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Minnesota Timberwolves 100, Utah Jazz 107

April 14, 2013 by

AlJeffersonGame Summary:

The Minnesota Timberwolves travelled to Utah on Friday night to battle the Jazz in a critical game for Utah’s playoff hopes. With the Los Angeles Lakers and Jazz fighting it out for the final seed in the West, the Jazz looked to their bigs to help them past the lottery-bound Timberwolves.

Nikola Pekovic sat out Friday night’s meeting against the Jazz with an injured left calf. The frontcourt matchup was made increasingly more difficult with the absence of the Wolves starting center. Minnesota defended the interior well in the first period despite facing mismatches in Utah’s favor. The Jazz led 11-10 after the first timeout about midway through the first quarter.

Utah began to expand on their lead following Ricky Rubio’s second foul with around four minutes remaining in the first. The starting Jazz bigs of Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap did a nice job of running the floor in transition.

Gordon Hayward capped off a nice first quarter with a half court drain as the first quarter buzzer sounded to give Utah a 30-22 lead after one. JJ Barea was a big factor early as he was one of the only Pups gaining penetration against Utah’s half court defense. Barea hit two quick three-pointers to begin the second period with the second make coming from at least five feet behind the arc. After a pair of Barea free throws and a layup, the Wolves tied the game at 32 with Barea having scored half of Minnesota’s points only two minutes into the second quarter.

A Rubio and-1 gave the Wolves a 52-51 lead with nearly 1:30 to play in the opening half. The two teams traded turnovers before the break and led by a 19-point first half from Barea the Pups went into the locker room with a 54-53 lead.

Derrick Williams started the second half hot scoring six quick points out of the break. On the other side, Al Jefferson continued to be a steady presence in the paint and looked unfazed by the defense brought on by Greg Stiemsma. The Pups held a five point lead with 5 remaining in the third.

The Jazz got hot at the end of the third quarter and entered the final period wih a 82-81 lead with Jefferson approaching his career high for points in a game. Utah continued to fee their man in the middle and whenever the Wolves would collapse on him, Big Al did a tremendous job of finding one of the numerous Jazz three-point shooters waiting patiently on the perimeter. With just over nine minutes left, the Jazz led 90-88.

Jefferson continued to inch closer to his career-high 40 points as he sat at 34 with just under seven minutes to play. The other former Timberwolf, Randy Foye, hit his fifth three-pointer of the game which was not soon after followed by a Jefferson hook shot extending Utah’s lead to 97-90 midway through the final quarter.

With 4:49 remaining, Derrick Favors got issued with a flagrant 1 foul on Barea after Minnesota’s undersized point guard was thrown to the hardwood. Two free throws and back-to-back threes from Rubio gave the Wolves a one point edge at the three minute mark.

While the Wolves made this game very interesting, they were only able to score two points in the final three minutes and the Jazz left with a 107-100 victory. Jefferson tied his career-high with 40 points and came through in the clutch as Utah is currently in a dog fight for the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference.

 

Keys of the Game:

  • Three-point shooting - Both the Wolves and Jazz recorded 8 made three-pointers, but needed 22 and 13 attempts, respectively. While the Wolves shot relatively good from long distance, Utah shot much more efficiently.
  • Points in the paint - Led by Jefferson on the low block, Utah scored 44 points in the paint compared to only 32 by the Pups.

