The New Orleans Pelicans take on the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight, who will be without Ricky Rubio (injury) and Thad Young (passing of mother.. prayers to Young and his family). The Pelicans enter tonight with a 4-3 record and the Timberwolves are currently 2-5.
Questions for tonight:
1) Nikola Pekovic is a bear in the paint.. can defensive stalwart Omer Asik handle him without much help from teammates?
2) Does the bench get more minutes tonight, and if so, how do they do?
3) Who is the Pelicans leading scorer tonight?
4) Which Timberwolves player scares you the most?
Weigh in below!
6 responses to “Timberwolves at Pelicans Open Thread”
1. Omer Asik prevents Pekovic from getting consistently good post position and does not require help. Last year, this would not have been the case. Pekovic has a decent night against the Pels, but because Asik defends him without the need for aggressive help, the Pelicans have a good night on the defensive boards and do not give up open shots resulting from aggressive doubles.
2. The bench gets minutes tonight and again shows why we should be concerned with team depth.
3. Anthony Davis scores 30+ for the first time this season, as no wolf has the mobility/length to stick with him.
4. Kevin Martin, who consistently draws foul shots because of over-eager defenders. But honestly, I think this should be a blowout.
1. Asik should handle Pekovic without a lot of help.
2. Bench -will get minutes. I think they will actually look, ok – but I look at the t-wolves’ bench and some players (e.g. Mo Williams) are better currently than the starter they back up (Lavine). So plus minus may not look great.
3. AD top scorer, but I will say he caps out at 25 b/c he won’t play much in the 4th quarter.
4. Nobody scares me. I am excited to see what Wiggins will do, and I think Pekovic is their best active player by a significant margin.
Darius Miller and Luke skywalker Babbitt sightings as the game ends 3 quarters too early with the pels up 43-19 after 12minutes
jgman ..it has been a thrashing!
dschmid4 I think you have the possibility to get all 4 right!
What a joy to watch that game tonight. Omer did great on Pekovic who I can remember did whatever he wanted against us in the past. Jrue just played lights out, as did Rivers, Gordon and Babbitt came thru on their shots. Ryno was average I’d say and AD was just AD..certainly could have scored more if he logged more time, but I’m glad Monty sat out the starters as much as he did. The team is gaining confidence without a doubt and I am excited to see how they do on the upcoming road trip. They have some challenging games but I think if they can come back home with a split on the road like they did last time, they will be very pleased. Home dominance and road split would be quite a season!
Question for our blog gurus: As of this moment all 5 teams in our division would make the playoffs…do you think this might hold up and do you know if this has ever happened before?