The Game
The Wolves will continue their home stretch on Friday by hosting the Los Angeles Clippers for a nationally televised game. Additionally, the Wolves will be sporting their new City Edition jerseys for the first time this season.
The Clippers are on a hot streak and have climbed to second place in the Western Conference standings after winning three consecutive games and eight of their last 10. The Clippers are 19-7 overall but just 6-6 on the road.
The Wolves’ Wednesday night loss to the Utah Jazz dropped their record to 10-14, which is good for 10th place in the West. The Wolves are trying to snap a six-game losing streak and find their groove at Target Center where they’ve only won three of their 11 home games.
Friday’s game will be the first of four matchups between the Wolves and Clippers this season. Last year, the Clippers won their three-game series against the Wolves, 2-1, but this is a revamped Clippers team. The Clippers became the talk of the 2019 offseason on July 6 after Kawhi Leonard, the reigning Finals MVP, made his long-awaited decision to leave Toronto and join the Clippers’ crew.
But the madness didn’t end there.
On top of landing Leonard in free agency, the Clippers also traded guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, forward Danilo Gallinari and four first-round draft picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Paul George, another one of the league’s top two-way players. George missed the first 11 games of the season while recovering from shoulder surgery, but the Clippers are 12-3 since George’s debut.
The Wolves will have their work cut out for them if both George and Leonard play in Friday’s game, but if the Wolves get back to trusting their system, we could be in for a fun Friday night.
What: Wolves vs. Clippers When: 8:30 p.m. CT, Friday, Dec. 13 Where: Target Center Watch: Fox Sports North, ESPN Listen: 830 WCCOTickets
Connections
We have to dip into the Clippers’ G League roster to find connections between these two teams, but this player is pretty well-known among Minnesota basketball fans. It's Amir Coffey.
Coffey, a Hopkins native and Minnesota Mr. Basketball honoree, played three seasons of college basketball with the Gophers before signing a two-way contract with the Clippers before his senior season. Coffey led the Gophers in scoring during the 2018-19 season after averaging 16.6 points per game and was named to the All-Big Ten third team after the Gophers’ went 9-11 in conference play.
So far, Coffey’s NBA and G League careers have been hampered by an ankle sprain.
Would You Believe Me If I Told You . . .
Jeff Teague has recorded 10 30-plus-point games in his career, two of which have come in the last week.
Teague’s most recent 30-plus-point game came on Wednesday in the Wolves’ loss to Utah when he dropped 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-for-4 shooting from behind the 3-point arc. Teague’s performance against the Jazz made him the ninth player in Timberwolves history to score 30-plus points off the bench and the first to do so since Derrick Rose scored 31 against the Phoenix Suns on January 20, 2019.
Injury Report:
Wolves: Jake Layman (toe) is out.
Clippers: Rodney McGruder (hamstring) is probable, JaMychal Green (tailbone) is questionable and Patrick Beverly (concussion), Landry Shamet (ankle) and Amir Coffey (ankle) are out.
Projected Starters:
Wolves: PG—Wiggins, SG—Culver, SF—Okogie, PF—Covington, C—Towns
Clippers: PG—Williams, SG—George, SF—Leonard, PF—Harkless, C—Zubac