Last night, the Wolves and Badgers both won games convincingly, for the most part. Minnesota had to hold off a late Philadelphia rally, but the Wolves were in control throughout the game. I was pretty close on my 95-91 prediction for the Wolves game as Minnesota ended up winning 94-87. Wisconsin, however, did not have to hold off any kind of rally by Northwestern as it blew past the Wildcats 69-41 in Evanston, Ill. The Badgers win kept them in the third spot in the Big Ten standings, tied with Michigan and one game ahead of Ohio State.
Like I said yesterday, it was a must to get the ball to Nikola Pekovic and let him go to work. Go to work he did as he dropped 27 on the 76ers as well as grabbing 18 rebounds, which tied a career high. Alexey Shved was not a factor like I said he needed to be, but Pekovic more than made up for it. In his first game back after missing five games, Andrei Kirilenko once again filled the stat sheet, scoring 15 points, grabbing five rebounds, dishing out five assists and having two steals and three blocks as well.
Minnesota made a living on the free throw line, going 33-for-44 from the charity stripe and out-rebounded Philadelphia 51-39. The Timberwolves desperately needed this one of they want any chance of making the playoffs, especially with a road trip to Oklahoma City coming up tomorrow.
Wisconsin also needed to win against a depleted Northwestern squad. The team that Northwestern trotted out to play just is not very talented. That will happen when Jared Swopshire and Drew Crawford , two starters, are out for the season. Wisconsin did what it needed to and jumped out to an early 9-0 lead before coasting to the easy 28-point win. Wisconsin out-rebounded the Wildcats 43-19.
Traevon Jackson ended the first half with a pull-up jumper to put the Badgers ahead 28-12. The 12 points by the Wildcats was the lowest point total Wisconsin has allowed in the first half this season and the lowest amount of points Northwestern has had in the first half under Bill Carmody.
The Wildcats would cut the deficit to 12 at 31-19, but that's as close as it would get as Wisconsin would go on an 18-6 run immediately after to put the game away. The largest lead of the game was 28, which just happened to be at the end of the game.
Ten Badgers broke into the scoring column, led by Jared Berggren and Ben Brust, who each finished with 12. Only Reggie Hearn scored in double figures for Northwestern with 13, but needed 14 shots to get those 13. Only three Northwestern players scored more than three points in the game.
The trading deadline passed at 3 EST today with very little activity around the league and no activity by the Wolves. The major player who was traded today was J.J. Redick, who was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks from the Orlando Magic.
Minnesota was rumored to be in on Utah Jazz forward Paul Milsap and at the last minute, Boston Celtics shooting guard Courtney Lee. The Wolves were not able to come to an agreement on a trade, so Minnesota decided to stand pat. The Timberwolves really needed to make a deal if they want to make playoffs as Luke Ridnour just won't be able to cut it as the starting shooting guard.
Ridnour was rumored to be traded as he just has one more year on his deal after this year and since Rubio is back at full strength, Minnesota is not able to afford three highly paid point guards on its roster. He will most likely be moved during the offseason. Perhaps Derrick Williams will be traded this summer as well.
The Timberwolves are expected to get Chase Budinger and Kevin Love back next month, but at that time, it may be too little, too late in an effort to make the franchise's first playoff appearance since the 2003-04 season.
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