- Match Date: Wednesday, February 05, 2020
- What Time: 8:00 PM (ET)
- Where Is It Being Played: Target Center
- TV Channel: FSN, FSSE
The Atlanta Hawks (14-38) defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves (15-35) 127-120, behind Trae Youngs 38 PTS, 11 ASTs and John Collins 27 PTS, 12 REBs.
The Minnesota Timberwolves would love to put an end to the losing in Wednesday’s run-in with the visiting Atlanta Hawks. Since knocking off the Portland Trail Blazers back in early January, the Timberwolves have gone on to lose their last 12 consecutive games. They recently dropped a 113-109 road loss to the Sacramento Kings. Meanwhile, the Hawks are coming off back-to-back losses to the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks.
Will the road woes continue for Atlanta?
Losing has been a common occurrence for the Hawks when they’re on the road. The Eastern Conference’s worst team is 5-21 when playing away from their home building this season. They are also coming off back-to-back losses to the Celtics and Mavericks. There isn’t much hope they can turn the season around, aside from winning whatever games they can to go out with some dignity.
The struggling Timberwolves should be a great start considering they’ve only won six home games this season.
Atlanta is currently ranked 27th in the league in defensive efficiency with opponents averaging a 47.6 field goal shooting percentage against them. Even Minnesota’s problematic offense should be able to find some success in this convenient matchup.
That will once again heap all of the pressure on Trae Young and John Collins to play so well on offense that defense doesn’t matter. They’ll have a shot at doing so against a Timberwolves team allowing an average 115.3 points per game. Minnesota may be more worried about the trade deadline than they are about the Hawks.
Rookie Cam Reddish, along with guard DeAndre’ Bembry, have already been ruled out for the game with injuries.
Timberwolves trying to make a blockbuster move
The Timberwolves are ready to move mountains in their efforts to complete a trade with the Golden State Warriors for D’Angelo Russell. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, they are currently working on a four-team trade ahead of the deadline with the Warriors, Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks. Center Karl-Anthony Towns appears to be safe for the Timberwolves, but everyone else, including Andrew Wiggins and Robert Covington, could be on the table in the ongoing talks.
Those sorts of potential blockbuster moves hovering over the organization could make it difficult focusing on the task at hand. But these are the Timberwolves we’re talking about.
They have lost their last 12 consecutive games.
At least they’ll finally face a team that averages more turnovers than they do. The Hawks are the most turnover-prone team in the league with an average 16.6 turnovers per game. Of course, the Timberwolves haven’t been very opportunistic on defense to consistently take advantage of those struggles. Quite the contrary, the Hawks might take advantage of their inability to get stops.
Even with Towns, Wiggins and Covington all healthy and playing, the offense has been an absolute mess for the Timberwolves. So scoring isn’t something they can reliably count on against the Hawks or anyone else right now.
A return for Timberwolves forward Jake Layman is hopeful at some point, but he remains questionable with a toe injury.
Will the road woes continue for Atlanta?
Losing has been a common occurrence for the Hawks when they’re on the road. The Eastern Conference’s worst team is 5-21 when playing away from their home building this season. They are also coming off back-to-back losses to the Celtics and Mavericks. There isn’t much hope they can turn the season around, aside from winning whatever games they can to go out with some dignity.
The struggling Timberwolves should be a great start considering they’ve only won six home games this season.
Atlanta is currently ranked 27th in the league in defensive efficiency with opponents averaging a 47.6 field goal shooting percentage against them. Even Minnesota’s problematic offense should be able to find some success in this convenient matchup.
That will once again heap all of the pressure on Trae Young and John Collins to play so well on offense that defense doesn’t matter. They’ll have a shot at doing so against a Timberwolves team allowing an average 115.3 points per game. Minnesota may be more worried about the trade deadline than they are about the Hawks.
Rookie Cam Reddish, along with guard DeAndre’ Bembry, have already been ruled out for the game with injuries.
Timberwolves trying to make a blockbuster move
The Timberwolves are ready to move mountains in their efforts to complete a trade with the Golden State Warriors for D’Angelo Russell. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, they are currently working on a four-team trade ahead of the deadline with the Warriors, Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks. Center Karl-Anthony Towns appears to be safe for the Timberwolves, but everyone else, including Andrew Wiggins and Robert Covington, could be on the table in the ongoing talks.
Those sorts of potential blockbuster moves hovering over the organization could make it difficult focusing on the task at hand. But these are the Timberwolves we’re talking about.
They have lost their last 12 consecutive games.
At least they’ll finally face a team that averages more turnovers than they do. The Hawks are the most turnover-prone team in the league with an average 16.6 turnovers per game. Of course, the Timberwolves haven’t been very opportunistic on defense to consistently take advantage of those struggles. Quite the contrary, the Hawks might take advantage of their inability to get stops.
Even with Towns, Wiggins and Covington all healthy and playing, the offense has been an absolute mess for the Timberwolves. So scoring isn’t something they can reliably count on against the Hawks or anyone else right now.
A return for Timberwolves forward Jake Layman is hopeful at some point, but he remains questionable with a toe injury.