The Timberwolves will travel to Golden State on Monday night where they will take on a Warriors’ team that has dropped their last pair. Let’s break this one down and keep cashing our NBA picks!
Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Golden State Warriors
Monday, January 25, 2021 – 10:00 PM EST at Chase Center
The Timberwolves were reeling, having lost 11 of their last dozen games as they set to welcome the Pelicans to the Target Center on Saturday night. The previous night the T-Wolves were beaten up for the second time in four days by the Atlanta Hawks when they bowed 116-98.
However, the team closest to them in the Western Conference basement was going to be their guests and if a win couldn’t be had at home against one of the league’s dregs then things were even worse than their woeful 3-11 record indicated. But the Wolves would be without their two top scorers, Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell, both sidelined with medical issues, and getting a win against the lowly Pelicans was far from a given.
The NBA odds offered at most of the best online sportsbooks showed the T-Wolves being offered as 8 ½ point home underdogs with the absence of their two stars. But when the dust settled Minnesota drew away to a 120-110 victory and veteran Ricky Rubio was the conduit to getting his young teammates to play together and pull the upset.
The Timberwolves are averaging 107.1 points per game placing them 25th in the league while defensively they are allowing an average of 115.8 points per game which ranks them 26th. Karl Anthony Towns has only played in four games this season but averaged 12.5 boards per game during that short stint to lead the team.
Curry Hitting but Warriors Losing
Steph Curry hit five three-pointers in the Warriors 127-108 loss to the Jazz on Saturday but he surpassed Reggie Miller and is now No. 2 in league history with a whopping 2,562 in that category, trailing only Ray Allen who ended his career with 2973. Golden State trailed from tip-off to final buzzer as Curry led his team with 24 points while rookie James Wiseman and Andrew Wiggins each chipped in with 13 points apiece. Perhaps the biggest mismatch was on the glass as the Jazz outrebounded the Warriors, 69-41, and outscored Golden State in every quarter but the last.
Defense has been scarce for the Warriors this season and Curry was forthright about Golden State’s inability to make stops, "Our first four possessions we got some decent looks and missed them," Curry said. "Then they came down, 3-3-3-3, and the rest is history after that. Our identity has to be getting stops — at least making them take difficult shots and trying to get some momentum that then flows into the offensive end."
Wanna Make a Bet?
It’s difficult to endorse either team the way both are playing but the Timberwolves got contributions from young players in their upset win over New Orleans that has been missing all season without Karl Anthony Towns looming presence in the paint. And it looks like neither KAT nor D’Angelo Russell will be in uniform tonight which will leave the young Wolves without the star power they need to be a decent team.
It’s tough to expect this group to score 120 points in consecutive games but could they manage 110 to keep this one within range of the 8 to 8 ½ point margin? I am leaning a hard no on that count because Golden State is coming off consecutive blowout losses while the T-Wolves got lucky in meeting a bad team on a bad night when they defeated the Pelicans in their last outing.
Steph Curry and the Warriors will be looking to atone for their poor performances and the cellar-dwelling Wolves are just the ticket to cure what ails them. Minnesota is 0-5 straight up and 1-4 against the number over their last five outings in Golden State. I realize laying eight with the struggling Warriors is tough to swallow but Minnesota could very well be the worst team in the league without its two stars. Lay it and like it with GSW.
NBA Pick: Warriors -8 (-110) at BookMaker (visit our BookMaker Review)
*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.
The post Timberwolves vs. Warriors: NBA Picks and Predictions appeared first on Picks.
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