Grizzlies Head To Twin Cities To Take On Kevin Love And The Timberwolves.
The Memphis Grizzlies stay on the road Tuesday night when they head to Minnesota for a game with the T’Wolves.
Coming off what was probably their worst performance since a 40 point loss on January 1 to the Chicago Bulls, the Grizzlies will look to sweep the season series against the T’Wolves.
Minnesota looked to be a team on the rise in the Western Conference in the first half of the season, but things fell apart when rookie sensation Ricky Rubio went down with a season-ending knee injury in an early March game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Until that point, Rubio or Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving looked to the front-runners for the NBA’s rookie of the year award, and Minnesota was very much in the playoff hunt. At the time of his injury, Rubio was averaging 10.6 points per game, 8.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and even 2.2 steals, a number that would be good for third in the league at this point.
Before he came to the NBA, the biggest knock on Rubio’s game was his jump shooting, and that fear seemed to be justified as he was only shooting only .357 from the field. On the flip side, he was hitting just over 80% of his free throws and a decent 34% from three-point range.
Of course, it’s impossible to talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves without discussing Kevin Love, the fourth year forward from UCLA. Love is having by far his best season, and maybe one of the most fascinating years in NBA history. Love is averaging a robust 26 points and 13.3 rebounds per game. He’s also shooting 45% from the field, 37% from three point range and 82% from the field.
More important, his team has been winning, at least until Rubio’s injury, which is a far cry from Love’s first three Minnesota teams that won 24, 15 and 17 games in his first three years, respectively. In fact, when Minnesota got as high as 7th in the West in late February, Love was garnering a lot of MVP consideration.
At the time of Rubio’s injury, Minnesota was sitting at 21-19 and was even leading the Lakers late in the 4th quarter at home. The T’Wolves just didn’t have enough quality depth to overcome the loss of their second-best player.
Minnesota has only won four times since that injury stole his rookie season, and only one of those games came against a team with any sort of playoff aspirations, against the Phoenix Suns.
Still, as the Grizzlies found out Sunday night, the road in the NBA isn’t for the faint of heart. The Grizzlies got outplayed in every, single facet of the game against a team that has been bound for the lottery since before the season ever started when they lost to the New Orleans Hornets 88-75.
In a way, Minnesota and Memphis will always be tied together in some ways. At the 2008 draft, the Grizzlies and T’Wolves pulled off a trade that shaped both franchises for the foreseeable future. It’s easy to forget now, but Kevin Love was originally a Grizzly and O.J. Mayo a Timberwolf. Memphis became enamored by Mayo’s star power and potential and put together an attractive trade package for Minnesota, centered around Love.
At the time, there were concerns whether Love had enough athleticism to truly succeed in the NBA and Mayo was viewed as an eventual all-star and potential franchise player. Neither side was necessarily wrong, of course. Mayo has been an invaluable bench scorer for the Grizzlies and was a major reason the Grizzlies made it to the second round of the playoffs in 2011 and have their sights set on a Finals run in 2012. If the Grizzlies had stuck with Love, they would have never swung the trade to bring Zach Randolph to Memphis and the Grizzlies are likely still rebuilding today, maybe even in Minnesota’s very position. As a Memphis fan, you have to be happy with how things worked out, even though hindsight is always 20/20.
The season series has been as close as a season sweep can be at this point. The Grizzlies are 3-0 against the T’Wolves, but have only won 90-86, 85-80 and 93-86. Minnesota led all three games in the fourth quarter, even the latest match up in which they were without Rubio.
To be fair, the Grizzlies were also without Marc Gasol in that game at FedEx Forum, and will be tonight as well as his knee bruise will keep him on the sidelines indefinitely.
Memphis looks to be a lock for the 5 seed in the West after the Clippers outran the Thunder last night. The Grizzlies are 2.5 games behind the Clips and it’s really three if you take the tiebreaker into consideration. That will put the Grizzlies on the road in the first round, and if they can get past the Clippers, then a likely second round date with the Oklahoma City Thunder awaits them.
My Prediction:
T’Wolves: 88
Grizzlies: 91
The Grizzlies get back on track on the road and not a moment too soon. The absence of Big Spain will hurt, especially on the boards, but Memphis has more than enough guys able to board to remain competitive, especially after such a poor performance.
Rudy Gay will look to keep his streak of good play against Minnesota going as well as he’s averaging over 19 points a game against Minny on the season. For whatever reason, Minnesota is a good match up for Gay, and the Grizzlies will need a big night from him to offset the loss of Gasol.
This game will likely play out like the other Memphis-Minnesota games this season, a back-and-forth battle all the way through that the Grizzlies are able to pull out late, but not before Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic have big games against Memphis’ depleted front line.