clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Game Preview #53: Wolves at Celtics

Minnesota concludes their brief two-game road trip with a stop in Beantown.

Boston Celtics v Minnesota Timberwolves Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

Game Info

Who: Minnesota Timberwolves (13-39) at Boston Celtics (26-26)
When: 6:30pm CST
TV: Bally Sports North
Radio: 830 WCCO AM Radio


What To Watch For

The Timberwolves wrap up a quick two-game road trip tonight against the Boston Celtics before returning to Minneapolis for an extended week of home games against Eastern Conference playoff teams (the Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, and Miami Heat).

Minnesota is coming off yet another disappointing and frustrating loss to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants Indiana Pacers, and will look to right the ship against a Celtics team that hasn’t necessarily been the model of consistency this season either. This is the first of two matchups against Boston, with the second game coming at the end of the season at Target Center (Saturday, May 15 to be specific).

As mentioned previously, it’s been an up-and-down year for the Celtics, who currently find themselves 7th in the East, only two games ahead of the aforementioned Pacers (who are currently 9th) but also just one game behind of the 4-seed Charlotte Hornets. If you’re a sick human like me and periodically voyage to the popular Twitter accounts of other team fan bases, you’ll quickly notice that “Celtics Twitter” has been a volatile place these last few months, from some people wishing Danny Ainge would be fired, to hoping that Brad Stevens would go back to college, and even a smattering of #takes that say the Celtics should trade “overrated” Jayson Tatum and start to rebuild.

Overall, the lesson here is that while “Wolves Twitter” can be an unique experience in it’s own right, many other fan bases are struggling with underwhelming seasons and are becoming increasingly frustrated with the on-court performance and off-court decision-making. One of us! One of us!

Speaking of frustrating — the Minnesota Timberwolves! Like I said at the top, the Wolves are coming off an embarrassing loss to the Pacers’ reserves, and while notable players like Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards said all the right things postgame, it’ll be up to them to actually deliver on the messages they expressed after their latest loss.

After all, like ANT said below, the coaches are just saying words, it’s on the players to go out there and do shit.

Injury Reports

The three biggest takeaways here are 1) D’Angelo Russell is not even listed on the injury report (which is good), 2) Jaylen Nowell has been upgraded from OUT to DOUBTFUL (which is also good), and 3) Josh Okogie should be returning to the rotation to provide a much-needed defensive boost (yup, that’s good too). Back to Jaylen — I’ve heard that he could return as soon as this Sunday against the Bulls (which indicates his injury isn’t too serious), but when it comes to injuries and the Timberwolves, you never know.

As for the home team for tonight’s matchup:

The Celtics’ trade deadline acquisition continues to be OUT due to health & safety protocols, otherwise Boston should have most of their roster healthy and available against Minnesota.

We’ve got our very own future Boston College graduate Jack Borman on the recap tonight, so be sure to give him a follow on Twitter. Other than that, have a great weekend, enjoy the Masters (for all of my golf fans out there), and have a safe/relaxing weekend. Cheers!