Game 17 Preview: Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Houston Rockets

Ak is going to be busy tonight and unable to write this preview and has asked me to write this one. So if you seek logic and ideas of substance, turn back now! You will not be finding them here.

Tonight the Rockets take a visit to the magical world of Minnesota to take on the young, (and actually fun to watch) Timberwolves. Minnesota has been the scrubs of the Western Conference for as long as I can remember, but I feel that maybe Minnesota actually has something to feel hopeful for. The have a young core with potential, and they have Kevin Love. As we go further into this preview, I will introduce you to my deep, deep love of Love. Is it a man-crush? Oh yea.

The Rockets are currently sitting at 9-7, riding an almost-impressive six game winning streak that has generally involved the Rockets beating down bottom-tier teams, capped by an impressive victory against the Spurs. Lord knows, we needed this easy stretch, and let’s hope we can build some momentum from it and continue marching toward that eighth seed. I wanna see some playoffs, gosh darnit!!

Minnesota is currently sitting in their usual place, last in the Northwest division, but only two games from .500. So are they good? Debatable. Can they be good? I believe so. Also, gaining a great coach in Rick Adelman has made them more competitive already. An interesting little caveat is that Minnesota is positive in the point differential. Also, we have a resident Minnesotan (?), Barragan, so I certainly hope that I can do your secondary team justice. At least, I’m assuming they are your secondary team with the Rockets being the primary team. If not, you and I need to have a conversation. In a back alley. Where I can beat some sense into you. I kid, I kid.

Tipoff is 7 P.M. CST

To the matchups after the jump!

Matchups:

PG: Kyle Lowry vs. Ricky Rubio

RRUUBBIIOOOOOO!!!!! Alright, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s compare the two. Rubio has been thoroughly impressive in his rookie year, transitioning better than I would have expected to the NBA game. He’s averaging over 8 assists per game, and is quite fun to watch. I wouldn’t consider it much of a stretch to say he is quite capable of having a strong NBA career. Kyle Lowry, however, is just better. Lowry beats Rubio in every category across the board. Not too hard of a decision here. Hell, Lowry even got an article on the front page of NBA.com. Not surprised? Picture this. HE PLAYS FOR THE ROCKETS AND MADE IT ONTO NATIONAL NEWS. Just think about that for a second.

Advantage: Rockets

SG: Kevin Martin vs Luke Ridnour

Ridnour is…an OK player. That’s about the best I can say to describe him. To me, he’s a solid bench player. And….that’s about it. Kevin martin has finally figured out (to a degree) that he is just not going to be getting the calls he used to, and is making himself score in other ways. He is still quite serviceable, but he needs to get his shot back before this board starts really calling for his head.

Advantage: Rockets

SF: Chandler Parsons vs. Wesley Johnson

Now to be honest, I’m not fond of Wesley Johnson at all. He just doesn’t seem to have it in him. His stats this year are down all across the board compared to his rookie year, which wasn’t impressive in the first place. Chandler Parsons has impressed us all. The douchy-looking guy has come around and shut many of us up. Including me. I gotta say, I like the guy. He has a lot to work on, but he muscled out other SF’s for the job, and has a strong foundation to become a better player.

Advantage: Rockets

PF: Luis Scola vs. Kevin Love

For this comparison, we are going to delve for a second into the silly fantasy world of TCWHRO. I’m going to turn this comparison into a comparison of monsters. Love is Godzilla. When I think of monsters, I think of Godzilla. When I think of Love, I think of how he is a monster. Get how that works? The dude just eats rebounds and puts up video game numbers. Speaking of video game numbers, due to some lucky moves in a fantasy draft on 2k12, my front court is Kevin Love and Dwight Howard It's awesome!! Honestly, Kevin Love is more useful than Howard in 2k. He's top 5 in the NBA from my opinion in the 2k world.

Scola, on the other hand, is the Terminator, T-800 version. He just plugs in, day in and day out. He almost always gets the job done. You can try to stop him, but he’s still gonna keep on trucking, getting you those points. However, he will eventually be replaced by the T-1000, with its “mimetic poly-alloy”. Thanks, Wikipedia! Basically, I’m saying Scola is good, but becoming obsolete to these new kids.

Advantage: Minnesota, as Godzilla can just step on a Terminator

C: Darko Milicic vs. Samuel Dalembert

I remember when I was younger, I had a subscription to Sports Illustrated for Kids. And for the life of me, I can’t remember any of those magazines except one. The title was “Who’s afraid of the Darko?” This was in the heyday of Darko’s career, when he had all this amazing potential. Well, I can assuredly tell you today that I am unafraid of the Darko. And neither are any defenses he goes up against. The poor guy is just a bust. No other word for it. Dalembert has been quite a pleasant surprise so far, providing a boost of offense I didn’t expect and generally swatting away anything that gets near him.

Advantage: Houston

Bench:

Timberwolves: Derrick Williams, Wayne Ellington, Nikola Pekovic, Anthony Tolliver, Anthony Randolph

Rockets: Goran Dragic, Chase Budinger, Jordan Hill, Patrick Patterson, Courtney Lee, Jordan Hill

Advantage: Rockets (on paper, however our bench has been quite disappointing)

Injuries/Inactives:

Rockets: NO INJURIES!!!!!!!!!!!

Minnesota: Brad Miller, Martell Webster, Malcom Lee, Jose Barea, Michael Beasley

Prediction: Rockets nail this one, 106-92.

As always, make your prediction and let’s argue on here about it so we can have something to talk about.