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The Timberwolves have yet to win the second game on a back-to-back. Tonight will be one of their tougher chances this year, matching up against a streaking Oklahoma City Thunder team.
The Thunder will look to avenge their loss in Minnesota in late October, where the Wolves played excellent defense and took control of the game almost immediately, ultimately winning 100-81. They held onto their big lead throughout by holding Kevin Durant to just 13 points on 4-11 shooting. With Russell Westbrook out and the Thunder scoring options sparse, the Wolves were able to take advantage and put the game away quickly.
Since then, the Thunder have gotten Westbrook back. Since then, Kevin Durant's only game not hitting the 20-point mark was in a blowout against Utah where he played just 26 minutes (he still scored 19). Since then, the Thunder are 10-2, and are seemingly back to playing "Thunder basketball".
Their last game was Friday, where they won an overtime game at home against the Golden State Warriors 113-112. They should have fresh legs tonight, staying in OKC for their night off.
Meanwhile, the Wolves looked as if they were back on track last night at Dallas. Aside from the last 20 seconds or so, anyway.
Defensively, they did a much better job on the perimeter, closing out shooters and forcing a low percentage from three point land. They still struggled giving up points in the paint and on the fast break, but improvement is improvement.
Offensively, the unforced turnovers were less frequent, and all three members of the Love/Martin/Pek combo were productive - a must if the Wolves want to string some wins together and full regain their confidence.
The bench had some positive production in last night's win as well, with newcomer Luc Mbah a Moute getting the most minutes among the reserves. Adding him will be huge against teams like OKC, giving Rick Adelman more chances to give Corey Brewer a break.
Here is how the rest of the matchups will look, with tonight's projected starters:
Timberwolves
Nikola Pekovic
Kevin Love
Corey Brewer
Kevin Martin
Ricky Rubio
Thunder
Kendrick Perkins
Serge Ibaka
Kevin Durant
Thabo Sefolosha
Russell Westbrook
The game will be at 6pm CST on FS North. We'll have our game thread up accordingly.