wade goes off for 35+ points.
* So far this young NBA season, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it continues all season long. LeBron and Wade are + defenders and highly motivated.
Please Click “Read More” for TWolves Daily News and Notes…
– Chad Ford over at Truehoop, on whether or not the Wolves are “Feeling the Love?”
– TWolves pick up the Team Options for next year, for players Mike Beasley, KLove, Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington, and Kosta Koufos the Doofus. But no team option for Corey Brewer, making him a restricted free agent next summer. Can’t say I disagree about not extending Brewer (will miss his goat if he leaves!), but why sign Kosta for $2.2 million? Seems like a waste of money to me for a (very) end of the bench player. Oh well, I guess things could be worse. At least we are still under the cap.
– Jerry Zgoda with more on the extensions.
– “Does It Make A Sound?” The always great Myles Brown.
– The Pioneer Press’s Ray Richardson on Beasley’s Miami homecoming.
– More on Beasley “coming home” to Miami, from Ethan Skolnick at the Palm Beach Post.
– A preview for tonight’s game from Ray Richardson.
– And in case you somehow missed it, Michael Beasley calling the T-Wolves the worst team in NBA after our Saturday night blowout loss to Memphis.
– Lastly, The Memphis Grizzlies just gave Mike Conley Jr. a $45 million dollar, 5 year extension (which is the word on the street.) Conley Jr. joins Durant and Al Horford as the only three players from the class of 2007 to receive an “early” contract extension, which sets a record for being a new low amount of players. I happen to think this is beyond preposterous. There’s no way he’s even remotely worth that kind of money. First Rudy Gay, and then this for Conley? WTF is Memphis’ management thinking? And they didn’t want to pay their lottery pick a couple hundred thousand dollars in guaranteed salary, (hence Xavier Henry’s pre-season holdout.) What a joke. The NBA lockout is a-coming…