 

Three Stars of the Game:

  1. Al Jefferson - Scoring a game-high 40 points on 19-27 FG to pair with 13 rebounds and 6 assists, Big Al was all over the floor in his 41 minutes of play. Since being acquired by Utah from Minnesota, Big Al has had several big performances over his former squad and he absolutely torched Minnesota’s interior defense on Friday night.
  2. JJ Barea - Minnesota desperately needed offense in the first half and Barea kept them afloat with an impressive 19 points in the opening half. Although he scored only 4 points in the second half, his 23 points (6-14 FG, 2-6 3Pt) were the most scored by any Pup despite him playing only 27 minutes.
  3. Randy Foye - The other former Pup shot 5-7 from beyond the arc as he finished with 16 points in 38 minutes. Foye has been Utah’s best three-point shooter this season and was a +12 against the Wolves on Friday night.
Filed Under: Game Recaps Tagged With: , ,

Luke Ridnour Trade Ideas

February 11, 2013 by

Luke Ridnour Being Shopped?

luke-ridnourI hopped on to trusty old ESPN today and read a little rumor about the Wolves shopping Cool Hand Luke around. According to ESPN, the Jazz, Celtics and Mavericks may be interested in our steady Point Guard.  As much as I like Ridnour, I concluded that it would be smart to analyze a few trade scenarios in order to find potential ways of improving our team as a whole.

Luke’s contract: 2 years with roughly $4,000,000 per year

Utah Jazz: 

There are three players that could realistically work (I wish Hayward, but no way); Randy Foye (1 yr $2,500,000), Raja Bell (1 yr $3,480,000), and Alec Burks (3 yrs and $6,330,000).

FoyeThe only player that would work straight up is Bell; the others would take a little extra…maybe some cash considerations.  I would not be overly excited for any of these three, but I would think Foye is the best of them.  He has become a better player since we last saw him in a Wolves uniform and he would bring a 3 point shooter we desperately need. Bell is more known for his defensive services, which is never a bad thing, but we need more than defense. Similarly, Bell and Foye are under the final year of their contract, which is nice to free up cap space for re-signing Pek, which I believe that we should!  I have not gotten the opportunity to see Burks play much since being a lottery pick a few years ago, but his shooting this season has been less than adequate. However, he has turned things on this month and has seen his percentages grow incrementally.  He has not had many minutes until this month, so appears likely that he is being showcased to the rest of the teams of the NBA.

Overall, my choice for a trade, need it be with Utah, would be Randy Foye. He is a scorer who knows how to play, can handle the ball, and only has one year left on his deal providing the Wolves with more flexibility.

Boston Celtics:

The Celtics are trickier; I would say the Wolves most likely target player is Jason Terry (3 yrs $5,000,000/yr)

The trade would work out financially while bringing the Wolves a compatible player for our offense. However, his lack of size, relatively large salary and aging body worry me.  I have long been a big fan of his offensive skill set as he has proven the ability to hit the 3-ball time and time again. However, he appears to be in steady decline as his 3PT% currently sits at .357%, which is his worst 3PT% since his last season with the Hawks back in ‘03-‘04.  His contract is an issue, as it takes up more cap space for a longer period then Ridnour, and while Terry can man the 2-guard position (which is by far our greatest need), he is 35 and only stands at 6’2”.Terry

If it were my decision, I would pull the trigger on Terry if he were to become available.  We would need to run with undersized lineups more frequently, but the presence of the veteran Terry could bring a refreshing change to our backcourt.  It could also allow Shved to start with Rubio and we would have two scoring threats in the backcourt off of the bench.

Dallas Mavericks:

As I examine the Mavericks roster, I notice only two players that a trade for Ridnour would financially work for, O.J. Mayo and Vince Carter.  Since I have no belief that the Mavs would trade Mayo for Ridnour, I will not even bother to speculate.  Carter (2 yrs $3,090,000/yr) is the scoring SG/SF we need who has even improved his defense over the past few seasons while possessing veteran accumen.  Carter is currently 36 years of age, but fills multiple needs and is even cheaper than Ridnour.

VinceI would be very enthusiastic should the Wolves somehow land one of Mark Cuban’s favorite veterans. Carter has everything we need (minus the age) and is not a huge expense.  It will bring almost another million to the table come summer and he still can throw it down when Rubio sends a lob his way.

