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The Utah Jazz and the Minnesota Timberwolves tango again for the fourth time this season. Utah one the first two games 100-94 and 101-89. The third, one that really should have been won in regulation, was lost 106-104 (OT). It's clear that the Jazz are the superior team -- Minny is 15th in the West, and the Jazz are 11th. Utah has won big games at home and on the road against the best teams in the entire league. Period. The Wolves, on the other hand, beat the Jazz when they played 7 total players. Such is the way of the NBA.
Both teams are super young (breakdown of their full rosters, ages, and NBA experience here), and a deconstruction of what went wrong in the last game can be found here. What do we know about tonight, though? Well . . . we know that they have more fans than us.
Think about that. The Jazz have fewer fans than the Wolves. I guess part of that is population (Twin Cities > SLC). But seriously? The Wolves? (Even on Facebook they are ahead 1.4 million fans to 0.9 million fans. Ouch.)
The Wolves and Jazz both have a few injuries to go over. So many that this info supersedes any other game info for tonight.
- Not With Team: Kevin Garnett (MIN, PF/C), Shabazz Muhammad (MIN, SF/SG), Grant Jerrett (UTA, PF, NBADL)
- Out: Derrick Favors (UTA, PF/C), Ricky Rubio (MIN, PG), Nikola Pekovic (MIN, C), Gorgui Dieng (MIN, C/PF), Alec Burks (UTA, SG/PG), Gary Neal (MIN, PG)
- Doubtful:
- Questionable: Kevin Martin (MIN, SG)
- Probable:
So who is playing?
Presumed Starters:
- PG: Dante Exum vs. Lorenzo Brown
- SG: Rodney Hood vs. Zach LaVine
- SF: Gordon Hayward vs. Andrew Wiggins
- PF: Trevor Booker vs. Adreian Payne
- C: Rudy Gobert vs. Justin Hamilton
Bench-ish-guys:
- Trey Burke vs. ????
- Elijah Millsap vs. Chase Budinger
- Joe Ingles vs. ???
- ??? vs. Anthony Bennett
Man. We better win tonight.