The Minnesota Timberwolves will suit up in a matter of hours to compete at home against the 46-27 Los Angeles Clippers.
Minnesota got the best of Los Angeles in the last matchup as the young Wolves beat the experienced Clippers on their home court on Feb. 3, 108-102.
“Yeah, they’re going to be a good team,” Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said. “They’re dangerous now and they’re going to be really good. They’re young, they’re athletic and they’re skilled. Experience is experience, you can’t just get it, you have to go through it, so they’re going through it, but I think Sam (Mitchell) has done a terrific job with them. Just watching how good (Zach) LaVine is now compared to where he was a year ago tells you they’re doing something right. (Karl-Anthony) Towns and (Ricky) Rubio, (Andrew) Wiggins, they have a bright future.”
The Timberwolves, who are 5-5 in their last 10 games and seem to be coming into their own late in the season, have let some wins escape their grasp this year, but according to Rivers, that should have been expected.
“Well they’re young, number one,” Rivers said.
Minnesota has been able to pull out some wins in some competitive games recently and its performance has not gone unrecognized.
“They compete,” Clippers guard Chris Paul said. “They have a lot of young guys. I know Karl pretty well, and Wiggins is a star in the making. They have a lot of guys who are hungry, who play hard, and regardless if it’s game number one, or game number 82, they’re going to compete.
The nine-time All-Star out of Wake Forest University has been playing well as of late and has needed to due to the absence of Blake Griffin. In the last 10 games, Paul has averaged 19.2 points, 10.6 assists, 4.7 rebounds and two steals in only 31 minutes of action.
“I’ve played a lot of times against him and you kind of get to know what he likes to do and how he wants to get to his spots,” Rubio said. “He’s a great player. All you have to do is be aggressive and be ready all of the time especially with Blake Griffin out, he’s taking a lot more credit and he’s doing a pretty good job.”
Like Paul, Rubio seems to be improving as the season progresses. The 25-year-old from Spain is averaging 13.7 points, 9.6 assists and 2.4 steals per game over his last 10 contests. Despite being in his fifth NBA season, Paul and Rivers believe Rubio is still getting better.
“He’s still young too, people forget that,” Rivers said. “It’s funny because they (Minnesota) went out and drafted younger guys, people forget that Rubio is young as well, and he is. His knowledge and basketball IQ is past his age, I will say that. Now he’s starting to get a little more confidence in his shot which I think is going to be the key for him. If he can get that down then he’s going to be tough to deal with.”
Another Timberwolf who has continued to show improvement is rookie Karl-Anthony Towns.
“He’s great, he’s a hell of a player,” DeAndre Jordan said. “He can shoot it, he has a face-up game, he has a post-up game, he can spread the floor to the 3-point line, so with him you have to give him many looks and just try to make his shots as tough as possible.”
The NBA Rookie of the Year candidate is averaging 23.6 points, 10.6 boards and is making 57.5 percent of the shots he takes over the last five games.
“It’s amazing, not just the way he plays, but how long he’s been playing that way,” Rubio said. “He’s getting better and better and it’s not going to stop. It’s a little scary. He’s something special, watching him every day, working hard, it seems like there’s no rookie wall for him, he’s just getting better.”
