<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Wally Szczerbiak is expected to make his first appearance of the series tonight when the Wolves play Sacramento in Game 5. The word is that Szczerbiak was moving a lot better during the practice sessions in Sacramento the past few days and that he will be available for action tonight. However, on the Kings side, Bobby Jackson, the former Gopher who has been out of the Kings lineup because of a pulled abdominal muscle, said Thursday he will not play in tonight's game. "I'm not going to play," said Jackson, who might be available later on in the series. "I still think the series is going to go seven games." Szczerbiak's outside shooting will force the Kings to change their entire defensive plan. His presence will make it much more difficult for the Kings to double-and triple-team Kevin Garnett. He also should make Timberwolves centers Ervin Johnson and Michael Olowokandi much more effective. In fact, Olowokandi recently blamed the absence of Szczerbiak for his poor performance. With Szczerbiak hitting some outside shots, even Big O might start playing a lot better. </div> Link
Wally probably won't be that effective right away. He won't get that many minutes right away, anyway. He will be cold, and we should be able to work him in there slowly. If tonight is a blowout, expect him to get a lot of minutes.
That's pretty good news. We could use another weapon off the bench. If Hoiberg is cold, our bench (without Wally) won't contribute much points. Not to take away anything from Mad Dog & Co though, as they've been great all season long in other aspects of the game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting twolvefan11:</div><div class="quote_post">Wally probably won't be that effective right away. He won't get that many minutes right away, anyway. He will be cold, and we should be able to work him in there slowly. If tonight is a blowout, expect him to get a lot of minutes.</div> I respectfully disagree that he won't be that effective right away. According to Chad Hartman, Wally's been shooting all the time that he's been out & he said today that Wally hasn't lost anything in that respect. It's in other aspects that he won't be 100%. I also heard McHale on Hartman's show today say that they'd slowly work Wally back into the rotation, which I'm guessing means that they'd maybe give him 12-18 minutes tonight & going from there.
