#timberwolves

#timberwolves

Coming off an unexpected but nevertheless huge win on the road against the hottest team in the NBA, the Chicago Bulls likely held high hopes they could repeat the seemingly impossible and take the 76ers out for the second time in as many games last night.The fans in the United Center likely felt that same energy too - well, at least for the first few minutes.

The Chicago Bulls finally managed to defeat the Warriors 132-118 on Sunday, marking their first win over the Dubs since March 2, 2017, snapping an 11-game losing streak against the team.Nikola Vucevic was the star of the day, scoring a career-high 43 points and adding 13 rebounds and 4 steals.Zach LaVine also added 27 points, 9 boards, and 6 assists.

The White Sox are 6-3 in June.They're 22-17 since bottoming out at 7-21 in late April.They've won seven of their last 12 series after failing to win any of the first nine this season.It has to be said: For all their flaws, they managed to pull their bedraggled selves out of a deep, dark hole and become a - how to put it?

The Toronto Raptors remain the only team in the league without a head coach, as Masai Ujiri is coming up on almost two months without bringing in someone who could be a replacement for Nick Nurse.As such, the Raptors are at risk of seeing their current staff decimated by departures.With some reports claiming they will wait more than a week before their final chance at interviewing Sergio Scariolo, it's fair to say that Toronto is not bothered at all when it comes to finding a replacement.

The Raptors have a huge game coming up tonight as they can further separate themselves from the Washington Wizards who are also eyeing a Play-In spot.It's the tie-breaking game for the series this season as they previously traded wins three weeks ago.Wizards scope (33-41, 11th in East | Offensive rating: 16th | Defensive rating: 21st) Last five games: vs Spurs 136-124 W, vs Nuggets 104-118 L, @ Magic 112-122 L, vs Kings 118-132 L, @ Cavaliers 94- 117 L.
Just a few weeks ago the Wizards and Raptors were fighting each other for a Play-In spot and now Washington has fallen off quite hard.

The Toronto Raptors managed to perform very well during what was a pivotal week of games.Scottie Barnes and the rest of the team went 3-1, taking down the Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Thunder at home.The Bucks beat them, but Toronto was on the road and lost Barnes to injury while leading late in the game.

The Toronto Raptors need to get through this last chunk of regular season games with as few interruptions and poor performances as possible, as Fred VanVleet and the rest of the squad are running out of chances to gain ground in a significant fashion.Winning against the Oklahoma City Thunder was a nice start to this late stretch.

The Toronto Raptors had a perfect opportunity to take home a very impressive road win against the Denver Nuggets, but some very poor officiating managed to rob them of that golden opportunity.The team appeared to spiral out of control after that loss.Toronto lost consecutive tough games against both Los Angeles-based teams, one of which was due to some questionable refereeing that got Fred VanVleet hot under the collar and the other of which came as a result of some laughable bench play from Toronto.

The Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers might be in different stages of contention at this point, but they are both looking for new coaches.Nick Nurse was let go by Toronto for missing the playoffs, while Philly fired Doc Rivers after stalling out in the second round.The 76ers' initial list of candidates included names like Nurse, Monty Williams, and Mike Budenholzer.

The Boston Celtics got away with a win over the Timberwolves on Wednesday by the skin of their teeth, and on March 17, the Cs hope to honor St. Patrick with a victory on his unofficial holiday against the Blazers in Portland.Against Minnesota, things came down to the very last minute.Grant Williams won a controversial jump ball over Rudy Gobert, and Jayson Tatum iced the game with two free throws in the final two seconds - being given an extra technical foul shot due to Gobert's complaints about Williams potentially getting away with tapping the ball before it hit its peak in the air.

Following a shocking 111-109 loss to the Rockets, the Boston Celtics look to get back in the win column on Wednesday, March 15 with a battle against the Timberwolves from the Target in Minneapolis.Boston had one of its biggest letdowns in the season in Houston on March 13, ceding 72 points to the trio of Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr., and Kenyon Martin Jr. and wasting a 43-point outburst from Jaylen Brown.

MassLive's Brian Robb has poured baking soda on the fires involving the Boston Celtics potentially signing an oft-linked buyout target who was recently bought out by the Wizards: forward Will Barton.During his latest Celtics Mailbag, Robb answered a reader's suggestion to merely sign Maine Celtics forward and nine-year NBA veteran Tony Snell by saying that Barton is 'likely to pursue more playing time with a different playoff team.'

