Minnesota at Golden St.
Time: 9:30 PM (CT), TNT
Spread: GSW -12
Total: 228
Odds c/o 5dimes
The Golden State Warriors have won eight of its last 10 games to move a full three games ahead of No. 2 Houston in the Western Conference standings. The Warriors are 17-6 at home this year where they will host the 31-19 Minnesota Timberwolves tonight in the second game of a TNT doubleheader.
The Warriors are heavy 12-point favorites, despite Minnesota having heated up as winners of seven of its past 10. Minnesota is, however, just 12-13 on the road this season.
MIN notes:
Minnesota is building towards a meaningful future with two of the league’s brightest stars in Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, alongside established veteran All-Star Jimmy Butler. The Wolves occupy the No. 4 spot in the West and would have ?home-court advantage if the playoffs began today.?Tom Thibodeau finally has the veteran leaders to lead his strong young core. Towns is averaging 20.5 points, 11.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks pregame with a team-high PER of 23.0.
Butler has reduced his scoring load from a season ago with the pitiful Chicago Bulls, but is playing strong two-way basketball and still tallying 20 points per night.?Andrew Wiggins has made meaningful strides as a playmaker and defender, with the cost that he is averaging fewer points than last season, but the Wolves are a better more well-rounded team this season.
Credit some of that to unheralded additions Jeff Teague and Taj Gibson. Gibson has relegated the once-promising Gorgui Dieng to the bench, while Teague has seamlessly replaced Ricky Rubio at the point guard position. Jamal Crawford is not seeing a lot of minutes (17 per game), but is still a viable scorer off the bench and he can get hot at any time.
The Wolves have sufficient depth and leadership to finally cash in on its potential, and developing consistency on both ends of the court is next on Thibodeau’s checklist for his rising Wolves. The team is off to a great start for a young ball club and could be one of the most feared by the time the postseason finally arrives in 2018. The Wolves are hot and on the rise.
GSW notes:
Golden State won its last outing 123-112 against the New York Knicks, and it has won five of its past six.
Andre Iguodala returned from a left calf contusion injury, but other than that the Warriors are at full-strength, and that is seemingly all it takes for the team to reel off dominant win after dominant win. Given that the Warriors have three superstars and an arguably fourth in do-it-all All-Star Draymond Green, it really is less requisite that the Dubs have every single star clicking in order to get the ‘Ws.’
Stephen Curry has been sharp since returning from injury. In his first three games back the MVP has tallied 24, 23, and 30 points, while connecting on 53 percent of his shots and 46 percent of his 5.2 threes attempted per game over that span. On the season, Curry is now averaging 27.7 points, 6.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds in “just” 32 minutes a night, quietly putting the caps on another MVP-caliber campaign, all the while making sure his court mates Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson get their shooting appetites whetted in their own right.
That is important considering that both are shooting at such a high clip. Durant is nearing the 50/40/90 precipice if he steps up the free throw percentage just a hair, while Thompson has led the team in connecting on 45.4 percent of his three-pointers.
There really is not much Golden State needs to fix, quite simply because there really is not a single thing broken. Draymond Green at times seems to pose no offensive threat, but to constitute that as a true statement would be to ignore his 7.6 assists per game, which leads the team. It is such a unique formula for an offense to run it through a stretch-4 with limited marksmanship, but Green’s value could not be any higher than it is to the Warriors, and the perfect combination of players and contracts has set up a nearly unflappable dynasty.
