Minnesota Sports Forum

I'm interested to see if Finchie tinkers with the starting lineup and inserts either Moore Jr. or Rivers to start the game guarding Lillard, with SloMo to come off the bench.

Go Wolves!

Q-was-here wrote:I'm interested to see if Finchie tinkers with the starting lineup and inserts either Moore Jr. or Rivers to start the game guarding Lillard, with SloMo to come off the bench.

Go Wolves!

I'm assuming Portland will start Lillard-Simons-Hart-Grant-Nurkic. With that in mind, I would continue to employ the Russell-Edwards-McDaniels-Anderson-Gobert starting lineup if I were Finch. We need that group to have some continuity and find an identity.

Gobert gets Nurkic, obviously, and then Anderson has to take Grant. I wouldn't want to force McDaniels at the four against Grant, which is what would have to happen if Finch inserted another guard. I've never thought Minnesota created an advantage by playing him at the four. The team gets crushed on the boards playing that way and his size/length/agility advantage gets negated.

I think you matchup with McDaniels on Lillard, Edwards on Simons, and Russell on Hart while knowing that those three can live with switches occasionally.

Whew. Portland is shooting the ball really well this season. I knew that was the case, but the numbers are staggering.

Timberwolves Starters:
- D'Angelo Russell
- Anthony Edwards
- Jaden McDaniels
- Kyle Anderson
- Rudy Gobert

Blazers Starters:
- Damian Lillard
- Anfernee Simons
- Josh Hart
- Jerami Grant
- Jusuf Nurkic

Wolves are content letting Jusuf Nurkic shoot these wide open threes. He's bricked both of them so far.

Ant gets the hoop and the harm. Jaden says, "hold my beer" and gets the same result on a later possession. Strong start for Minnesota's young guns.

Rudy comes out and the Blazers score on 4 straight possessions

5 straight possessions and Mcdaniels has 2 fouls. Wolves 1-8 he doesn't play 25 minutes

6 of 7 possessions and the miss was an uncontested dunk

Lillard to the line to make it 7 of 8