Suns at Timberwolves Game Thread

Suns at Wolves
8:30 pm CST
ESPN

The Wolves make a rare appearance on national television tonight when the host the Phoenix Suns at Target Center. Please note the start time as they are the back end of the ESPN double-header that starts with the Rockets visiting the Cavaliers, who just completed their 2nd trade in as many days, acquiring Timofey Mozgov from the Nuggets in exchange for two first round picks.

The Suns come in holding onto the 8th spot in the Western Conference at 21-16 as they look to return to the playoffs after a four year absence. To put that in perspective: Since the Wolves last made the post-season, the Suns had the highly successful D'Antoni era, fell off under Alvin Gentry, and now appear to be rebounding under Jeff Hornacek. You're welcome.

They are a strong offensive team, with three excellent lead guards in Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe, and Isaiah Thomas, who they mix and match to good effect. They shoot it very well from all areas of the court, and are a particularly dangerous three point shooting team, 2nd in the league in attempts and 6th in percentage. I would expect the Wolves to lose a lot of ground in this one outside the arc.

Hopefully the Wolves can do some work on the offensive glass, as the Suns are one of the weaker defensive rebounding teams in the league, though as always, that will leave them susceptible to transition, and the Suns are 4th in pace. The Wolves will also be short handed underneath as they waived Jeff Adrien, which might mean even more Anthony Bennett tonight. GO AB.

The Wolves will also need to get to the free throw line a lot if they want to stay in this one; the Suns commit a lot of fouls, and the Wolves are generally good at getting to the line. Would like to see Andrew Wiggins, who wasn't very effective the other night against the Nuggets, be aggressive and effective getting into the paint and drawing fouls.

As John reported, the Wolves came up with a last second promotion for tonight's game in an attempt to make the arena look at least vaguely populated before a national television audience. We'll see how that works.

Meanwhile, this is the final game of Yoleo's 3 game jaunt to the Twin Cities. The first two...terrible. Hopefully tonight will be better.

Expected Lineups

Suns

Goran Dragic
Eric Bledsoe
P.J. Tucker
Markieff Morris
Alex Len

Wolves

Mo Williams
Andrew Wiggins
Shabazz Muhammad
Thaddeus Young
Gorgui Dieng

Here's a link to our blogging buddies at Bright Side Of The Sun. Be excellent.

no no no.

Enjoy. Chat. Go.