Game 81: Houston Rockets At Minnesota Timberwolves
The Houston Rockets were able to handle the Los Angeles Lakers with relative ease yesterday at Toyota Center in Kobe Bryant‘s last game in H-Town.
Despite the heartfelt send-off that the players, members of the organization and the fans gave to such a resounding great, the Rockets were still able ensure that they still received top-billing and were able to defeat their opponent 130-110.
As it stands at the moment, the Rockets are very much so in contention for a playoff spot.
They MUST win today to have any chance at that because if they don’t, they will be eliminated.
They’ll be facing the 28-52 Minnesota Timberwolves tonight in their last road game of the season.
In theory, they should be able to handle the T-Wolves but with the lackadaisical play against weaker opponents, we can’t put this game in the win column just yet.
The T-Wolves are young, hungry and talented team with nothing to lose so the Rockets better be ready to play hard — the playoffs are at stake.
We’ll have to see how this goes.
So who’s leading the charge for the Timberwolves?
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Andrew Wiggins is the leading scorer (20.8 PPG). Ricky Rubio is the assist man (8.7 APG) and steals king (2.10 SPG). Karl-Anthony Towns is the team’s top board-getter (10.5 RPG) and the premier shot-blocker (1.70 BPG).
Let’s talk about what the Timberwolves do well.
They keep the basketball moving around. The Timberwolves are tied for 9th in assist ratio — with the Boston Celtics — where 17.6 percent of their possessions ending with an assist.
They’re quite a decent offensive team. The Timberwolves are tied for 12th — also with the Boston Celtics — in the league in offensive efficiency, averaging 103.9 points per 100 possessions.
They’re pretty decent shooters. The Timberwolves are ranked 11th in true shooting percentage (54.7).
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Injuries:
Sam Dekker‘s back issues have crept back up again and is scheduled to meet with his doctor soon. This is unfortunate news for this year’s first-round pick but he wasn’t in the rotation so it won’t affect the team all that much. But his presence would’ve been helpful as I’d like to see what he has, it may be quite a bit. Meanwhile, Montrezl Harrell continues to exceed expectations, outplaying his 2nd-round status as I expected.
There are no injuries to report for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Sources: Mark Berman of FOX26 (KRIV)
Three Things to Watch:
- Patrick Beverley vs. Ricky Rubio
- Dwight Howard vs. Karl-Anthony Towns
- James Harden vs. Zach LaVine
- (Bonus) Trevor Ariza vs. Andrew Wiggins
Prediction:
111-103 in a Rockets’ win!
The Rockets hit the road for the last time this season to take on the Timberwolves at Target Center.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. CST.
The game will be televised on ROOT Sports Southwest and broadcast on SportsTalk 790 AM (KBME), Sirius/XM/SiriusXM Internet 890 and La Ranchera 850 AM (KEYH) in Spanish.
Go Rockets!