Minnesota vs. Toronto: Official Game Thread

Minnesota vs. Toronto: Game Thread for 1/17/05

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<div align="center">Minnesota Timberwolves: 19-17
Toronto Raptors: 14-23

Date: Monday, January 17th
Time: 6:00 PM
TV: TSN, FxNo

Previous Games:
T'Wolves @ Blazers 92-84(W)
Hornets @ Raptors 102-99(W)

<font size="2">Starting Lineups</font></div>

<div align="center">Minnesota Timberwolves:

<font color="Teal">Coach Flip Saunders</font>
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<div align="center">PG: Anthony Carter (1.8PPG, .7RPG, 1.2APG)
SG: Latrell Sprewell (12.9PPG, 2.7RPG, 2.1APG)
SF: Trenton Hassell (5.3PPG, 2.9RPG, 1.6APG)
PF: Kevin Garnett (23.2PPG, 14.9RPG, 6.3APG)
C: John Thomas (1.0PPG, 2.5RPG, 1.0APG)</div>

<div align="center"><font color="Teal">Injuries:
G- Sam Cassell
C- Michael Olowakandi(suspension)
C- Mark Madsen
G/F- Ndudi Ebi</font></div>


<font size="2"><div align="center">VS.</div></font>


<div align="center">Toronto Raptors:

<font color="Purple">Coach Sam Mitchell</font>
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<div align="center">PG: Rafer Alston (13.2PPG, 7.0APG, 3.6RPG)
SG: Morris Peterson (11.0PPG, 1.5APG, 3.5RPG)
SF: Eric Williams (11.0PPG, 2.2APG, 4.2RPG)
PF: Chris Bosh (14.2PPG, 1.6APG, 8.1RPG)
C: Rafael Araujo (3.4PPG , .3APG , 3.6RPG)</div>

<div align="center"><font color="Purple">Injuries:
G- Alvin Williams
C- Alonzo Mourning
F- Pape Snow</font></div>

Keys to game:
<ul>Get Spree involved early: In the last two wins, a revived Sprewell has been scoring big for this team, getting 29 in the first win against the Nuggets and 25 against the Blazers. He needs to get involved in the scoring early. He has had some good 4th quarters, but I say we get him involved eariler than that.[/list]

<ul>Stop Bosh: Bosh has been key for the Raptors offense. If we are able to stop im from having a big game, which we probably should with Garnett on him, then we should be alright. When he gets a good amount of touches and is involved, the Raptors seem to have some amount of success.[/list]

<ul>Energy off the bench: Coach Saunders made a very good and drastic lineup change moving Hudson and Wally to the bench. I think this is a good move because it bring them off of the bench with a lot of energy and we have more scoring threats this way. As the starters for the opposite teams leave and the 2nd units come out, so does Wally and Hudson, and they can attack these 2nd units and can be big time scorers. Get them involved and we are good.[/list]


Prediction:
I feel we will win this game. Flip Saunders made a gutsy but much needed roster move before the game against the Nuggets. It seems to be effective because we've won two straight on the road which is pretty abnormal, especially this season since we seem to be one of the worst road teams in the league. We are without Cassell once again who is sidelined with an injury and we are without Olowakandi who is serving the games for his 4 game suspension because of a fight between himself and NENE. I feel Sprewell has another big game. The T'Wolves go into Toronto to play and will come out with a win.

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My first preview guys, tell me how it is. I decided to give it a shot for once.

Any comments, prediction, etc can be posted in this thread prior to, during, or after the game with the Toronto Raptors.

 

Good post! I also feel good about this game and think W.
keys to the game:
hold of bosh as you said.
not letting alston get his freak on.

If garnett's knee is better, i think he will star in this game,wally gonna come great of the bench so as griffin.spree gonna dish asists and score about 16 pts.

EDIT
toronto took it 102-99 against the hornets after trailing 15 pts. behined in half time! bosh was good,peterson excellent,alston-o.k. now we saw that they are capeable-BUT MINNY ARENT THE HORNETS!-no one has the m.v.p,no one has spree(lucky them? )-nevermind i still say we gonna take a W tomrrow!

 

John Thomas is starting for the Wolves now?! Is this league really that weak at the Center posistion?

I think if Bosh can perform the same we he did in TO versus KG, the Raps can steal this one. My opinion on Spree is that he'll be contained in this one by Mo' and Eric Williams. If we can just keep KG to his usual numbers, the Raptors should be fine. However their are a lot of ifs in this one. I'll take the Raps in this one, 97-93.

Predicted Stats:

Kevin Garnett: 21 Points, 15 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 2 Blocks
Chris Bosh: 19 Points, 11 Rebounds, 3 Blocks

Bonner will knock KG to the ground

 

Great First Preview CUSA. I really think that the Wolves will come out with a victory in this one just because they have won the last two games on the road like you said, and Spree has really stepped it up and has been showing to Minny that he would like to stay there. The only ? I have for this game is if they can stop Rafer from killing y'all. Anthony Carter is no Sam Cassell and I really think that Alston will take advantage of that. Also, another key to this game is that they need to keep Williams and Araujo off the glass.

I predict a good win for the Wolves.

Wolves Raps
108 104 MVP: KG 21 points, 15 boards, 4 blocks and 3 steals.

 

Yes, Anthony Carter is no Sam Cassell, but Cassell is no defender like Anthony Carter is. So I'd say Carter has a better shot at slowing down Alston than Cassell would have done.

 

Also, another thing that I just saw is that the Wolves have three starters that all have less than 10 ppg. Combined they all have 8.1 ppg. I really dont think that KG and Spree are very happy about that.

