12.21.05 @ Minnesota
@ Minnesota Timberwolves, Wednesday 12.21.2005
The Timberwolves lead the Northwest division of the Western Conference @ 12-10, 1 ½ games ahead of the Denver Nuggets. That won't change before tomorrow night since Denver also has a home game then, hosting Washington.
The Wolves are 7-4 at home, with victories against Portland, LA Clippers, LA Lakers (2), Washington, Charlotte and Milwaukee, and losing to Houston, LA Clippers, Sacramento and San Antonio.
The Hornets are in 4th place in the SW division of the Western Conference, behind the Grizzlies (who lost to Detroit last night in 2OT and who play Portland at home Wednesday ... if they lose that game, Memphis will be 14-10 and if we win ours we will be 12-13, getting closer to the 3rd place slot in our division). As it stands, we are 11-13 and 5-8 on the road, 5-9 if the Baton Rouge debacle last Friday is to be counted as a road game and don't we wish that it could be counted as a exhibition game before a non-crowd, the lowest attended game in the NBA this year. We have won against Houston, Orlando, Seattle, Denver and Phoenix, and have lost to Cleveland, Miami, Philly, Golden State, Dallas, Memphis, Portland, Sacramento, and at last Friday's "home" game at Baton Rogue to Phoenix.
The Hornets may be on a "high" from having defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the Ford Center last Sunday night before what one writer has described as the Howling Assemblage combined with confidence builders on the road in Denver (11/30) and Phoenix (12/12), as well as the 12/14 victory against the Clippers in the Ford Center. The black hole in Baton Rogue against Phoenix on 12/16 just needs to be forgotten an an anomaly that needs to be forgotten, and probably already is.
Though losing at Dallas 102-95 Sunday night, the TWolves gave the Mavericks all they could handle at the American Airlines Arena before 20,134 in Big D. Wally Szczerbiak, averaging 24 points a game over his last nine, scored 28 points, Troy Hudson scored 20 and Kevin Garnett netted a double-double with 20 points and 16 rebounds. For the game summary, see http://www.nba.com/games/20051218/MINDAL/recap.html . In the game before that, it took a 3 pointer at the buzzer in Minneapolis for the Spurs to win 93-91.
The Wolves have lost 4 in a row @ Dallas, San Antonio, Sacramento and @ Philly in OT. Before that, they won 5 in a row @ LA Lakers, @ Sacramento, @ Utah, @ Portland and at home against the Lakers.
Local fan support, like the weather is cold. Target Center in Minneapolis holds 19,006. It has seen no sellouts this year and very few games approaching one. The highest attendance was 18,739 on 12/10 v. the Lakers. The low is 11,791 on 11/7 against the Clippers. On a 4 game losing run, tomorrow night’s Wednesday game on a cold night may approach or exceed the existing low-water attendance mark. The Wolves are 26th of 30 NBA teams averaging only 15,245 per game.
But, they do have a cool arena and good looking uniforms and team logo. But, plenty of tickets will be available as the Bees travel to cold country tomorrow night. Only 13,989 saw Tuesday’s game there against the Kings. Tomorrow’s high is predicted as 25 degrees with a low of 12. The game starts at 7:00 pm and is on Cox or at BWW on the NW Expressway.
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