Howlin' T-Wolf

Previews: ESPN-AP, Star Tribune - Jerry Zgoda

Advanced Stats courtesy of TrueHoop Network’s Queen City Hoops:

Offensive Efficiency:

Wolves: 92.7 points/100 possessions (29th)

Nuggets: 109.9 points/100 possessions (4th)

Defensive Efficiency:

Wolves: 108.1 points allowed/100 possessions (25th)

Nuggets: 103.2 points allowed/100 possessions (11th)

Pace:

Wolves: 95.3 (11th)

Nuggets: 96.6 (4th)

Probable Nuggets starters:

Billups, Affalo, Anthony, Martin, Nene

Bonus!: A possible Birdman sighting! He’s day to day but let’s see if any of you can guess which of his 874 tattoos is newest?

Well the Nuggets did lose a game to the Clippers last week… “So you’re saying there’s a chance….” No not really. Unless we’re talking Dumb and Dumber 1 in a million type stuff. You see the Wolves have no one to really to guard Carmelo. He’s a force. We’ll probably see everyone from Brewer, Gomes (Our best hope), Hollins, Cardinal and even maybe Jefferson at times trying to guard Melo. The problem is he’s as quick as just about any small forward in the league and damn near as strong as just about any power forward. He should get 30 tonight before the end of the 3rd quarter.

The one chance the Wolves do have is that Denver likes to run and the pace should be high. (My guess is around 100) The Wolves happily ran with the Suns earlier in the season and I expect them to in this game as well. So how does that give them a chance? Well I think this team is much better off running than in the half-court. I’d much prefer Corey Brewer driving and fast-breaking than taking 3’s. Ditto half the other guys on the team that can’t shoot. So there you go, there’s our chance.

Keys to the game:

Jonny Flynn: Coming off probably his best game of the season with 17+5 and only 2 turns, the Wolves really need Flynn to duplicate his performance against the Clips and maybe even add to it.

Rebounding. Going against two very good rebounding big men in Nene and Kenyon Martin and not to mention, the Wolves need to key in on rebounding the ball tonight. If they can they just might be able to get out and run and create some offense the easy way. It’s also key to their offense as they don’t shoot well they need as many second chance points as they can get. (And yes this is almost the exact same thing written in the Clippers preview. It’s what they have to do people!)

Defense on Carmelo Anthony: If the Wolves can find a way to slow him down, for instance Ryan Gomes is pretty similar to Melo in that he’s a homeless man’s Melo for the Wolves, they could find an opening to win the game.

Prediction: Nuggets make it 5 in a row at Target Center and run the Wolves right out of the gym and win 123-107 in a game in which the Nuggets are up 29 at one point in the early 4th quarter. Good news for Wolves will be a 22+7 from Flynn with only 3 turns.