Wolves vs. Bulls
7:00 pm CDT
NBA TV
A day later and I'm still jazzed over the Lynx beating the Fever at the buzzer in game three of the WNBA Finals. What a tremendous, competitive ball game filled with exhibitions of skill and talent along with a constant intensity culminating in a game winner by one of the greatest players in the history of the women's game. Just awesome.
And tonight, it's the Wolves in preseason action from Winnipeg.
A bit of a letdown, to be sure, but another chance to get a look at many of the young Wolves as they face the Chicago Bulls and their new head coach, ex-Wolf, The Mayor, Fred Hoiberg.
The Wolves will be without Ricky Rubio, who is still nursing a quad strain, Nikola Pekovic, who is out for the foreseeable future, and Andre Miller who is excused from the team for personal reasons. That means all of the point guard minutes should go to Tyus Jones and Lorenzo Brown, which is something to keep an eye on as Brown is fighting for a roster spot, and Jones can probably use all the preseason minutes he can get.
The Bulls will be without several stars, as Derrick Rose is out following his face surgery, and neither Pau Gasol nor Taj Gibson played in their last game in Denver, and I'm not expecting either to go tonight.
Meanwhile, at 8:30 pm CDT tonight, the USMNT takes on Mexico at the Rose Bowl. The winner earns a spot in the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia, which serves as a bit of a dry run for the following summer's World Cup. You might recall that the U.S. participated in the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa and had a terrific tournament, reaching the Final and actually taking a 2-0 lead against Brazil before falling 3-2. They beat a thoroughly dominant Spain side in the semis of that tournament, and it was a real confidence booster for the program.
This one will be on Fox Sports 1, and streaming on Fox Sports Go.
A final note: at 2:00 pm CDT, the US U23 squad faces Honduras in the semis of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. They have looked great in the group stage, and a win this afternoon gets them to the Olympics next summer, something they missed out on in 2012. As far as I can tell, Telemundo is the only way to watch in the U.S.