Jazz at the Pesky Wolves - Tonight - Oct. 20th 6 PM

[Archie Moses]

Scouting report:http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/scouting-report-wolves-jazz-10-20-2017/

The doors to the newly-renovated Target Center finally open Friday night as the Wolves host the Jazz in their home opener.

Both teams are hoping to make the playoffs in a crowded Western Conference after busy offseasons, however, the offseason for these clubs didn’t exactly mirror each other.

The Wolves added pieced like Jimmy Butler, Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson and Jamal Crawford, while the Jazz lost All-Star Gordon Hayward to free agency.

A few tidbits going into this game:

Each fan will be getting a t-shirt. Everyone loves free t-shirts.
This will be Ricky Rubio’s return to the Target Center after playing six seasons and 353 games with the Wolves.
This is the second game of four-straight in which the Wolves will go up against 2016-17 playoff opponents.
Last Matchup . . .

The Wolves were 1-3 against the Jazz last season.

The last game came on April 7 in Utah. The Jazz won 120-113 behind 39 points and five assists from Hayward (now with Celtics). Joe Johnson led the second unit with 22 points, 12 coming from the 3-point line. Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors combined for 19 points. Joe Ingles added 11 points, eight assists and five rebounds.

Utah shot a scorching 14-for-25 (56 percent) from the 3-point line.

Karl-Anthony Towns led the Wolves with 32 points and 13 rebounds, shooting 3-for-5 from deep. Rubio added 26 points and 12 assists. Andrew Wiggins and Shabazz Muhammad scored 25 and 11 points, respectively. The Wolves were a perfect 28-for-28 from the free-throw line.

Coming Off Of . . .

The Wolves are coming off a 107-99 road loss to the Spurs on Wednesday night. Wiggins led the Wolves with 26 points and five rebounds. Towns added 18 points and 13 rebounds. Butler finished with 12 points, four rebounds and three assists. Teague and Crawford finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively, combining for 11 assists.

Utah is coming off of a 106-96 home win over Denver on Wednesday night. Gobert led Utah with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Alec Burks led the second unit with 16 points, shooting 7-for-10 from the field. Favors added 14 points, while Johnson scored 13. Ingles and rookie Donovan Mitchell scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. Rubio finished with nine points, 10 assists, five rebounds and two steals.

Key Matchup: Jeff Teague vs. Ricky Rubio

The Wolves new point guard against a familiar face.

This will be Minnesota’s first matchup against Rubio since trading him to the Jazz this offseason and it seems a bit fitting it’s in the team’s home opener.

Rubio averaged 11.1 points and 9.1 assists per game last season, both career highs. In two games against Teague and the Pacers, Rubio averaged 12.5 points and 11.5 assists per game.

Teague averaged 15.3 points and a career-high 7.8 assists per game last season with Indiana while shooting 35.7 percent from deep. He was solid in his two games against Rubio and the Wolves, averaging 20 points, 11.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game.

Injury Report

Jazz: Raul Neto (leg) is questionable. Dante Exum (shoulder) is out.

Timberwolves: Justin Patton (foot) is out.

Projected Starters

Jazz: PG – Rubio, SG – Mitchell, SF – Ingles, PF – Favors, C - Gobert

Timberwolves: PG – Teague, SG – Wiggins, SF – Butler, PF – Gibson, C - Towns

*CST

Jazz are at the Target Center tonight for the first of their first back-to-back of the year. A lot of people think Minnesota is a playoff team. I didn't think they looked great in their first game, but they will need some time to gel. They could be really pesky this year.

I actually like their new uniforms.

Except by two or more creatures, eh? Gobert and Udoh are licking their chops.

 

[Archie Moses]

WTF was this all about?

 

[RRJazz]

 

[Stoked]

Much, much better!

GO JAZZ!!!!! A win tonight will get the Jazz some attention I think. It will start the buzz that Utah didn't go away.

 

[Getting Traded]

Why isn't Hood starting? Has he been on the toilet the last two days?

 

[Stoked]

Why isn't Hood starting? Has he been on the toilet the last two days?

