Season Record: 1-0

We are undefeated and on pace to go 82-0!!! Nothin gonna stop us now!

Ok, I know we won the first game, and Cleveland is 0-2, but we won't win this game. LeBron always dominates us and we have NO ANSWER for Shaq. I think we can probably hang with teams better than we did last year, but I still see a loss. Maybe not quite double digits though.


PREDICTION:

Wolves 96 - Cavs 104

The Wolves beat the Raptors by 8 last week and Toronto won by 10 over Cleveland tonight. That means we’re going to win this one by 18.

Just kidding. I bet LeBron isn’t too happy about being 0-2. Look out for a quadruple-double with the way he’s been blocking shots and the way the Wolves don’t know how to shoot. Hopefully he doesn’t demolish the spirit of the young Wolves too badly, but he probably will. Brewer will be as much of a LeBron Stopper as Ruben Patterson was a Kobe Stopper.

PREDICTION:
Wolves 84 – Cavs 104 (Wolves make a big run in the fourth quarter to lose by 20 after shooting 28 percent in the first half)

LeBron is gonna beat us like a red headed step child. Seriously, how are the cavs 0-2? They're really gonna give it two us, that is unless the Cavs are actually bad. (riiiight)

Cavs 114 - 100 Wolves

It's gonna be an ugly game, but the Cavs are gonna sleep on us and we're gonna win 89-83... Flynn goes for 19p/6a/5r

WE KNEW WE WERE GOING TO BE A PLAYOFF TEAM! (howl for you if you get the reference...)

PREDICTION:
Wolves 87 – Cavs 99

Brewer on LeBron keeps things somewhat in check. Finally Mo Williams shows up to play.

The Cavs are 0-2 because Shaq is a terrible fit on that squad. That frontcourt duo is pretty limited to 5 feet from the hoop on offense and it shows. Not to mention Shaq is old and fat and overrated (at his age). 1 on 5 offense again. Cavs will regress this year record-wise but will still be a playoff team.

But alas, it is Minny and our optimism can only last for so long before we all start blaming someone. Who will it be? It just goes to show you that even a 30-35 win team that slightly fought for a playoff spot and still lost the pick to the Clips is still a more entertaining situation than a 22-win lottery team.

Still curious how people would be feeling if MCHALE had made identical moves to Kahn this year. It would be Chaos.

Cavs - 96
Wolves - 82

At least we have Phoenix and LAC coming up! Hopefully we won't start 1-10 again at least.

Is Al Jefferson going to go all Allen Iverson again this game? He doesn't go flat to the ground in a week as often as he did against the Nets.

I can't see this going very well. But I was wrong on Wednesday, maybe I'll be wrong again. I'm definitely excited to be heading back to target center with the great College Wolf tonight though. Can't wait to see SILENT ABABU, Natalie, Crunch and others again.

The line is Cavs by 11.

I'll go Cleveland 98, Minny 84.

The Shaq v. Al and LBJ v. Brewer matchups should be interesting.

Yea a win in this game would be a small miracle.

Cavs 95
Wolves 80

CLE: 100
MIN: 92

I think we could create some mismatches if this was our starting lineup tonight.

Flynn or Sessions
Brewer
Hollins
Jefferson
Jawai

Hollins at SF, yes, you saw that folks. He's quick and athletic enough to hang in there. On defense, we'd sick Corey Brewer on LBJ. Jefferson would tear Varejao apart.

Thoughts?

al13n wrote:
CLE: 100
MIN: 92

I think we could create some mismatches if this was our starting lineup tonight.

Flynn or Sessions
Brewer
Hollins
Jefferson
Jawai

Hollins at SF, yes, you saw that folks. He's quick and athletic enough to hang in there. On defense, we'd sick Corey Brewer on LBJ. Jefferson would tear Varejao apart.

Thoughts?

My thoughts are that we'd score about 30 points in the entire game w/ that lineup

Mid game notes

-Flynn and Ellingston are impressive, but still have obvious "rookie moments"

-Cleveland is passing like the globetrotters out there, really making a mockery of the Wolves D

-LeBron hits 35 foot tre as the shot clock expires...wow

-LeBron is literally flying across the court to reject shots and dunk with authority....wow

- Big Al doesn't look like himself as far as his crazy low block skills go, also very hesitant to pull the trigger

- Big Al also lost 2 inches this summer to go along with his 30 pounds....he just looks shorter out there...maybe it's just me.

