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(0 - 0) | Expert Pick |
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| A Rose by any other name?... |
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 Minnesota Timberwolves: The T-Wolves are currently sitting third in the west with a 22-10 record. Pretty impressive considering they've essentially completely overhauled their roster since opening tip off. They moved two of their big three in Lowry and Lopez and got back a hole lot of solid wing depth and a good up coming big in Plumlee. From the outside in it would seem the Wolves coaching staff and management want to play a faster style of ball, with more perimeter orientated offence centring mainly around Paul George. It’s yet to be seen if the changes have been for the better of course while Spud runs his new look squad through its paces. The Wolves will find this match up challenging with some key outs like Bradley and Lin that have really hurt their depth heading into week nine. Full healthy this franchise threatens to be up there as one of the true contenders coming out of the West. Utah Jazz: The Smooth Jazz have yet to find their tune this year. They lost eight of their first 10 games to start the season and there were many the Utah fan scratching their heads wondering where this lack of effort came from. The Utah font office pulled the trigger and made a big move to get established star LaMarcus Aldridge over to try and turn the ship around. So far its been a bit hit and miss and although this Utah roster is full of talent it’s still more so a question of how all these guys can pull it together and start winning ball games. They look to snap a four game losing skid heading into week nine and a statement win against a top of the table Western Conference side could get them closer to their goal of a deep post season run. Match ups: Centre- Mason Plumlee vs LaMarcus Aldridge. Plums going to have his hands full here. You could argue that LaMarcus hasn’t been AS effective since coming to Utah from Philly. That being said he’s still one of the most potent power forwards in the game on the offensive end. Plum will do his job on the boards and be able to help his team running in transition but if the Jazz can feed the ball to LMA all game then the Wolves are in trouble.  Power Forward- Taj Gibson vs Kenneth Faried. Very similar players who know their role well go head to head here. Taj will be able to score from range but will probably find the Manimal too much to deal with on the boards and find it hard to pick him up in the open floor. I see a lot of easy second chance points on ether side which is good because thats exactly what they’re there for.  Small Forward- Paul George vs Jeff Green. Maaan what did Green do to GM Merencio to deserve this… Perhaps he isn’t to happy with Greens production so far since coming from Indiana, that he may as well see if he can service as a defensive option at least. Only thing is he will have to attempt to limit one of the best scorers in the game in Paul George. Poor guy, this is going to be a blood bath as PG comes in averaging 26.5PPG good for sixth in the league.  Shooting Guard- Wesley Matthews vs Andrew Wiggins. So Wes has been bounced around the league coming to his third team this season already. He’s definitely going to be put through his paces in only his second week for the Wolves trying to match up with one of the best youngsters in the league in Wiggins. The puzzle here for Wes wont so much be solely stopping Wiggins but also needing to contribute in a big way on the offensive end on an injury riddled Minnesota roster. Whatever advantage the Wolves have over the match up at SF will be nullified once Wiggins comes out and does his thing.  Point Guard- Jeff Teague vs Derrick Rose. Teague has been a lot better since coming from Boston and is at least contributing in a positive way as a solid defender and play maker who can score. Rose has just seemed off all season coming into this match up shooting 37% from the field and 29% from three. He probably has no business even shooting from range when his game has always been attacking the basket and kicking it to an open man. Rose is going to ether take over or shoot you out of games so Utah would hope that its not the latter.  Benches: Jordan Clarkson, T.J. Warren, Zaza Pachulia, James Johnson. Newly acquired young gun Clarkson will be pretty much throwing this second unit on his back and trying to at least keep the Wolves above water as the starters rest. The other guys will do their bit but theres only so much you can do with so many big outs, this disparity might actually be the difference between coming out on top or going home with another loss. Sean Kilpatrick, Julius Randle, Victor Oladipo, Sergio Rodriguez, Jordan HIll, Willie Cauley-Stein. Oladipo and Randle head this second unit jam packed with starter quality players. This will be the major difference as GM Merencio plays with some line up changes now that he isn’t hindered by injury. Fatigue will play a factor in this match up and Utah could possibly run away with it on fresh leagues with the luxury of solid depth heading into this week. |
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| X-Factor |
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| Depth and match up nightmares. Each side will have equal opportunity to abuse match up problems on ether end of the court. It will be a game of runs and spectacular plays as this almighty arm wrestle sways from side to side until the final siren sounds. The Jazz need to be able to gain as much ground as possible when their second unit comes in to relieve the starters. I see fatigue being a huge factor here as the wolves will need to be smart with rotations and pick their spots to be able to save it for the final run home. In the end i see the Jazz coming home strong on their home court and finishing down the stretch to get the win over a short handed T-Wolves side. |