Saturday nights game against Minnesota here in the Rose Garden will be the second game of a back to back for the Timberwolves who will travel to Portland after taking on the Kings in Sacramento on Friday night. Some of us were hoping Greg Oden would be back for this game but it looks like it will be another week before number 52 returns to action. This seasons Timberwolves roster features Oregonian Kevin Love, former Blazer Sebastian Telfair, and former Blazer Jerry Sichting as a member of the coaching staff. Here is a look at their roster 2008-09 Roster NUM PLAYER POS HT WT DOB FROM YRS 52 Calvin Booth C 6-11 230 05/07/1976 Penn State 9 22 Corey Brewer F-G 6-9 188 03/05/1986 Florida 1 14 Brian Cardinal F 6-8 240 05/02/1977 Purdue 8 10 Rodney Carney F 6-7 201 04/05/1984 Memphis 2 34 Jason Collins C 7-0 255 12/02/1978 Stanford 7 4 Randy Foye G 6-4 213 09/24/1983 Villanova 2 8 Ryan Gomes F 6-7 245 09/01/1982 Providence 3 25 Al Jefferson F 6-10 265 01/04/1985 Prentiss HS (MS) 4 42 Kevin Love F 6-10 260 09/07/1988 UCLA R 35 Mark Madsen F 6-9 255 01/28/1976 Stanford 8 1 Rashad McCants G 6-4 215 09/25/1984 North Carolina 3 33 Mike Miller G-F 6-8 218 02/19/1980 Florida 8 12 Kevin Ollie G 6-2 195 12/27/1972 Connecticut 11 5 Craig Smith F 6-7 250 11/10/1983 Boston College 2 3 Sebastian Telfair G 6-0 175 06/09/1985 Abraham Lincoln HS (Brooklyn, NY) 4 HEAD COACH Randy Wittman (College - Indiana) ASSISTANT COACHES Jerry Sichting (College - Purdue) John-Blair Bickerstaff (College - Minnesota) Ed Pinckney (College - Villanova) ASSISTANT COACH/ADVANCE SCOUT Brent Haskins (College - Minnesota) STRENGTH-AND-CONDITIONING COACH Dave Vitel (College - Wisconsin-Whitewater) ATHLETIC TRAINER Gregg Farnam (College - St. Cloud State) C - Captain ** - Unsigned Draft Pick (FA) - Free Agent Here is a look at the matchups for this game. At the Point guard position Randy Foye starts for the Wolves. Foye hasn't played all that well this season. His shooting percentage is terrible, just 27%, an from beyond the three point line he has hit only 23% of his shots. Hes had turnover problems and may soon find himself looking over his shoulder at former Blazer Sebastian Telfair who came off the bench Wednesday night against San Antoinio and dished out ten assists and scored eight points. He'll be matched up against our reliable Steve Blake who is rested and coming off a nice game against Houston on Thursday. Blake and his backup Sergio Rodriguez should easily outperform Foye. Advantage Blazers Minnesota shooting guard Mike Miller has been in the league 8 years, and other than any of the Timberwolves besides Kevin Ollie. Miller scored 25 points Wednesday night against the Spurs and hit 5 three pointers. After starting the season slowly Miller is heating up and looking to score more. But he'll have his hand full attempting to slow down Blazer allstar Brandon Roy who hit the last two shots in overtime, including a sick three pointer at the buzzer, to beat the Houston Rockets Thursday night in Portland. Neither Miller, nor his backup Rashard McCants will be able to slow down Roy. Advantage Blazers. At the small forward position the Wolves have been starting Corey Brewer. Brewer is in his second season out of Florida after being drafted with the seventh pick by Minnesota. Brewer has a bit of an edge on experience over poised Portland rookie Nic Batum, but Batum has been playing well enough to beat out veteran Travis Outlaw and claim the starting position at small forward. Batum won't embarass himself, and has proven himself defensively and has played within himself offensively for the Blazers. Slight advantage Blazers. Power forward Ryan Gomes is in for a long night. Either that or he'll be headed to the bench for a short night in favor of rookie Kevin Love. Love has been getting some PT and played 35 minutes against the Spurs on Wednesday night. It will be fun to see Kevin play his first pro game in the Rose Garden. For these two though they will likely be overrun by the hard charging offensive force that LaMarcus Aldridge has become. Seems like he is getting better each game. Al Jefferson will likely be asked to help contain LaMarcus. But I look for this to be a big game for LaMarcus and Brandon playing off each other all night. Advantage Blazers. Al Jefferson is the center for Minnesota. He averaged a double double in each of Minnesotas first four games and scored thirty points against the Spurs on Wednesday night. In his fifth season Jefferson has matured as a player and seems to have found a home in Minnesota. Too bad we'll have to wait to see if Greg Oden can overpower him. He might be a bit too quick for Joel to guard so we'll likely see some Channing Frye in the post in this game. Advantage Timberwolves. The Trailblazers have a much stronger and deeper roster than the Timberwolves, and we'll catch them tired after playing in Sacramento the previous night. WIth Rudy and Travis coming off the bench to wreak havoc we will wear this team down and beat handily. Blazers by 8. for a look at this years Wolves you can watch this video clip http://www.nba.com/video/channels/n...1024_min_preview.nba/index.html?player=nba_tv from clubblazers.com
Thanks for the preview. I'll be attending the game and will post a report after I get home from the game. It will be fun to see Kevin Love play his first NBA game in Portland. I know retarded Duck fans like to leave him death threats on his cell phone and call his granny a whore, but I'm going to give the local kid a warm, friendly ovation when he enters the game. As long as the Blazers win, I hope he has a big game in front of all his friends and family. I hope his first NBA experience in his home state is a better one than the first time he played in Eugene as a college freshman. BNM
I'm guessing Batum starts on Miller. Not that Miller or Brewer are great offensive players (although Miller can shoot, he won't create much for himself) who are hard to cover, but that is my guess at the moment. This is a game we should win easily as we have much more talent then them.