Celtics Trade Targets with 2023 NBA Trade Deadline a Month Away

For the first two months of the 2022-23 NBA season, the Boston Celtics enjoyed a charmed existence atop the entire basketball world.The last month, though, has proved to be anything but charmed.Tuesday night's 150-117 shellacking at the hands of the rebuilding (and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-less) Oklahoma City Thunder dropped Boston to 5-7 over its last dozen outings.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Knicks fans couldn't wait for the playoffs to get here.Fresh off of a nine-game winning streak, we were all excited with the team's play and were looking forward to the prospect of making some noise in the post season.But after their recent 3-6 stretch, many are thankful that there is still some time for this team to right the ship and get back on track.

After the 1994-95 NBA season, the Washington Bullets faced a crossroads.The team had been sub-par going on 15 years, ever since the days of Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld and Bobby "Greyhound" Dandridge.The '95 campaign ended with the Bullets having two obvious strengths and one glaring hole.Their frontcourt was stacked between Chris Webber and Juwan Howard, both only 21.

Coming off of a huge comeback win against the Nuggets on Saturday, the Knicks take on the Timberwolves at the Mecca Monday night trying to build off of another memorable Garden evening.The Knicks fought back from down double digits in the third quarter to beat the team with the best record in the west over the weekend and made another statement to the rest of the league.

One area the New York Knicks have done a great job in this season is limiting turnovers.Looking at the season, the Knicks average the fourth fewest turnovers per game.In Tom Thibodeau's three years coaching the Knicks, not turning it over is an area they've succeeded in:


2020-21: Sixth-fewest turnovers per game
2021-22: Tied for tenth in fewest turnovers per game
2022-23 (current): Fourth-fewest turnovers per game


Point guard Jalen Brunson has been a spotlight for the Knicks' consistency with the ball.

On the second night of a back-to-back, the New York Knicks are still in Florida, this time to face the Orlando Magic.The Knicks find themselves in what has become a much too familiar situation, one in which the team has a pseudo-must-win game following a loss that many would describe as disappointing and frustrating.

After Thursday's win for the Lakers over the Suns, the fourth seed in the conference (Phoenix) and the 12th seed (Pelicans) are separated by three losses.It's really impossible to overstate how absurd this playoff race has been and will be in the final weeks of the season.Every game will be a big one for the Lakers moving forward, but a chance to win the season series and tiebreaker against the Thunder on Friday makes that game enormous as is.

The Lakers have done themselves no favors in the last five days or so, losing games to bottom-of-the-league Houston and play-in rivals Dallas.Both losses were particularly frustrating for differing reasons and certainly made it feel like things were coming crashing down on the Lakers this season.The important context to note in all of this is that everyone in the play-in race is experiencing these types of losses.

Fred VanVleet carried the load in the first half and Pascal Siakam took over in the second as the Toronto Raptors won their third straight.VanVleet led all scorers with 28 to power the Raptors past the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves 122-107 on Saturday, with 22 of his points coming before intermission.

D'Angelo Russell scored 16 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, Anthony Edwards had 23 and the Minnesota Timberwolves rallied to beat the visiting Toronto Raptors 128-126 on Thursday night.Kyle Anderson added 20 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota, which was down Rudy Gobert and Austin Rivers and playing the second game of a back-to-back after a fourth-quarter collapse a night earlier in Denver.

The Miami Heat got a good win on Monday night and without their top two players in tow.With neither Bam Adebayo nor Jimmy Butler going against a, potentially, offensively explosive Minnesota bunch, the Heat were able to make enough shots and get enough stops to walk away victorious.What makes that even more impressive is the fact that for a team like the Miami Heat, who have had size issues all season long and even when they have a full roster to work with, they would, not only, be without their top big man in Adebayo but also their core backup big in Dewayne Dedmon.

The Miami Heat bounce back and pick up the 113-110 victory inside the Heat's house tonight, getting back to the .500mark at 17-17.With no Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo, still lots of key notes in this one.The win was highlighted by Lowry's 18 points and Strus' 19 points.Tyler Herro struggled shooting the ball for majority of the night, but stepped up when it mattered the most.

This is our GAMETHREAD: Chat live about the game here!The Miami Heat (16-17) will host the Minnesota Timberwolves (16-17) at the FTX Arena on Monday night.Bam Adebayo will sit out tonight with a non-COVID illness alongside Jimmy Butler who is out with a right ankle sprain, while Karl-Anthony Towns will be out for the Timberwolves with a right calf strain.

Over the last week or so, the Lakers have started to sputter a little bit when it comes to making up ground in the playoff race.They've won the important game against New Orleans but dropped contests to New York and Houston.It's the nature of the Western Conference playoff race but it's a frustrating set of results for the Lakers.

