The Minnesota Timberwolves are on a two-game losing streak, and are playing Saturday night on the latter end of a back-to-back.
That’s the bad news.
The good news? The Wolves are back at home for the next five games, and the Pelicans team they’re playing Saturday is one they’ve had success with this season.
The Wolves are 2-0 against the Pelicans this year, with each game bringing its own flavor of weirdness.
The first game was a close win, despite dominance from DeMarcus Cousins, and despite poor play from the starters.
It came during that strange, albeit short part of the season when the bench often had to bail out the starters. Every member of the Wolves’ bench – this came at a time when Shabazz Muhammad was still in the rotation – finished with a positive plus-minus. Only Taj Gibson finished in the plus among the starters.
The second win was a blowout, but was still weird. Why? Cousins saw his superstar teammate, Anthony Davis, flip out in a way most have never seen.
After Davis’ unexpected ejection – the first of his career – the Wolves went on to build a double-digit lead that the Pelicans never recovered from.
Since then, the Pelicans have recovered nicely and currently sit eighth in the Western Conference playoff standings. They’ve had a season that very much resembles what the Wolves went through in most of November. They’re essentially playing .500 basketball, and have yet to string more than three wins in a row at any time.
They’ve got some impressive wins – Cleveland, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Portland are all on their resume – but their inability to consistently put teams away has hurt them.
Like the Wolves, the Pelicans are a top-tier offense (sixth in the NBA in offensive rating), but struggle with a poor defense (24th in defensive rating).
The good news for the Wolves is how much they’ve improved defensively over the last few weeks. They’ve moved up from 29th in the league to 20th in a short span, and seem to still be going in the right direction.
Final Notes:
- One player whose season is not going in the right direction is Nemanja Bjelica. Since his return to the lineup on Christmas Day, he’s shot 22.7 percent from the field and 10.0 percent from 3-point land in 11.2 minutes per game. Tom Thibodeau said he’d need time to readjust, and continues to support Bjelica in media situations, but the start has not been what anyone hoped for.
- The game Saturday is at 8 p.m. central time, a switch from the usual 7 p.m. start. This is an inconsistent scheduling tactic for the Wolves this year, but is often done on the latter night of home/away back-to-backs that fall on weekends.
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