Three games in four nights - Take Three

[60WinTim]

So now we have three days off to actually practice with LaVine starting at the point. He didn't really screw up out there, so he's got that going for him. Now let's see if both he and Wiggins can pick it up in the "aggressiveness" department.

The next three games are all on the road, even though the schedule says we are at home against Houston. The KOM predicts a 2-1 record, and that was going to be challenging before the Rubio injury! How many games do you think the Wolves will win?

vs Houston
at New Orleans
at Dallas

[kekgeek]

I went 1 and 2, and I have no idea what game they are going to win

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

0-3. I think these guys are running on pure effort right now, which is good to see, but after watching an old and deteriorating Wade carve us up, it's pretty clear our talent (especially without Rubio) is a notch below even the .500 teams in the league. This will be a tough stretch.

[Porckchop]

With or without Rubio this team doesn't have a player that makes enough winning plays in end game situations . Martin can get hot and hit shots that keep games close but he also plays shoddy defense and always seems to have that one head scratching play when shits on the line. Pek finds a way to put up some decent numbers thruout the game, but it's his missed bunnies , poor pick n roll D and butter fingers that sticks out cuz it seems to happen at the worst times. These two guys are depended upon to guide this team but theyve never been winning players.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I nailed the first two polls by going with the KOM forecasted 1-2, but reading that it is now forecasting a 2-1, I can only conclude that it needs to be taken into the shop for recalibrating. I'm afraid this 3-game set was hovering between an 0-3 and a 1-2 before the Rubio injury, but now I don't see us winning any of the three. Our best chance of not going 0-3 is another escalator fire in Mexico City, but my sources are telling me that isn't likely. Hopefully there will be continued improvement by the youngsters, but this one is a clear 0-3...sorry :X .

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

1-2. The win will come against New Orleans.

So far we've gone 1-2 and 1-2 through these three game spurts. Unfortunately for us, we should be 2-1 through both even with Rubio's injury. Butler no call on the travel, mystery foul drawn by Vucevic. Oh well.

We've been in every game to this point, which I find extremely uplifting as we've played some good teams already. We're deep, we're energetic and we surprisingly rebound the ball very well.

Minnesota won three out of four quarters last night. That's another thing to be happy about. Unfortunately, they came out flat while Miami hit everything in he first quarter creating a hole too large for the Rubio-less Wolves to overcome.

Maybe Houston has an off shooting night, and I'd yet again give Wiggins a tough assignment on Harden. Eventually he'll realize that to guard the best scorers in the NBA, he needs to play in their chest and rely on his foot speed and length. Once he does that, he'll be a much better man defender. Offensively, Pekovic is going to match or beat Howard. Martin has the ability to match Harden, though he's in a cold stretch. I also like our bench better than H-Town's. We'll see what happens.

Beating New Orleans is a gut feeling. They're playing good ball right now and Davis is taking his game to a higher level, but I think we steal that W due to being overlooked. We're just the silly Timberwolves without our best player.

Bazz has earned the right to get 15-20 minutes a game by the way. Not only is it good for his development, but he's been really productive. He's also proving that he, in fact, can shoot the ball. Left hook, offensive rebounds and now a spot up jumper. I enjoy his game no matter how basic it is. He also was guarding Wade at stretches, and I didn't think he was a liability at all. His presence put Wade back on the perimeter. I will be outraged if Bud comes off the bench before him at this point.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Cam, I'm glad you pointed out that Shabazz was on Wade last night for awhile. He worked hard, and used his body better than Wiggins did when he was guarding him at crunch time. That's why, although I have been really happy with Flip's rotations so far, I wanted Bazz in at the end of the game. He was unconscious scoring the ball, and at least for last night, was as effective on defense as Wiggins was. Wiggins doesn't yet have the swagger on offense that his immense talents should give him, so essentially we were playing 4 on 5 offensively when the game was on the line. Flip The GM is focused on giving experience to his rookies in tough scenarios, though, so I have a hard time questioning his decisions about whom to play.

[Volans19]

0-3

These next 3 games are against legit teams who have way more firepower on offense than we do. I think that Harden is going to go off against us and Dwight will have a block party. We don't have anyone who can guard the Brow (maybe Dieng?) and Jrue and Tyreke are going to drive the lane all night, like Wade did last night. Dallas will be the closest game in my eyes, LaVine could go off against all their undersized PG's and Thad could have a very nice scoring game against Dirk, but Monta, Dirk, Parsons, hell even Tyson could all go for 20+ against us

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Good luck to Parsons and especially Chandler, who has never won his position matchup against Pekovic. Let's not get over pessimistic.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

I'll say 1-2. Nice to hear Bazz is playing well. I hope he can grow into that versatile 6th man role. I'd like to see AB have a good 3 games as well. We've been anxiously awaiting his return.