Stars or no stars, the Nets remain one of the more resilient teams in all of basketball.That much became clear as they clawed back from down 22 to make it a tight game down the stretch before the Bucks pulled away for a 118-113 victory over the Nets in Milwaukee.And it marked the fourth time in the aftermath of the trades that sent Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving out West that the Nets have erased a significant double-digit deficit against a quality opponent.

With the Western Conference being a tight-knit race, this will be a twice-weekly series looking at the Western Conference standings and games to watch as the look to move back into the playoffs.For effectively the entire season, the Western Conference has been so bad that the Lakers have never truly been out of the race.

The Lakers have not only played their way into the play-in positions, they've now put themselves in a position to where there's now ground between them and the teams out of the play-in race.After games on Wednesday, the Lakers are in the ninth seed on tiebreakers over the Pelicans with Oklahoma City, Portland and Utah all a game behind them.

Stay afloat.Keep your head above water.Maintain.These sayings all convey a similar message, and all should be at the forefront of the minds of each and every member of the Los Angeles Lakers.This was already apparent earlier in the week via reporting that LeBron James would be out for multiple weeks at the very least, with that bit of bad news confirmed by the team during the day on Thursday.

Morning Sports Update "It definitely doesn't feel in there like we just beat the Dominican Republic to advance."The Celtics defeated the Timberwolves 104-102 on Wednesday.Boston will face the Trail Blazers on Friday in Portland at 10 p.m.
Tonight, the Bruins will be in Winnipeg for a matchup with the Jets at 8 p.m.
Kiké Hernández on Edwin Diaz: In a flash, Puerto Rico's joy at defeating the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic turned to a nightmare.

Celtics The Celtics got a huge game from Jaylen Brown and a victory on Wednesday.The Celtics claimed a hard-fought - and somewhat controversial - win over the Timberwolves on Wednesday, holding off a fourth-quarter charge for a 104-102 victory.Here are the takeaways.1.In 10 games since the All-Star break, Jaylen Brown has been the Celtics' best player, averaging 28.1 points and shooting 50 percent from the field.

Celtics "Tonight was an example of how things can be going terribly wrong and then [be] able to just stay with it."The Celtics snapped a three-game skid with a 121-109 victory over the Timberwolves on Friday, led by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum who combined for 66 points.Here are the takeaways.

Celtics "It's hard to think in the moment at 24 that I have a place in Celtics history."After snapping their losing streak on Friday, the Celtics continued rolling with a big Christmas Day win over the Bucks on Sunday, pulling away late for a 139-118 victory.Here are the takeaways.1.The MVP award is not handed out on Dec. 25, nor is it won (or lost) in one game.

Over the last few weeks, the Boston Celtics have begun to move closer toward the mean.From sub-par shooting nights to turnovers at the worst possible time, a lot has gone wrong for Joe Mazzulla and the Cs since their convincing triumph over the Suns on the road.Outlasting the Timberwolves and running away from the mighty Milwaukee Bucks on Christmas to move to 2-3 on the current homestand demonstrated what needs to be done to continue the momentum that two confidence-building wins must offer.

While the examples continue to grow, the last three days have been a perfect representation of the wildness of the Western Conference playoff race for the Lakers.On Sunday, the Lakers loss meant instead of being tied for the seventh seed, the team was tied for the ninth seed and, because of tiebreakers dropped out of the play-in race down to the 11th seed.

D'Angelo Russell was a teenager when the Lakers drafted him second overall in the 2015 NBA draft, a 19-year-old still trying to find his way as a player and a teammate during a time when he had "some growing pains."Russell is back with the Lakers after having been acquired from Minnesota on Thursday, a "grown man now" who turns 27 on Feb. 23.

With their steady stream of injuries, the nights off for rest and their consistently inconsistent lineups, the Clippers ' last five months were spent playing wait-and-see.Yet five weeks before the postseason begins, time is running out for coach Tyronn Lue to decide the players he will rely on during the playoff push and, as a result, for the Clippers to decide who they will be.

The first of a five-game homestand for the Lakers began with a significant contest on Friday night against the talented and athletic Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the three teams ahead of L.A. in the chase for a spot in the play-in tournament.The Lakers will play this stretch without LeBron James, who will be reevaluated in three weeks after it was announced on Thursday that the forward has a right foot tendon injury.

When: Thursday, February 16 at 8 p.m. ET
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
How to watch: NBC Sports Washington
WIZARDS - None.TIMBERWOLVES - Kyle Anderson, QUESTIONABLE (back); Rudy Gobert, QUESTIONABLE (groin); Karl-Anthony Towns, OUT (calf)
The Washington Wizards' "Big 3", if only they showed up majority of the season, could actually rip apart teams just like they did with the Portland Trail Blazers previously.

Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, right, shoots against Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Abbie Parr)MINNEAPOLIS - Ahead of the Washington Wizards' 114-106 comeback win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday, Coach Wes Unseld Jr. said the thing about his team that he's most proud of is its resiliency.

The Washington Wizards are finally on the right side of a massive comeback run having been outscored by 15 points in the first quarter and going on to win the game.This is a great sign as they blew two big leads like this in a row only a short while ago.They came to Minnesota to face the Timberwolves after a tough loss against the Golden State Warriors where they built up a double-digit lead in the first quarter and then proceeded to give up 77 points in the second and third quarters.

It was just like a Wizards game only in reverse.The Minnesota Timberwolves bolted out to a 20-point first quarter lead, and then Washington clawed back a bit at a time.The Wizards chomped the lead to just four points in the third quarter before letting it balloon back to 17 late in the period.The fourth quarter was all Washington as the Wizards doubled up the Timberwolves, 38-19.

In the wake of the news of LeBron James' injury and the amount of time he's set to miss, the Lakers will need all hands on deck to save their season.Most notable of those they will eagerly await to return is D'Angelo Russell.After a strong start to his second Lakers tenure, Russell went down with injury against the Warriors and has missed back-to-back games since.

With the Western Conference being a tight-knit race, this will be a twice-weekly series looking at the Western Conference standings and games to watch as the look to move back into the playoffs.While it may feel like very little has broken the Lakers way when it comes to injuries this season and in the last week, specifically, almost everything in the standings and playoff race continues to go their way.

The Toronto Raptors have never been closing to selling than they have been after the last week of games, as losses to shorthanded Bucks, Timberwolves, and Celtics teams have shown that all of the momentum surrounding this club has been sapped away.The Raptors draft prognosticators are starting to come back out of the woodwork.

Fred VanVleet and his Toronto Raptors saw most of the air leak out of their proverbial balloon over the last week, as they managed to lose three straight games against the Bucks, Timberwolves, and Celtics despite all three of those opponents missing most of their most impactful players.The New York Knicks aren't exactly playing tremendous basketball right now, and that is part of the reason that VanVleet and Gary Trent Jr. started off the first half of their Sunday clash in such a dominant fashion.

The Toronto Raptors are looking more like a seller than ever before.Despite winning four of their last five games prior painful losses against the Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Timberwolves without Karl-Anthony Towns, Toronto may need to part with some of their starters in order to get deeper.

The Toronto Raptors played one of their better offensive games of the season tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring 119 points on 46% shooting from the floor.Unfortunately the Bucks played even better offense, shooting 53.5%, and came away with the 130-122 victory.The game was nothing like the last time these two teams met, when the Raptors erased a 21-point deficit in the proverbial blink of an eye (OK, about four minutes) to send the game to OT.

Toronto lost a winnable game on Tuesday at Milwaukee with numerous Bucks out, including Giannis Antetokounmpo.The Raptors will try to correct that against a Minnesota team that's in a similar situation.Raptors scope (20-25, 11th in East | Offensive rating: 13th | Defensive rating: 19th) That defensive rating continues to plummet and is flirting with the bottom 10 after allowing 130 points and 19 threes against Milwaukee.

The Los Angeles Clippers fell 128-115 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the absence of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, but it was a much-improved display from Tyronn Lue's team.Once again, it was the second quarter where the Clippers fell far behind, as they remain the lowest-ranked team in the league for second quarter net and offensive rating - and during those frames they're also in the bottom eight for defensive rating.

Morning Sports Update Donations to Hamlin's foundation have topped $6 million.The NFL and the sports world continues to show support for Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest during Monday's game against the Bengals and remains in critical condition.Hamlin's family released a statement on Tuesday:
As of Wednesday morning, the Patriots and Bills are still scheduled to play in Buffalo on Sunday at 1 p.m.

The Lakers will have a further uphill challenge in attempting to claw their record back to .500 on Wednesday against the Heat as the team announced LeBron James would be out with a non-COVID illness.It's the ninth game of the season LeBron will miss this season, but just the third since Nov. 25.The previous contests missed were on the second night of back-to-backs which this contest is not.

From all of us here at Silver Screen and Roll, Happy Holidays!We hope this 2022 holiday season is a joyous occasion for you and all of your loved ones.And most of all, we hope the Los Angeles Lakers don't cause you to have a blue Christmas.But if they are affecting your mood, even in the slightest of ways, I wouldn't blame you!