Minnesota Sports Forum

will tell us a lot about our beloved Wolves. They are favored by 3 against Memphis, and will likely be favored against Boston tomorrow, so nobody can argue that both games are not winnable. Neither opponent has a winning record at home. If we win both, we will be 4-2 in the dreaded 10-game stretch from Hell (now 9) with a very winnable game against Portland Wednesday (yes, I know how good they are, but they will be playing their 4th game in 5 nights, and NBA teams don't win often in that scenario). Then, a split in LA would leave us 6-3 in this brutal series of games, probably exceeding anyone's expectations, with an incredibly soft schedule ahead.

But it's going to be tough to win both. Memphis has been very bad since Gasol went down and has lost 7 of their last ten. That said, they have beaten the Wolves 11 times in a row, I think. That streak ends tonight. We're just better than them without Gasol.

Boston is going to be more of a challenge. It will be the back end of a BTB, and I have documented how poorly the Wolves shoot in these situations. And although they looked awful in their preseason game against us, the Celtics seem to be adjusting well to their new coach and are a surprising 4th place in the East. But those are the key words...in the East. They are only 2-7 against the West, and one of those wins was against hapless Utah. This will be a tough win, but like Philadelphia last week, this is the kind of game we need to win to show we are truly an upper echelon team.

Let's go for the 2-game road sweep!

LST, These are two game that should be difficult, and we should win.

Lately the Wolves have been a pretty good road team. For that to continue, we have to beat decent teams at on the road. Memphis seems like an easier game with Gasol out. Losing in memphis tonight would be a significant setback.

I expect the boston game to be a bit more difficult. and winable.

We will need to be able to beat lesser teams on the road, even on back to back games, to be where we want to be this year.

Winning both of these games would show that the Wolves as a team have made significant progress.

Hello there! I've been stuck down here in the Galapagos with no internet access. :( Now back in Quito and I can catch up on a few things. Very pleased with the B2B wins last week. B2B wins this week would be terrific!

Any news on Bud or Turiaf?

Unfortunately, I'll be without access again this coming week...

60WinTim wrote:Hello there! I've been stuck down here in the Galapagos with no internet access. :( Now back in Quito and I can catch up on a few things. Very pleased with the B2B wins last week. B2B wins this week would be terrific!

Any news on Bud or Turiaf?

Unfortunately, I'll be without access again this coming week...

They're both travelling with the team, Tim, but there's still no timetable for return. Chase is healing faster than Turiaf and is expected back first.
I hope you enjoyed the Galapagos and didn't get chased by any angry bull seals! I had a great three days there 10 years ago...thought Quito was an underrated city too. Hopefully you're going to be off the grid because you're headed for Cusco and Machu Picchu next...everybody should go there once!

Have fun and we'll take care of business here.

60WinTim wrote:Hello there! I've been stuck down here in the Galapagos with no internet access. :( Now back in Quito and I can catch up on a few things. Very pleased with the B2B wins last week. B2B wins this week would be terrific!

Any news on Bud or Turiaf?

Unfortunately, I'll be without access again this coming week...

Hopefully they will will be back by around the time you are! I hope you enjoy your trip....despite not being able to watch them online!

I was hoping for 4 wins over this tough stretch of 9 games (originally 10, but the Spurs game in Mexico was cancelled). So far we have three. So I will be fine if we can simply take one out of the next four, even though it never feels good to win just one out of four.

After the next four, we have what might be our easiest stretch of the season over the next 13 games.

Yeah, I was thinking 4-6 too...I'm much more optimistic now. I don't know about tomorrow against the Celtics, but I'm feeling really good about Portland and the Lakers. So now I'm thinking 6-3 or 5-4. Kudos to cam who has nailed the first 5 games, and has us going 6-3.

I mentioned before that Portland will be playing us in their 4th game in 5 nights, all on the road in cold cities. That is brutal. And I didn't mind seeing all of their starters log over 40 minutes tonight in an overtime win over Detroit. I gotta believe they are going to be exhausted and focused on getting home to do their Christmas shopping, and they're just going to mail it in on Wednesday. Lucky for us, because they are really good.

Tonight's win over Memphis was huge. We match up tomorrow night as the better team against the Celtics. Love is hot and Martin should be well rested after plating only 19 minutes tonight. Better yet, Shved is starting to show some signs of life and Barea may have found his stroke tonight.

A win over Boston tomorrow would set us up nicely with momentum and a day of rest for a win at home Wednesday night against what should be a tired, albeit superior Portland team.

Kevin Love has really stepped up at a time when we really needed him the past few games.

Gotta beat boston tomorrow, you've already lost to mediocre teams from the east twice (cleveland and wiz) cannot keep doing this if you wanna make it in the playoffs in this conference you're in.