Portland Trail Blazers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Cup Game Preview

Every game is a new opportunity, and the Portland Trail Blazers look to capitalize on that opportunity when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in Portland tonight.

Minnesota has three double-digit wins followed by a narrow point loss to Miami on Sunday, where the Wolves shot less than 40% from the field and less than 30% from deep. The likelihood that they see Portland as an opportunity to do the right thing is very high.

Portland Trail Blazers (3-8) vs. Minnesota Timberwolves (6-4) – Tue. Nov. 12 – 7 p.m. Pacific

How to watch via antenna or cable: Check out your options on the Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else

SBN partner: Canis Hoopus

Trail Blazers injuries: Matisse Thybulle (out)

Wolves injuries: NONE

Portland, on the other hand, is halfway through five losses with a win against the depleted Pelicans… but a bad team losing games isn’t the story. Head coach Chauncey Billups berated them to the media, saying they were losers if they slept well after Sunday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. He called the loss “embarrassing” and that “they all sucked,” the story goes. While the team mostly hit the right tone at yesterday’s practice – talking about sticking together, that Billups’ anger was justified and that conversations between players and coaches were productive – the proof will be in the pudding of their play on the field (more) . see the What you should pay attention to section).

Tonight also marks the Blazers’ first tournament game of the season, which will officially be renamed the Emirates NBA Cup (or just NBA Cup). With that comes custom field design similar to last year’s, albeit toned down, and a chance for Portland to claim a win in West Group A, which includes Minnesota, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets are represented.

In addition to the emotional drama and NBA Cup implications, we see Portland’s center backs going up against an elite defenseman in Rudy Gobert, and Portland’s young wings looking for ways to contain the luminous Anthony Edwards. Ant has taken another step forward this year, including taking nearly 12 three-pointers per game and hitting them at a 46% shooting rate – top numbers for Steph Curry.

Do the Blazers have a chance? Or will Minnesota take its superior talent, continuity and structure to Oregon and walk away with an easy win? Tune in to find out!

Reader questions

Before most games, we ask all of you to improve our preview by asking us questions that we can answer! Look out for posts like this to add your questions and have them (possibly) answered right here in these previews!

From Pokermonk:

Who will be the acting coach now? Oh wait, it hasn’t happened yet??

…I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about…

From Tiparillo:

Who makes more threes, Ant Edwards or the Blazers?

The Blazers…but you made me look and remember Portland’s 4-42 win from deep against the Grizzlies, which at first glance seems like a typo or a joke. Unfortunately, it is neither one nor the other. If the Blazers perform like this again, look for a players-only meeting to precede the players-only meeting to coordinate a future players-only meeting.

By Kill Gore Trout

Will Anthony Edwards put Anfernee Simons over the knee and break Simons in half, or will it just be an ordinary slugfest?

There’s definitely a theme here today! And rightly so. At least Simons (likely) won’t be asked to guard Edwards while Toumani Camara is on the court.

From williamswonder:

Lewis and Clark killed 36 wolves and 43 grizzlies on their famous vacation. One might conclude that this is a harbinger of a good hunt, but the recent Grizzly result suggests a potential karmic debt that has not yet been paid. How can we pay off the debt and move forward unencumbered?

Finally, a SERIOUS question! The only way out is for the Moda Center staff to light Eastern Oregon sage from the rafters and let the gentle smoke cascade down while playing lofi chill hop in every dead ball situation throughout the area.

From “The Ghost of Petteri Koponen”:

Give us a reason to watch this game.

Read what follows, because with a game like this we all wonder…

What you should pay attention to:

After such a morally degrading loss, How do the Blazers recover?? We know this team isn’t built to win, and we know there’s a strong possibility that some of the veterans on the roster won’t be here next spring. The players ALSO know this and it influences their game. Blazers reporter Casey Holdahl shared that yesterday’s practice was “as much about clearing the air” as anything else, that Robert Williams III spoke of an “elephant in the room” and that Toumani Camara spoke about the importance of honesty in a team spoke in a family.

If Portland suffers another loss, expect more behind-the-scenes coverage on how the team is handling the situation it finds itself in. Yes, they are hyper-competitive elite athletes who are well compensated, but sometimes we forget that they are people too… and people who find themselves in strange or uncertain situations can react emotionally. Navigating an 82-game season is as much about taking care of the mind as it is the body.

About the opponent:

Chris Hine of the Minnesota Star Tribune writes that the Wolves had their own postgame drama after narrowly losing to the Miami Heat:

Coach Chris Finch, who usually takes about 10 minutes before addressing the media, rushed to the team’s press conference room before most reporters could get there. Once he did, Finch offered more than a mea culpa for a number of decisions that contributed to the Wolves’ defeat, particularly on the final two possessions of the game. “I didn’t really understand it,” Finch said. “Tonight when I came down the track I didn’t get it right. I told you we’re not always going to get it right, but yeah, if I had to go back and do it again, I would definitely do it differently.” Anthony Edwards then declined to speak to reporters, after the media asked him to do so (players are subject to league fines for consistently not speaking to the media when asked). But before he left, he complained loud enough for reporters in the locker room to hear about the Heat’s changing zone defense.

The Athletic’s Zach Harper (subscription required) looked at Edwards’ aforementioned three-point shot and compared it to… who else… Steph Curry:

During the first week of the regular season, everyone seemed to notice that Anthony Edwards was shooting a lot of three-pointers – an absurd amount. The Timberwolves superstar made 40 three-pointers in the first three games. I admit that I dismissed the people who defended this decision by saying, “Well, he’s making 37.5 percent of it,” which is above the league average of 35 to 36 percent most seasons. Sure, that’s good, but we had to wait for a larger sample to see if he made good decisions. About that… It turns out: After 10 games, he’s shooting even better 3s. Edwards has made 118 3-pointers in the first 10 games – 118! For the non-math majors out there, that’s 11.8 attempts per night. That’s really high. Only Steph Curry and James Harden have shot as many per game in a season (both did it twice). After 10 games, we can truly say that Edwards shoots 3-pointers like Steph. That’s not an exaggeration. This is mathematics.