Wolves host Lakers: Resolutions

Minnesota Timberwolves (23-14) host Los Angeles Lakers (11-24)
7:00 CST
FS North

Tonight, the Wolves start out 2018 against a short-handed opponent that is playing the 2nd game of a road back-to-back after a game that went into double overtime. Christmas Day, the Wolves took on the Lakers when they were missing Lonzo Ball, Brook Lopez, and Brandon Ingram and they look to be without Ball, Lopez, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope tonight.

The Wolves won that game 121-104 and after last night’s demolition of the Indiana Pacers, we can hopefully expect the Wolves to put away the Lakers with ease. This Wolves team is simply better than the Lakers, who have lost their last six games and have fallen to the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

One of the joys of a new year is the New Year’s Resolutions that we may or may not keep. The Wolves players have a few resolutions that they would like to keep themselves.

Andrew Wiggins - Design, and convince the basketball community to use, a new advanced metric that rewards long-twos, volume scoring, and not getting a lot of rebounds

Or, stop shooting so many long-two turnaround jumpers

Jimmy Butler - Continue being awesome and finally reveal the long-held secret that he is from Tomball, Texas

Taj Gibson - Ensure the team holds onto leads in the fourth quarter so that he can stop playing so many minutes

Karl-Anthony Towns - Defense, defense, defense

Jeff Teague - Everytime he is open behind the arc, shoot ball

Jamal Crawford - Politely let the rest of the team know before the game if it is going to be a good Jamal or bad Jamal game so they can plan accordingly

Gorgui Dieng - Work on getting three-point release from 5 seconds to 4 seconds

Tyus Jones - Keep up the sneaky “steal starting role” plan, using very Minnesotan tactics of never complaining about playing time, befriending the team’s star, and inviting your important teammates to family gatherings

Nemanja Bjelica - Become the Bjelly we have always dreamed about, the mythical “stretch-4”

Marcus Georges-Hunt - Practice meditation and visualize success, repeating mantra of “3-and-D” one thousand times a day

Shabazz Muhammad - Never turn down $40 million dollars again. Learn a new language, perhaps Chinese

Aaron Brooks - Remind Thibs that his contract specified “coaching duties only”

Justin Patton - Dunk on fools in the D-League. Get dunked on in the NBA

Cole Aldrich - Transform into a backup wing or, if not possible, remain genial giant

Minnesota Timberwolves - Make the playoffs. Try not to give the fans a heart attack every other game. Learn Defense

Projected Starting Lineups

Timberwolves

Tyus Jones
Andrew Wiggins
Jimmy Butler
Taj Gibson
Karl-Anthony Towns

Lakers

Tyler Ennis
Josh Hart
Brandon Ingram
Kyle Kuzma
Julius Randle

Prediction : Wolves 112 - Lakers 95