Timberwolves at Pacers: Game #9

Wolves at Pacers
6:00 pm CST
FS North

The Wolves finish up a four games in five nights stretch tonight in Indiana against the Pacers. The Wolves are remarkably unbeaten on the road (4-0), but face a Pacers team that has won five of six overall, with Paul George once again emerging as a super star.

I wrote more about this match up in the preview, but the Wolves really need to take advantage of their size tonight and dominate the boards, as they have been surprisingly doing over the past few games. The Pacers have been starting C.J. Miles as their "power forward" and Ian Mahinmi as the center, despite which they have still been successful defensively. It feels like a chance for Karl-Anthony Towns to do some things in the paint.

Meanwhile, as of this writing, Ricky Rubio's availability is unknown. After two missed games with a sore hamstring, it has become obvious how essential he is to their success. In part this is because he is a terrific player with unique and valuable attributes, and in part it's because the Wolves simply do not have an adequate back up point guard. Hopefully this situation will be rectified sooner rather than later, because if this team is going to be as good as it can be this season, that's a clear area of need.

I would also not expect to see Kevin Garnett on the 2nd night of a back to back.

LATE NEWS: Kevin Garnett is going to play.

Expected Lineups

Pacers

George Hill
Monta Ellis
Paul George
C.J. Miles
Ian Mahinmi

Wolves

Zach LaVine
Andrew Wiggins
Tayshaun Prince
Kevin Garnett
Karl-Anthony Towns

Our blogging buddies are at Indy Cornrows. Be excellent.

No pics gifs links.

Enjoy. Chat. Go.