They probably just used the list of Jazz starters from our last game. Nothing released by the Jazz on who the starters are. If Hood is healthy he will start.

 

[NAOS]

Much, much better!

GO JAZZ!!!!! A win tonight will get the Jazz some attention I think. It will start the buzz that Utah didn't go away.

I guarantee that if (when!) the Jazz win, the national discussion will be about gel-time and chemistry stuff with the Wolves, not the legitimacy of the Jazz.

Also, I'm not sure any Jazzmen are really caring much about "attention" at this stage of the season.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I guarantee that if (when!) the Jazz win, the national discussion will be about gel-time and chemistry stuff with the Wolves, not the legitimacy of the Jazz.

Also, I'm not sure any Jazzmen are really caring much about "attention" at this stage of the season.

I don't think we have any dudes with a lot of individual agendas this year. I frickin love our dudes from the top of the roster to bottom. Everyone can give us something... all are high character guys.

 

[fishonjazz]

First road game against a very talented team who, on paper, is better than the jazz. Good thing they don't determine winners on paper.

Should be a good tough game.

I predict it goes a lot like our first game..... we trail most of the time but stay close. Wear em down with depth. Stop em out at the finish for a nice victory

 

[Stoked]

I guarantee that if (when!) the Jazz win, the national discussion will be about gel-time and chemistry stuff with the Wolves, not the legitimacy of the Jazz.

Also, I'm not sure any Jazzmen are really caring much about "attention" at this stage of the season.

I agree that the team doesn't really care. And the narrative of gel-time for the wolves will certainly be there. The Jazz will just be sitting at 2-0 with wins over 2 teams a lot of people had over the Jazz. I think we could see a little bit of a positive Jazz vibe in the media. Guess we will find out when they ignore us lmfao

 

[Magic Spray]

I don't think we have any dudes with a lot of individual agendas this year. I frickin love our dudes from the top of the roster to bottom. Everyone can give us something... all are high character guys.

Gonna be easy getting behind this team without having to worry about whether or not someone's going to be paying attention to billboards.

 

[NAOS]

I agree that the team doesn't really care. And the narrative of gel-time for the wolves will certainly be there. The Jazz will just be sitting at 2-1 with wins over 2 teams a lot of people had over them. I think we could see a little bit of a positive Jazz vibe in the media. Guess we will find out when they ignore us lmfao

The jazz will be sitting at 2-1?

 

[Magic Spray]

I guarantee that if (when!) the Jazz win, the national discussion will be about gel-time and chemistry stuff with the Wolves, not the legitimacy of the Jazz.

Also, I'm not sure any Jazzmen are really caring much about "attention" at this stage of the season.

We go live to Minnesota now...

[video=youtube_share;PgIT1RGkrGY]https://youtu.be/PgIT1RGkrGY

 

[infection]

For PKM:

For Cy:

For the IRS:

For the rest of us:

 

[Stoked]

The jazz will be sitting at 2-1?

[MENTION=249]NAOS[/MENTION], typo. Fixed, thanks.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I also don't like how the T-Wolves are constructed. I don't see how the pieces complement each other.

The other thing I am encouraged by is we seem to score using our system and not the individual parts... means a guy or two can be missing (as long as it isn't Rudy or Rubio imo) and still run fine. Reminds me of what SA has built. Seems like their scrubs could go 42-42 because the system works so well. I think Quin has done an awesome job in every facet of coaching. You can tell the guys love him... he will get every ounce out of these dudes.

 

[Deleted member 5000]

I could see us having match up issues with Jimmy Buckets. Jingles pretend we're playing the clips plz.

 

[fishonjazz]

For PKM:

For Cy:

For the IRS:

For the rest of us:

The picture that was "for the rest of us" doesn't show up.

 

[fishonjazz]

I could see us having match up issues with Jimmy Buckets. Jingles pretend we're playing the clips plz.

I actuality think jingles matches up pretty well with butler.

 

[jazzfan1971]

I think this is going to be a big test for Favors. We will really need his 'A' game tonight.