Season Record: 1-5

I guarantee we have no chance here. Portland hasn't been spectacular so far this year, but they will still crush us.


PREDICTION:

Wolves 88 - Blazers 101

I will be optimistic
Wolves 82
Blazers 98

sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3027

LineMN wrote:
sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3027

We didn't need him.

Well, weren't we all disappointed after that loss to the Bucks! Last year we swept them, yet we have a better team. OK. Entertaining<Better, Potential<Better, Entertaining & Potential>Better? Not sure where I was going with that, but I do know that watching the game against Portland should give us Wolves fans something to be excited about, because that is where he are headed if the front office doesn't disintegrate and Rambis moves on. We will see.

Nate McMillan decided to shake things up roster wise and word is that he will be keeping it this way. Miller and Blake are obviously interchangeable, and Fernandez, Roy, and Webster all can play the 2 and 3.

Depth Chart:

PG: Andre Miller, Jerryd Bayless
SG: Steve Blake, Rudy Fernandez
SF: Brandon Roy, Martell Webster, Travis Outlaw
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge, Juwan Howard
C: Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla

Rookies=No Playing Time, None: Dante Cunningham, Patrick Mills, Jeff
Pendergraph

Injured: Nicolas Batum

Guard Battle: With Miller in the starting lineup it is safe to assume that his current avgs of 9ppg, 5apg, and 3 rpg will all be going up. Miller may find himself very content in Portland if he continues to get the nod from Nate. Blake, always the professional will do his job no matter what. He will easily continue his 8 ppg, 3 apg, and 2 rpg. Bayless, who almost ended up in the no playing time section above got a little burn last game against the Spurs and managed to score 5 pts and get 1 assist and 1 rebound in just 5 mins of playing time.

The experience and the new found playing time for Miller give him the advantage over Minnesota's young guards. I do think that Flynn still has alot to prove and the energy inside the Rose Garden should be motivation enough. Hopefully Sessions will be allowed the playing time to utilize his skills as well.

Da Man: Why oh why is Roy not on our team. Dude is straight killin it and avging 25 ppg, 5 apg, and 4 rpg. He will be quite the cover for Brewer. I got nothing to say, but am hoping for an off game. Obviously the advantage here is going to Portland.

Outlaw, Webster, and Fernandez: All three of these players are better than anyone we got on the wings in Minny. As if Roy wasn't enough, the combination of Outlaw, Webster, and Fernandez give Portland 27 ppg, 3 apg, 10 rpg, 4 spg, and 2 bpg. They can all light it up at home and this creates too many tough covers for the inexperienced Wolves bench. Advantage: Portland

The Four Spot: LaMarcus Aldridge is a potential all star. He is avging 14 ppg and 7 rpg. I don't know how he is grabbing these rebounds with Oden down low but this guy is hands down better than Pecherov and if I don't see a freakin good game out of Stewie again I will throw a fit and chalk him up to lucky garbage once again. Advantage: Portland

Big Dude, Down Low: Greg Oden is finally getting the chance to prove he belongs in the NBA. 8 and 10 isn't too bad so far and he is blocking 2.5 shots per game. Don't forget that Przybilla is still grabbing 8 rpg. The combination of all these damn rebounds doesn't sit well for the Wolves without Love. I'm giving the advantage to Jefferson, but it will not be enough to equal a Wolves win unless every person on our team can play like they did against Boston and score more points doing it.

Prediction: Blazers 108 Wolves 92

Epic writeup Stonelight. Howl to you!

CW:

"I guarantee we have no chance here"
"I love these 4 games personally"




Blazers 98
Wolves 103

HOWL for another great preview Stonelight.

After the loss to the Bucks, it’s hard to see this one turning out well. But hey, we almost beat the Celtics, so you never know.

Isn’t it great that we get to see Brandon Roy four times every year? And three times this month! I cry every time. It’s a shame we traded Randy and won’t be able to see the epic Roy/Foye battles anymore. Oh wait, those were slaughters.

Man I can't stand Stonelight's previews, always factual, well-researched, and realistic, message board fodder on this topic is usually: "I predict Jawai gets a 25 & 10 and the Wolves win going away. Put it in the BANK!"

It's a blood bath so far. haha

Man... we are so terrible. Down 17 and we gave up 62 points in the first half. Sad.

The fact that no one on our team can shoot a three really KILLS any hope of us having a cohesive offense.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=291108022


Wow, we are terrible. I didn't even watch the second half, as this MNF game is really good.

From the boxscore:


- Looks like Ole still sucks.

- Jawai with 16 points and 6 boards! Too bad he was -20, lol.

- Is Flynn a PG?

- Al finally had more than 8 rebounds.

- Sessions should play more.

- Nice game Gomes!

Talk about being taken behind the woodshed. It’s ridiculous how loaded the Blazers are. Their best player scores 2 points and they still win by 23. They just completely outplayed us at every position.

Got to see some Sessions/Flynn combo in the second half for a little bit when we were down huge. Not too impressive. We probably could have “unleashed” that earlier in the game since they started three guards. And Andre Miller took Corey Brewer to school. That was sad.

One of the few positives to take out of this one was the play of Nasty Nate. He got dirty down low tonight and owned Przybilla. It’ll be interesting to see how many injuries he has a hand in this season. I’ll say at least 5 (2 of them being to Timberwolves).

I like how everyone on FSN keeps reminding us that "this is a process" every two minutes. It makes me feel a lot better about things.

Hopefully we could develop into a good team like the Blazer did. They have drafted well and the develop their young guys well. Hopefully the Wolves follow that.

9Deuce wrote:
Hopefully we could develop into a good team like the Blazer did. They have drafted well and the develop their young guys well. Hopefully the Wolves follow that.

Maybe if we had some guy named Brandon Roy...