Author: Jerry Zgoda
Wolves-Chicago gameday preview Wolves gameday
5 P.M. at Chicago • FSN-PLUS; 830-AM
Preview: Wolves guard Kevin Martin missed Friday’s practice to attend to the same family matter that caused him to miss practices Tuesday and Wednesday. His return to the team in time for Saturday’s game is uncertain. He scored 14 points off the bench in Thursday’s 96-84 loss to Miami at Target Center. … The Bulls are 4-2 under new coach Fred Hoiberg, including over Cleveland on opening night and Oklahoma City in Thursday’s TNT game. … The Bulls swept last season’s two-game series.
Players to watch: The Bulls’ starting backcourt combined to score 55 points in Thursday’s victory over the Thunder: Derrick Rose scored 29 and Jimmy Butler had 26, each while playing fewer than 38 minutes.
Did you know? Saturday’s rare 5 p.m. starting time apparently is so the game – featuring Ricky Rubio and Pau Gasol – can be televised live at midnight in Spain.
Injuries: Bulls F Mike Dunleavy (back) is out, G Kirk Hinrich (toe) is listed as doubtful. Wolves C Nikola Pekovic (Achilles’ surgery in April) is out.
Wolves Press Clippings
Date: 11/6/2015
Outlet: Star Tribune
Author: Dennis Bracken
No immediate plans for Tyus Jones to get D-League minutes The NBA Development League started this week, and Wolves rookie point-guard Tyus Jones has yet to suit up for Minnesota. But Wolves interim coach Sam Mitchell didn’t sound like he was anxious to have Jones get minutes any time soon in the D-League.
Mitchell said after Friday’s practice that four games into the season is too early to start making personnel decisions “to send a guy here, send a guy there.’’ The Wolves, 2-2, play at Chicago Saturday night.
“Tyus has done a good job,’’ Mitchell said. “His practices have been great, his workouts, and I thought he played well in the preseason. The season is long, and everybody gets a chance to play. At some point, Tyus will get a chance to play.’’
Jones is the Wolves’ fourth point-guard at present behind Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine and Andre Miller.
Mitchell also said Friday that four games was too early to start juggling starting lineups and rotations. So don’t look for any changes in the starting lineup that struggled to score points in Thursday’s loss to Miami.
“Four games [into the season] and we’re 2-2,’’ Mitchell said. “What are we going to change? We’ve played pretty good defense….we’ve been struggling offensively. But that’s been all four games. We’re just not a great shooting basketball team right now. We just have to keep working at it, and getting better.’’
Andrew Wiggins got his first glimpse of his bobblehead, which will be the promotional give-away before next Thursday’s game against defending NBA champ Golden State at Target Center. Wiggins’ review was mostly positive, especially the fact that his likeness is up-to-date.
“[It has] the new hair I’ve got,’’ he said of this year’s longer hair style. “It resembles me a little bit. I like it.’’
Wiggins was bothered by back spasms in the first couple games, but says he now feels fine.
Wolves Press Clippings
Date: 11/6/2015
Outlet: Star Tribune
Author: Michael Rand
Four games in: Four things about the Timberwolves If you started planning the championship parade route for the Timberwolves after their first two games of the season, you’re probably taking a little break from that after four games (and anyway, they can just us the Lynx route).
The Wolves are the most unusual of 2-2 teams, having won two on the road while dropping two at home. The competition had something to do with it, but so did a few other things. Four games hardly make a season (really, they make about 1/20th of one), but just for fun let’s take a spin through four things in four games that stand out as possible early trends:
*Ricky Rubio’s mirage: Rubio delivered the kind of game Wolves fans have dreamed about in last week’s opener, a 112-111 win over the Lakers. He made jumpers. He finished at the rim. And all the while, he was still the same floor general capable of taking your breath away with perfect passes and efficiency. It added up to a 28-point, 14-assist game (on 10 of 17 shooting from the field, including 2 of 4 from three-point range) that made those prone to optimism wonder if he had found a new gear.
And … well … his next three games were more like vintage Rubio. That’s not to say bad, but it’s also not to say good. He’s been getting the Wolves into their offense and playing good defense. But Rubio is also 8 for 24 combined from the field in his past three games and hasn’t made a three-pointer in four attempts. His stat lines have looked very familiar compared to previous years. He pretty much is what he is at this point, and yet we all still want more.
*Zach LaVine is not a point guard: I thought we established this last year? We didn’t? LaVine can do some nice things on the floor, but he doesn’t have the handle or instincts to play point guard, and he’s not quite a true shooting guard, either. But he’s more of a 2 than a 1, a point driven home during long stretches of every one of the Wolves’ first four games. The second unit, which has some potential, needs some structure. We got a glimpse of that with 39-year-old Andre Miller at the end of last night’s loss to the Heat.
Maybe it’s admirable that Sam Mitchell has resisted doing that more often, since the stated goal of the season is still development and in fact I ripped the Wolves recently for seemingly abandoning that plan. But there’s a rookie who has been in street clothes for four games who might offer more structure, too: Tyus Jones. Again, it’s only four games. There’s time to figure this out.
*Kevin Garnett and Tayshaun Prince are delivering, if not scoring: There have been a few beautiful stretches this season — most notably for most of the victory over Denver and the early part of the loss against Portland — when the Wolves have played the type of defense we really haven’t seen in these parts for a decade. And it’s happened when Garnett and Prince are on the floor. Neither one can score a lick (KG is scoreless in two home games!) but they are a combined plus-45 on the season. At the starts of games, with KG, Prince, Rubio, Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns on the floor, it is clear that Wiggins and Towns are the offensive options (though both play their share of D as well). That’s a very good defensive lineup, an OK offensive lineup, and it works.
*Nobody is going to wear out if Mitchell’s rotations continue like this: Wiggins averaged 36.2 minutes per game as a rookie, which is a lot until you remember that he was a teenager with boundless energy. Ah, those were the days. This season, while fighting back problems, he’s down under 29 minutes per game. But it’s not just Wiggins: Mitchell is playing EVERYONE in relatively limited quantities. Nobody is averaging even 30 minutes per game this year, with Rubio the leader at 29.8, though 10 players are averaging at least 15 minutes per game. Nobody has played more than 35 minutes in any single game.
Part of it has to do with wholesale hockey-style substitutions when the entire second unit comes in, a la Tubby Smith a few years back. Through four games, it’s been frustrating to watch, though understandable in the big picture of development, setting rotations and recognizing strengths. I just hope we don’t have to see it for 82 games because one could argue that some strange subbing hurt the Wolves in their loss to the Blazers.