 

If the Wolves were to trade Ridnour (who I would hate to see go), I would be most excited towards acquiring one of Foye, Terry or Carter.  It is never fun to see a player like Ridnour depart, but his leaving may bring the necessary depth at SG or SF we desperately lack in order to effectively compete in the Western Conference.

Filed Under: Opinion Tagged With: , , ,

Brandon Roy Finally Becomes a Timberpup

August 2, 2012 by

I really can’t hide my emotions on this one – I absolutely love the signing of Brandon Roy.  Sure, it is six years and a few knee procedures later, but if he produces anything this coming season, I’ll finally be able to move on from the now infamous (and tragic) Roy for Foye trade from draft night 2006.

What do I mean by “produces anything”?  I don’t expect Roy to play 30 mpg whatsoever.  I’d like to see his time somewhere between 20-24 mpg, especially for the first half of the season.  Let’s see how he is feeling the day after a game, and more importantly, after back-to-back nights.  There’s no reason to wear him out early on in the season, even if Rubio is missing from the lineup (as he likely will be).  Even in his introductory press conference, Brandon seemed to be aligned to a similar plan; he mentioned he would like to play as much as possible, but needs to be smart about it.

There were two other important sound bytes from the introductory press conference that caught my attention:

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Filed Under: Team News Tagged With: , , , ,

Timberwolves Sign Brandon Roy

July 9, 2012 by

The Timberwolves have been prompt to addressing the various team needs so far during this hectic free agency period, beginning by the team sending their first round selection for the likes of SF Chase Budinger. They then took nearly a week to woo UFA SG Brandon Roy, and have reportedly struck a deal with the former Trail Blazer. The deal is reported to be a two-year pact worth $10.4 million, with only the first year being guaranteed. Roy recently retired due to medical concerns over his “cartilage-less” knees before this past season, and he has undergone platelet-rich blood therapy in an attempt to overcome the lack of cartilage in his knees, which is the result of his having several surgeries on each knee.

The Timberwolves originally selected the Washington star with the 6th pick in the 2006 draft, but traded him for Randy Foye on draft night after Timberwolves doctors red-flagged Roy’s knees as a potential problem for his long-term health.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Team News Tagged With: , ,

Sources: Brandon Roy to the Timberwolves?

June 26, 2012 by

If you are a Timberwolves fan, there is some level of pain/embarrassment/anger when the name Brandon Roy comes up. Memories emerge of draft night 2006, the night that Twolves brass decided to draft Roy with the 6th overall pick, only to trade him later that night for the 7th pick, Randy Foye. The two players could not have taken different paths in their professional careers as Roy quickly became one of the most feared shooting guards in the league while Foye became a mere afterthought for an organization in desperation mode. After several arthroscopic surgeries on both knees, Roy decided to call it quits at the tender age of 26 due to a lack of cartilage in his knees. In one of his final games as a Trail Blazer, Roy, having been demoted to a reserve role, scored 18 fourth quarter points in game 4 divisional series comeback win against the Dallas Mavericks, recapturing the national spotlight and providing hope that there was still a future for Roy despite his degenerative knees.

After retiring and sitting out this past season, Roy has been working back into NBA playing shape in an attempt to make a comeback to the game he loves. Ironically, this time he could come back as a…you guessed it… Timberwolf. Former Portland lead assistant and current Timberwolves assistant coach Bill Bayno has remained very close with Roy and Bayno has reportedly convinced Timberwolves brass that signing Roy would be worth the risk. With word coming out that Minnesota is set to offer Roy a two year pact when free agency begins next week, Wolves fans may soon have their chance to see the guy who slipped away in home colors. While Roy may never return to being the All-Star player that he once was, many NBA teams are intrigued at the possibility of adding a proven veteran and scoring punch off of the bench. Roy would not be a definite answer to Minnesota’s 2-guard woes, but he could certainly help and it would be satisfying to finally witness him in the uniform he should have worn his entire career.

Photo Credits: Getty Images

Filed Under: Rumors Tagged With: , ,