Minnesota T-Wolves (20-52) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (58-13)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Friday, March 27, 2009
7:30 PM EST
FSNOH/WTAM
The Timberwolves are not a good basketball team. I’m sorry, but I feel the need to be upfront here. With that our of the way, is there a chance for the dreaded ‘trap game’ here? Highly unlikely. The Cavs come into this one riding a 10 game winning streak, and are the hottest team since the all-star break at 18-2. More team records could fall soon, as the Cavaliers are approaching the team record for consecutive wins- 11 (tied earlier this season.) No Cleveland team has had multiple winning streaks of more than 9 games in the same season. Until now.
It goes without saying (and yet I’m saying it) that the team will set a new franchise mark with each victory they post the rest of the year. The most important number right now is 6 however. That is the Cavs magic number to secure home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Projected Starting Line-ups-
Minnesota Timberwolves F- Rodney Carney (16.3 pts (56.3%) in last 3; career-hi 7 3-pointers on Wednesday) F- Brian Cardinal (Made 1st start Wednesday; avg. 21.9 min in last 10 games) C- Craig Smith (Season-hi 10 reb Sun vs. OkC; 16.8 pts, 7.0 reb in last 4) G- Bobby Brown (11-26 3pfg (42.3%) w/Min; made 1st start Wednesday @Phi) G- Kevin Ollie (Team-best 3.19-to-1 ast/TO; shooting 32.6% in last 17) Key Reserves: Randy Foye, Ryan Gomes, Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Sebastian Telfair Injuries: Corey Brewer (Out), Al Jefferson (Out)Cleveland Cavaliers
F- LeBron James (28.5 ppg; 7.6 rpg; 7.3 apg) F- Anderson Varejao (8.6 ppg; 7.2 rpg; 1.0 apg) C- Zydrunas Ilgauskas (13.5 ppg; 7.4 rpg; 1.0 apg) G- Delonte West (11.7 ppg; 3.1 rpg; 3.5 apg) G- Mo Williams (17.9 ppg; 3.5 rpg; 4.0 apg) Key Reserves: Joe Smith, Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic, Darnell Jackson, Tarrence Kinsey Injuries: Wally Szczerbiak (Out), Ben Wallace (Out)Previous Match-up-
Cleveland 93 Minnesota 70, (Box) December 17th @Minnesota
Game Notes
Those stats beside the T-Wolves players are from the media notes for tonight’s game. Talk about your spin! I went to Cainus Hoopus (Wolves blog) for a little Minnesota perspective, and found what I expected. More talk of the draft than of the actual team. Here is an interesting quote- “The Wolves’ lack of heart and pride (and, if you want to be charitable, health and experience) is preventing the franchise from exercising a normal, logical mode of development because they don’t want to reward quitting and thus engender worse habits than are already beginning to crop up with this squad.” Yikes. That might explain why Kevin Love, Mike Miller and Randy Foye are coming off the bench there.
It would be nice if the Cavs came out early and put this team away. Let’s not have this one be a confidence booster for the young Wolves. There is no reason in the world Cleveland shouldn’t dominate this one from start to finish. In the previous meeting, LeBron scored 32 but played 40 minutes. I think we’d all like to see the Cavs’ regulars get some time off in the fourth quarter. Maybe we’ll have a J.J. Hickson sighting?
The Cavs need to get primed for the playoffs, and so do you. With that in mind, check out the new shirt available in the WFNY swag shop!
From The Outside Looking In
