Wolves at Warriors: Battle of the Titans

Wolves at Warriors
9:30 CST
FS North

If the Wolves beat a 6-24 team on the West coast, but nobody was awake to watch it, did it really happen? We’ll find out tonight (maybe) when the Wolves continue their road trip against the Golden State Warriors.

After half a decade of dominance, the Warriors are completely hapless this season without Steph Curry and Klay Thompson who are both out with long term injuries. They have tumbled to the bottom of the league (probably just in time to get the number one pick and then welcome Curry and Thompson back...but I digress.)

Tonight is the night for the Wolves to end their 10 game losing streak—if they can’t beat the Warriors, things might be even worse than we thought. The Warriors have the worst offense in the league, as they rely on the relatively inefficient D’Angelo Russell to carry the bulk of their usage, and simply aren’t getting efficient scoring from anywhere.

They also give up the third highest eFG percentage in the league, which is the key reason their defense is ranked 24th. There is a seven percentage point gap between their eFG percentage and their opponents’, which is quite Wolvsian, and not something you can overcome. Rather, it’s something that leads to 17 win seasons. At least they aren’t also suffering Kurt Rambis.

The Wolves, meanwhile, are also bad. This 10 game losing streak has sapped the soul, and revealed their obvious weaknesses. Still, they have a very soft schedule over the next eight games—two against GSW, two against the Cavs, plus the Grizzlies. They need to show some interest in, you know, winning. Tonight is a good time to start, even if I will be asleep.

Expected Lineups

Warriors

D’Angelo Russell
Glenn Robinson III
Damion Lee
Draymond Green
Willie Cauley-Stein

Wolves

Shabazz Napier
Josh Okogie
Andrew Wiggins
Robert Covington
Gorgui Dieng

Karl-Anthony Towns is listed a questionable.

Our blogging buddies are over at Golden State of Mind. Be excellent.