<div align="center"> -VS- The Sacramento Kings vs. Minnesota Timberwolves WHERE: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN WHEN: Fri, Dec 10, 2004 07:00 PM The Sacramento Kings's Lineup: CENTER: BRAD MILLER FOWARDS: CHRIS WEBBER & PEJA STOJAKOVIC GUARDS: MIKE BIBBY & DOUG CHRISTIE KEY RESERVE: BOBBY JACKSON HEAD COACH: RICK ADELMAN (674 W - 412 L) 7th Season With SACRAMENTO The Minnesota Timberwolves LINEUP: CENTER: MICHAEL OLOWOKANDI FOWARDS: KEVIN GARNETT & WALLY SZCZERBIAK GUARDS: SAM CASSELL & LATRELL SPREWELL KEY RESERVE: TROY HUDSON HEAD COACH: FLIP SAUNDERS (397 - 308 L) 10th Season With MINNESOTA LAST MEETING: November 28th 2004 @ Arco Arena Minnesota defeats Sacramento 121 to 110 - Leading Scoring - Garnett 28, Webber 25 - Leading Rebounds - Garnett 16, Webber 10 - Leading Assists - Cassell & Hudson 6, Bibby 7 - Notable Mentions - Doug Christie (SAC) - 4 Points, 30 Minutes Eddie Griffin (MIN) - 20 Points, 4-5 3pt - Notable Statistics- The Kings were out rebounding 37 to 51 Minnesota shoots 48.9% from Field, 60% From 3pt Minnesota blocks 12 shots to Sacramento?s 5 Minnesota?s biggest lead was 13, Sacramento?s just 2</div> KjX3?s PREDICTION: It will be a tough encounter once again for The Sacramento King?s, this time inside Minnesota?s Target Center. KG must be contained, Webber simply cannot defend the league?s MVP after being demobilized from knee injuries which held him out of Tuesday Night?s game. The perimeter shooting, along with all around defense, will also prove to be a concern for Sacramento. Cassell, Hudson, Wally, Hassell, and Griffin all have the ability to shoot from long range, forcing Miller and Webber to show on high screens and pick and rolls. Defense will be key if Sacramento plans to prevail, easy baskets simply can?t be allowed. If Sacramento can attack Minnesota with an offensive barrage and balance that with a solid, not perfect, defensive effort than they certainly can leave Minnesota with a win. However if the game is a low scoring, defensive struggle, expect Sacramento to fall to defeat once again to the rival Timberwolves. Maintaining Kevin Garnett is a must, he along with Sam Cassell, will attempt to control the tempo and ultimately the game if not stopped. Final Score Prediction : Sacramento 109 defeats Minnesota 101
Not looking forward to this. Garnett always has a habit of playing exceptionally well against us. We can win but he needs to be held to under 20pts
i've probably said this already too many times before, but i will say it again - if the kings keep up in rebounding with the wolves or even get more they should be ok.
I agree with cula on the rebounding efforts.Theres no way garnett gets held to under 20 points.I think its more like the Twolves have the habit of playing exceptionally well against us.Losing to some lowly team at home and then beating sac 121-110 at arco for example.My prediction is if the kings keep the rebounding margin close they'll win.
Exactly. Rebounding and defense against Kevin Garnett is vital if Sacramento plans to get a victory, on the road none the less. I hope to see Miller on Garnett, and perhaps Webber on The Kandi Man, before they decide to throw C-Webb to the wolves (No Pun Intended) and have him attempt to guard Garnett in his demobilized state. I'm sticking to my guns though, I think if Sacramento can play mediocre defense and maintain their remarkable offense, they'll have enough to pull this win off in The Target Center. Afterall, they've been on quite the roll as of late, winning 12 of their last 13 games this season. Even though their last lost was infact at the hands of The T-Wolves, I think Sacramento will put an extra emphasis on cleaning the glass and thus will be able to compete for the entire 48 minutes.
I dont think they have to outrebound to win this one. keep it within about 5-10rbs & dont turn over the ball. force them into some TO's & find ways to get to the line early. that will put a lot of pressure on the Twolves.
This is going to be a closely tight played game between the 2 clubs.The Kings are looking for some revenge since the T-Wolves won at arco last time,so the Kings are looking to win one at their oppoents home for revenge. Sprewell,Cassell,And Garnett are going to try to give us a hard time here,but if we get our offensive scoring drive early on and get strong defense,than the game will be ours. Here's my prediction...It'll be close,but i suspect that the T-Wolves will pull out the win at home,since Minnesota plays especailly well at home,however it will be a slim win T-Wolves 102 Kings 100 BTW:King James..great preview..from now on i think you should do the previews here for Kings games,since i don't have the "gift" to make excellent previews that look awesome.
well the kings are being outrebounded by 10 at hlaf time, but courtesy of some good shooting have a 6 point lead.
well the wolves picked up their shooting and the kings never closed the rebounding gap. it's not much of a surprise they lost. when will the kings start rebounding or at least get someone who will?
Kings seriously need to beat the Wolves soon. They already seem to be developing a fear of this Minnesota team, and if they don't win against them soon, it won't matter who the better team is because the Kings will just be mentally afraid of them.
It's a shame that they lost this one. From the box scores that I saw it seemed that the Kings were winning for most of the game and then lost it at the end. I was really hoping that they would be able to pull it out. Bah well, time to look towards the Indy game. This should be a nice bounce-back game tomorrow.
A few things stuck out in my mind from this game... Garnett is still the MVP, and Webber is still not healthy enough to even slow him down at this point. Doug Christie needs to step his offensive game up to the next level in big game situations, The Kings are an offensive team and in games that exceeds 100 points, one would think Christie could manage more than 2 points. Rebounds. Sacramento, and their front court in particular, need to hold their ground in the rebound department if they plan on defeating The Wolves. Minnesota once again out rebounding and ultimately defeated Sacramento, as they were plus 11 in total rebounds. Sacramento's front court only grabbed 20 rebounds in 48 minutes, Garnett grabbed 18 by himself...
As many assumed including myself,big rebounding margin in favor of minnesota=kings loss.<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">They already seem to be developing a fear of this Minnesota team</div> I understand, i get the same feeling.However, i realize that its my own personal feeling of the twolves and not the kings feeling of them.They took minnesota to 7 games in the playoffs,short handed i might add.No fear...
This was a closely contested game between the Kings and T-Wolves,but i kinda figured that the T-Wolves would win this one. Garnett was simply incredible with a season high 35 points,simply put...Garnett has our number. This wasn't that bad of a loss however,considering we gave the T-Wolves a hard time.maybe next time we can actually pull off a win.
I'm just gonna throw this out there... Everybody says that Chris Webber is too slow and still too hurt to do anything at all to slow down Kevin Garnett. And I know that he will never back down from KG because that's the type of player that C-Webb is. But.. Why don't the Kings try and have Brad Miller guard Garnett and Webber guard whoever the Timberwolves. I'm positive that Webber could play solid D against Olowakandi or Johnson and Miller was an All-Star last season at Power Forward. He played PF all of last year until Webb came back and if memory serves, the Kings won a game in Minnesota last year with out Webber and with Miller guarding KG. Miller can't do any worse guarding KG than Webber so why don't the Kings just give it a shot to try and switch things up?
