Portland Trail Blazers vs Minnesota Timberwolves: Feisty Portland to make things difficult for Minnesota

The NBA season has brought to us prolific memories and we have witnessed a ton of memorable battles already. This means that the scene is only going to heat up more as we move deeper. In this NBA Regular season affair, we are going to see the Portland Trail Blazers take on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Trail Blazers come into this game after losing 120:121 against the Nuggets despite a 40 points performance by Damian Lillard. In that game, as has happened often now, the Trail Blazers lost their way late in the game and fell apart in the closing minutes. The Trail Blazers lost their way in the middle when they were playing without Lillard and lost a chunk of minutes. However, they still are a game above 50% win. The concern is that they have lost nine of their 13 games.

The upside is that Lillard has now two more 20+ points scorers around him in Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons thus the potential for recovery is high. The defense needs fixing as the team has been in the middle of many defensive stats but hasn’t forced many turnovers while committing a ton of turnovers themselves. If they fix their defense, there is no stopping them because they generate a ton of different looks on the offensive end. Coach Chauncey Billups has made some impressions but needs to tweak the defense quickly.

The Timberwolves enter this game after defeating the Utah Jazz 118:108 as D’Angelo Russell dropped 30 points. After dropping three in a row, the Wolves have won three of their four games, and have adjusted well after the injury-based absence of their superb big Karl Anthony-Towns. After a rather horrid start to the season, D’Angelo Russell has scored in 27-30 points range in the last three games. Anthony Edwards has been a huge support too, scoring 23+ repeatedly but Rudy Gobert needs to put up 20+ points and 10+ rebounds type of performance more frequently.

One other improvement has been the defensive end which has been a problem for the Wolves. They are a team that plays with a high pace(third in the league) and the uphill action causes them to take a backseat on the defense at times. However, lately, they have showcased improvements, particularly their ability to steal the ball and trigger fastbreaks. Can the Wolves continue their current promising returns in the absence of their major star player?

• Trail Blazers: OUT: Gary Payton II, Nasir Little. Game-Time Decisions: Josh Hart, Drew Eubanks, Justise Winslow;
• Timberwolves: OUT: Karl Anthony-Towns, Taurean Prince.

• Expected Leading Scorers: Damian Lillard(29-35 Points), Anthony Edwards(25-32 Points), D’Angelo Russell(22-28 Points);
• Expected Leading Rebounders: Rudy Gobert(11-13 Rebounds), Jusuf Nurkic(9-12 Rebounds);
• Expected Leading Playmakers: Damian Lillard(8-11 Assists), D’Angelo Russell(6-9 Assists).

The Timberwolves played last night but won away from home and that is a huge confidence booster in multiple arenas. They have improved their play and their much tighter defense can pose problems. However, I expect Damian Lillard to go for another big night and multiple Portland players to step up their game in big ways. That’s why I predict a Trail Blazers win here and the scoreline to be 119:111 in their favor.