 

Yeah, they may be unhappy, but something was needed to be done. We were struggling, big time, with the lineup we had. Flip made a good move at changing it up. Keep in mind, we still have Hudson and Wally off of the bench for points. Carter was brought in to start pointguard simply because Cassell is injured and Hudson just wasn't performing at the starting position. Carter plays much better defense than the two. Thomas was brought in because basically, are centers are horrible. Now, with Kandi suspended, it was needed. We would have only one center available to us, and that is EJ, with Madsen injured. And we know, EJ can't give the minutes he usually does because of age.

Yes, the move may look pretty weird and pretty bad, but it was definitely needed, and it has been successful so far in the two times the lineup has been this way.

 

Why doesnt he just keep Wally in there though? I know that the team has had great chemistry and all, but he was the only one carrying the team along with KG for awhile there. But, he is a great sub to have off of the bench. I really think that the Wolves will get over that slump (I think that they are already over it) and become the kinda team that they were at the end of the season last year.

 

I'm thinking mainly for defense. We know that Hassell is a defensive specialist and we know Carter is a good defensive pointguard. Both were now added to the starting lineup so my guess is that Flip wants to focus on the defensive end. On the perimeter, wingplayers will have a tougher time burning by Hassel than Wally. Wally doesn't play nearly as good defense as Hassell does. I like the move putting Wally on the bench. If things go wrong and we need scoring, he can easily put Wally back in the game to help score some points.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Wally doesn't play nearly as good defense as Hassell does.</div>
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">If things go wrong and we need scoring, he can easily put Wally back in the game to help score some points.</div>
Yeah I agree. Those are the only two things I can see put Wally on the bench for.

 

Nice preview, looks nice.

I really think we should win this one. The starting five we send out there right now is obviously working, even if Carter and Thomas aren't producing huge stats. I think it is just the chemistry of how people play with each other. I personally think Szczerbiak plays way better with the second unit, and that's why he is coming off the bench.

As long as we don't let Bosh just rip into us again, we should have this locked up. Sprewell is going to keep knocking shots home, hopefully.

 

I really hope we can win again and keep up this momentum going and take aways the trade talks. I know we can win if we control Bosh even 15pts and 8rebs would be fine, and we cant let them make alot of 3's it seemed last time whenever we would get close peterson would nail a 3 and kill us.

<font color="Red"><font size="1">Please Remove your Signature. It is beyond the JBB Guidlines of 468X100 for Signatures. Thank You</font>-</font> <font size="1">JBB Mod, Henacy</font>

 

Nice Preview CUSA Fan! I agree with your keys so far and hope that we win this one and increase our winning streak to three.

 

Watching this new lineup and seeing how Spreewell has had a couple good games - I wonder if the fact that Wally is a shooter made it more difficult for Spree to get started quickly (confused roles). Watching the game on Saturday, it seemed that with Trenton out there Spree was fresher on the offensive end.

It seems to me that having Wally come off the bench has less to do with Wally and Hassell and more to do with Sprewell finding his role easier. If that helps him establish himself as a leader, more power to us.

Even though we have had 2 wins, neither game did we look great. I will hold judgement until we run of a 8-2 win/loss run or better.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kobe 8 Ball:</div><div class="quote_post">I feel their slide will continue, they need to make some moves IMO..I take Toronto 99-91.</div>

Wow, nice prediction, off by 1 point.

 

I knew Latrell playing this good was too good to be true. Tonght, 29 minutes and only 4 points. Garnett had a big game with 20, Wally had a big game with 25, and Hudson had 15. The bad thing is that Hudson shot 0-8 from the 3 point arc and as a team, they shot 1-16 from the 3 pointline. That's pretty bad if you ask me. Marshall, Rose, Alston, and Bosh all scored 15+ for the Raptors in this game. We did get the production off of the bench that we needed from Wally and Hudson, but we didn't contain Bosh and obviously Spree didn't get involved early if he only attempted 6 shots and made one.

Tough loss. I thought these wins might have been too good to be true. The Nuggets win may have been alright, but I knew the Portland win wasn't as good because they were without SAR, Randolph, and Miles.

 

I really don't like that Hudson took more attempts than KG, or any other player.

 

i can't believe they lost this game Toronto made 10 out of 20 3's thats way too much.

 

Well Donyell Marshall Killed the Wolves from the perimeter all night even with KG guarding him, so I think that the Raptors definately deserved some credit for their victory. The Wolves keep knocking on the door all night, but they couldnt really hit that one big shot everytime they cut the lead to 2 or 3 points. The Raptors look like they were going to give the game away a bit in the 3rd & early 4th, once their 3's that they were making in the 1st half stop going in. But it seem like Chris Bosh made a timely play down low every time the Raptors needed it. Then Jalen Rose got hot in the middle of the 4th to stretch the Raptors led back to 7 or 8. And the Wolves never could get over the hump from their due to Donyell Marshall's 4th quarter shooting.

Anyway, I wasnt 100% sure about the Wolves being back on track, going into this matchup anyway, because I think the Denver win and the Portland win had alot more to do with the lack of quality opponents those two teams are right now, then the Wolves righting the ship. Denver is like 2-8 under Micheal Cooper. And if you lock down Carmelo then they dont really have anymore scorers in the half-court set. And their running game in the opencourt has been inconsistent all year long, thats why Jeff Bzbilik got fired really. So they just arent any good. And Portland is a mess without Reef & Randolph, just Damon & Nick launching 25 foot jumpers all night. No inside pressence offensively & their ball movement is the worst with all those quick shots their guards take. But tonight it was noticable against a half-way decent team since the Carter deal, that the Wolves same problem still exist.

Cant defend the 3, having a hard time controlling the points in the paint edge even with KG there and the rebounding. And the fact that Wally & Spree can never play well on the same night really.