San Antonio Spurs @ Minnesota Timberwolves
Target Center, Minneapolis, MNJanuary 2nd 2012, 7pm Spurs Time
TV: League Pass, Fox Sports South West RADIO: WOAI, WCCO-AM
The warriors in Silver and Black are making the trip up to the frozen land of a thousand lakes. There they will battle against a young team hungry for respect. The Timberwolves recently played the NBA Champion runner-ups, the Miami Heat, to almost a standstill. The close game ended with a missed shot by Minnesota. That missed shot represents the present for the Timberwolves. With a new coach, Rick Adelman, at the helm, this team will look for future promise while working with a new system and attempting to erase the coaching of their previous chief.
Minnesota comes off a tough loss against Miami, a game on Sunday against the defending champions, Mavericks and on a SEGABABA, they will play the Spurs. A hell of a three game stretch for the team, Minnesota will be pleased to pull out a win against of one of the three.
On the Spurs side, fans witnessed a great two game start by the former NBA champions. Rival Memphis and the revamped Clippers both fell to the veteran team, led by Manu Ginoboli. San Antonio then traveled to I-10 rival Houston and Pop decided the game would be an extended practice for his troops. Tim Duncan was unimpressive and Manu was not as dominate as he had been in the first two games. The team was led by DeJuan Blair who had a decent game against Houston's frontcourt.
San Antonio picked themselves back up during the recent Utah game. They had their way with the Jazz, who trailed behind the Spurs most of the game. Popovich was able to spread the time on the floor around and spare his veteran core any major heavy lifting. In this blogger's opinion, Popovich hopes that he can do the same against Minnesota.
Last season Minnesota put up a fight last year but ended up losing all their games against the Spurs. San Antonio will look to extend their winning streak to two, while Minnesota will be fighting for their first of the season (unless they drop the Mavericks Sunday night).
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NBA Stats Cube Lineup Comparison Here
As always Tony must dominate Fisher, and NBA league pass is recommended for those who are willing to pony up the cash. Almost every Spurs game will be broadcast there, which is especially helpful for those of us who aren't in the San Antonio area. Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate.