NBA - 815 Cleveland Cavaliers @ 816 Minnesota Timberwolves
Projected line: Minnesota by 9 points
We clearly have two teams going head to head on this game which have had a completely different schedule in the previous games. Minnesota has been having tough games, while Cleveland faced Toronto twice, New Jersey, Detroit and Charlotte! Minnesota has been having some problems with turnovers, but their offensive rebounding has been excellent! On the other side, Cleveland has a poor perimeter defense and in their last game, they were clearly outplayed by Toronto in the perimeter! The Wolves are excellent on P&R Ball Handler plays (#3 in the league), mainly thanks to Ricky Rubio, while Cleveland is the 3rd worst team in defending these plays by allowing 1.04 PPP!
On the other side, Cleveland's offense depends from their shooting at the rim and 3pts. Against Toronto, they shot 6-21 at the rim! They also struggled in the rest by shooting 7-23 from 3pts! Minnesota has been having some problems in transition defense, but they have already faced three top teams in that department in MIA, OKC and MEM! The Wolves continue being an underrated defense in which the Cavs tried the most on offense: spot-ups and P&R! There is a huge mismatch favouring Minnesota's offense tonight: Love vs Jamison!
After the Minnesota Timberwolves' 90-86 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night, Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman blamed part of the defeat on a lack of focus by his players during the shootaround practice Wednesday morning. There were no such issues during today's shootaround as the Timberwolves prepared for tonight's NBA game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Target Center.
"There wasn't as much joking going on as it was the other time," Timberwolves assistant coach Terry Porter said of the 45-minute practice this morning. "The guys were more aware today and locked in on what we need to
cover and doing the things necessary to be ready for tonight. We talked to the players about being more focused and coming in with a sense of urgency."
Also the 2nd unit de MIN should go head to head with Cleveland's 2nd unit well, so I believe Minnesota is headed to a really comfortable win tonight and therefore, I'll take the Wolves tonight.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 816 Minnesota Timberwolves (-6,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5Dimes
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