- Not at all impressed with Wilkins

- Hollins was great at his backup role....looks like he has a crazy wingspan.

- Cardinal looks like Big Z's younger, semi-retarded twin brother

- I laughed when fox shoed the locker room cam when Lambeer was yelling, "they're not that good!" over and over. Yeeeeahhhh??

- We could really use a SG and a defensive presence down low...but we have some nice pieces to build on next year with free agency and the draft.

- This really goes without saying but LeBron is the best player to ever touch a basketball. Hopefully he joins team where he'll have a few competent sidekicks soon so he can rack up some ships.

lol I see big ol' Bryant McKinnie sittin' next to the cavs bench. When did he cut his dreads?

Cavs 104
Wolves 87

Boxscore

We never really had a chance in this one. We actually tied it up in the 2nd quarter but the outcome was inevitable. Lebron was Lebron and we got owned in every facet of the game. Like Tobzilla said, the Cavs put on a passing clinic. It was really quite pathetic watching our defense so helpless out there as they zipped the ball around the court.

Wolves MVP: Pavlovic Since I'm going to make it a point to choose someone, I'll go w/ Pavlovic by default. 9 pts, 7 boards. Pretty decent game but he was probably extra motivated playing against the Cavs.

Cavs MVP: Lebron duh.

The "A for Effort" Award: Brewer I like him a lot better when he doesn't jack up shots. 11 pts, 5-8 FG, 4 boards, 2 blocks, 2 steals and good defense like usual.

Flynn: Nice offensive game w/ 17 points on 6-10 shooting. His turnovers and the fact that he never looks to pass are really disturbing me. 5 assists vs. 8 turnovers on the season so far.

Hollins: Loving me some Hollins. I feel like we're a real NBA team now that we have an athletic center.

AL: 12 pts, 8 boards. Injured AL had moments of Pre-Injury AL in this game

Gomes: Another terrible game. Was dominated by Varejao on both ends of the court. We might have to rethink starting Gomes at PF.

Wilkins: Bad game offensively, I thought he played decent defense. It was to be expected when a backup is matched up against Lebron.

Sessions: 4 pts, 2-8 FG, 7 boards, 2 assists. Once again I think he played better than the stats show especially running the offense but I'm sure you will all disagree with me. Team best +6 vs. Flynn's team worst -23.

Ellington: Terrible game. I'll chalk this one up to being a rookie.

Pecherov: 9 pts on 4-5 shooting but his effort defensively is despicable. Still of the opinion that he should never play.

Jawai: He's huge and unfortunately from what I saw it's almost guaranteed he's going to shoot when he touches the ball. At least he made his free throws. We need a big guy like him, I could see him playing 5-10 minutes a game.

roundhouse wrote:
Sessions: 4 pts, 2-8 FG, 7 boards, 2 assists. Once again I think he played better than the stats show especially running the offense but I'm sure you will all disagree with me. Team best +6 vs. Flynn's team worst -23.

I'm checking out the late night replay of the game. A few notes:

- Sessions being on the court while LeBron was on the bench might have a little something to do with the +/-. I really liked Ramon's rebounding though and I agree that he played better than the stats indicate.

- I'm not overly concerned about Jonny's assist/turnover ratio. It's a small miracle whenever someone gets an assist on this team and Jonny is going to make some mistakes early on. I like his aggressiveness on offense and I think he'll get things more under control. He had 5 turnovers in the box score, but I wouldn't have realized it by watching the game. I think he's really going to shine when Love gets back in the lineup.

- After Ryan Hollins made a dunk in the first half he started guarding Mo Williams up the court after the inbound. It showed off his athleticism and his basketball IQ. I like his hustle though.

- It'd be nice to get a little more than eight points from the combined effort of our starting forwards.

- Nathan Jawai looks like a bloated Tyrone Corbin.

- The Timberwolves are obviously saving money on advertising. Their commercials are terrible.