PREMIUM
*$20 Tuesday!* Rogers' 10* NBA Game of the Day >> Off 2-0 Hoops SWEEP!
(NBA) Minnesota vs. Phoenix,
Point Spread: 1.50 | -110.00 Minnesota (Away)
Result: Win
Point Spread: 1.50 | -110.00 Minnesota (Away)
Result: Win
The set-up: The 16-28 Minnesota Timberwolves will be in Phoenix on Tuesday at Talking Stick Resort Arena, looking to complete their first season sweep of the 15-29 Suns in 13 years.
Minnesota: Almost all expected the T-wolves to show marked improvement this season but that hasn't been the case. However, the Timberwolves were just 11-22 on New Year's Day, and have looked better lately, going 5-6 since. In fact, they will take a two-game winning streak into tonight's contest, looking to duplicate a three-game run they recorded earlier this month. Minnesota got a boost from an unlikely source in Sunday's 111-108 home win over Denver, when rookie guard Kris Dunn got a rare start and scored a season-high-tying 10 points, nine assists and also grabbed a season-best eight rebounds. Dunn, the No. 5 pick of the 2016 draft, was starting in place of Ricky Rubio (7.7 & 7.9 APG), who left the club over the weekend following the death of his grandmother. The veteran point guard is expected to return for Tuesday's game. Center Karl-Anthony Towns led the way against the Nuggets with a game-high 32 points which is no surprise, as he leads the team in scoring (22.5) and rebounding (12.0). Wiggins (21.8 & 4.2) and LaVine (19.4) join Towns to give Minnesota a trio of young stars, the envy of most teams.
Phoenix: Speaking of young stars, the Suns' 20-year-old Devin Booker has shown brightly recently with nine straight games of 20-plus points (27.4 PPG), including back-to-back 39 point efforts in games in Mexico City (one against the Spurs!). He's averaging 20.5 PPG on the season, paired in the starting backcourt with Bledose (20.9-5.1-6.2) to form quite the dynamic duo (Bledsoe is averaging 24.2 points and 8.3 assists over the last nine games, coinciding with Booker's heroics). Center Tyson Chandler broke a 48-year-old franchise record in Saturday's 107-105 win at New York, recording his seventh consecutive game with 15 or more rebounds. He had only nine rebounds in Sunday's 115-103 win at Toronto but scored 16 points (he averages a modest 8.5 PPG on the season).
The pick: The Suns are on a 5-4 run, a big deal for a team that's 14 games under .500 but the Timberwolves beat the Suns 98-85 in Phoenix in November and repeated the result in a 115-108 victory in Minneapolis on Dec. 19th. I'm not ready to give up on Minnesota's playoff chances just yet, as the T-wolves are just 2 1/2 games back of the eighth spot with just less than a half-season remaining. For Minnesota to catch Denver (or any of the handful of teams slightly ahead of them at the moment), winning on the road against a team like the Suns is a must. Make Minnesota a 10* play.
Minnesota: Almost all expected the T-wolves to show marked improvement this season but that hasn't been the case. However, the Timberwolves were just 11-22 on New Year's Day, and have looked better lately, going 5-6 since. In fact, they will take a two-game winning streak into tonight's contest, looking to duplicate a three-game run they recorded earlier this month. Minnesota got a boost from an unlikely source in Sunday's 111-108 home win over Denver, when rookie guard Kris Dunn got a rare start and scored a season-high-tying 10 points, nine assists and also grabbed a season-best eight rebounds. Dunn, the No. 5 pick of the 2016 draft, was starting in place of Ricky Rubio (7.7 & 7.9 APG), who left the club over the weekend following the death of his grandmother. The veteran point guard is expected to return for Tuesday's game. Center Karl-Anthony Towns led the way against the Nuggets with a game-high 32 points which is no surprise, as he leads the team in scoring (22.5) and rebounding (12.0). Wiggins (21.8 & 4.2) and LaVine (19.4) join Towns to give Minnesota a trio of young stars, the envy of most teams.
Phoenix: Speaking of young stars, the Suns' 20-year-old Devin Booker has shown brightly recently with nine straight games of 20-plus points (27.4 PPG), including back-to-back 39 point efforts in games in Mexico City (one against the Spurs!). He's averaging 20.5 PPG on the season, paired in the starting backcourt with Bledose (20.9-5.1-6.2) to form quite the dynamic duo (Bledsoe is averaging 24.2 points and 8.3 assists over the last nine games, coinciding with Booker's heroics). Center Tyson Chandler broke a 48-year-old franchise record in Saturday's 107-105 win at New York, recording his seventh consecutive game with 15 or more rebounds. He had only nine rebounds in Sunday's 115-103 win at Toronto but scored 16 points (he averages a modest 8.5 PPG on the season).
The pick: The Suns are on a 5-4 run, a big deal for a team that's 14 games under .500 but the Timberwolves beat the Suns 98-85 in Phoenix in November and repeated the result in a 115-108 victory in Minneapolis on Dec. 19th. I'm not ready to give up on Minnesota's playoff chances just yet, as the T-wolves are just 2 1/2 games back of the eighth spot with just less than a half-season remaining. For Minnesota to catch Denver (or any of the handful of teams slightly ahead of them at the moment), winning on the road against a team like the Suns is a must. Make Minnesota a 10* play.
