Timberwolves lose on the road against Blazers

The Minnesota Timberwolves began their four game road trip on Friday night against the hot-shooting Portland Trail Blazers. It was a game riddled with missed open shots for the Timberwolves who had to deal with hot shooting from Portland guards Damian Lillard and Wesley Mathews. To make matters worse, it was yet another blown lead by the Wolves that would result in a 103-95 loss, dropping the Wolves to the bottom of the division at 5-6. In his second game back Kevin Love was a dominant force contributing for 24 points and pulling down 13 rebounds for his second consecutive double-double. Minnesota struggled throughout from beyond the arc shooting 3/18 for a miserable 16.7%. The Blazers light up the long ball shooting 44.0% for a total of 33 points. All together the Timberwolves finished shooting just 41.0% from the field.

Defensively Minnesota did a poor job as Portland shot over 53% from the field and took advantage of the miss-matches. With a game high 30 points and an astounding 5 of 6 from the 3-point line, Matthews put on an offensive clinic. Rookie phenomenon Damian Lillard was all over the court scoring the basket and handing out dimes with his career-high 28 points and 8 assists. Despite the Wolves beating Portland on the boards 47 to 33 they were still able the overcome the under-the-basket offense of Kevin Love.

Both Derrick Williams and Greg Steimsma were healthy scratches for the Wolves. Oddly enough it was the lack of defense the ultimately would lose the game for the Timberwolves and that’s what Greg Steimsma is known for. Not to question Rick Adelman’s defensive scheme but changes will need to be made against the high power offense of the Golden State Warriors, a team that recently beat the Wolves at Target Center.