It’s a must-watch game tonight for Wolves fans as Minnesota welcomes the 62-7 Golden State Warriors into the Target Center.
Coming off of a long road trip where the Timberwolves went 2-2, this evening will mark Minnesota’s first home game since March 8.
“It’s going to be very fun,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “To get a chance to not only play in a packed house but at home in a packed house is going to be awesome. Playing against the best team in the NBA, so we get a chance to go out there and compete against the best and who could ask for anything more.”
The Warriors suffered a loss in their last game on Saturday night in an extremely competitive game with the San Antonio Spurs. Fortunately for Golden State, the Warriors have proven to have short-term memory loss, as they haven’t lost back-to-back games yet this season.
“With our guys (a loss) seems to take care of it,” Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr said. “As soon as we lose, we haven’t lost two in a row all year, which is a remarkable stat, it’s never been done before in NBA history. That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of with this group, how they’re responded from losses. Whether it’s being refocused, or being angry, just being competitive, whatever it is, we’ve always responded well and hopefully we will again tonight.”
Despite having a 22-47 record, the Wolves have shown signs of improvement as of late and the Warriors aren’t overlooking the home team.
“Obviously Minnesota’s a talented team that has a lot of firepower, so we’ll hopefully have a good start to the game and be ready to go,” Stephen Curry said. “They’re young but very talented, they have individual guys that can take over a game at any point, they usually play pretty hard, pretty competitive. Anytime you’re on the road, for us this season we’ve gotten pretty much everybody’s best game, so we can expect that tonight.”
Although Golden State comes into town with the NBA’s best record, the Timberwolves are looking at tonight’s matchup as another winnable game.
“It’s a difficult league, it’s a kill or be killed league,” Andrew Wiggins said. “No mercy. So they’re going to come in and try to do their thing, try to win the game, but we’re coming in trying to win the game too. I feel like our team is capable of beating anyone on any given day. We just have to go out, compete and play like we’ve been playing.”
Minnesota has been playing well offensively as of late and has scored at least 104 points in their last three games.
“We’re just doing a good job, I think our assist numbers are up so the ball is moving a little more and getting us easier shots,” Towns said. “We’re not pushing shots, we’re taking what the defense gives us and that comes with experience. We’re doing a good job right now and I think it’s because of the hard work we all put in together.”
One player specifically who’s been playing well is shooting guard Zach LaVine. The 21-year-old out of UCLA is averaging 19 points on 55.2 percent shooting from the field in his last five games.
“We have a lot of people that can score on our team, especially with Zach in the lineup,” Wiggins said. “He’s (LaVine) a big factor on the floor and he’s a big presence, teams know he can get hot real quick. He does a lot for the other people on the floor.”
Whether it’s a win or a loss for Minnesota in tonight’s game, Kerr sees a lot of potential in the Timberwolves and looks forward to seeing them grow as a team.
They’re a really, really exciting young team. I think the talent that they have is foundational. Sometimes you have some good young players that you can’t figure out what you’re going to do with them all, but with this group it just looks like the pieces fit, keep them together, let them grow, because they’re athletic, they seem like really good guys, hard workers, and it’s a group that I think within the next couple of years is going to be among the most exciting and possibly successful teams in the league.
Be sure to tune-in at 7 p.m. on Fox Sports North or 830 WCCO radio.
