Game Time: 8:00 PM ET, Thursday, April 7th, 2022 

Venue:    Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Where to Watch: NBA League Pass

DraftKings:  Spread:  Timberwolves -8; O/U 237.5

Fanduel:  Spread:  Timberwolves -7.5

BetMGM:  Spread: NL

Spurs: 34-45, 10th place Western Conference

Timberwolves: 45-35, 7th place Western Conference 

An NBAWestern Conference matchup between the 7th place team and the 10th place team.  As the numbers come in… This is most likely a preview for a Play-in game matchup.  The Spurs could still catch the Pelicans for 9th place… but the Timberwolves are going nowhere in the standings and will play as the 7th place team… Meaning the Wolves will play the 10th place team which is 67% likely to be the Spurs.  Fun huh?  The San Antonio Spurs got a very specific thrill in their last game as they beat a Denver team that was resting C Nikola Jokic… the win wasn’t the Thrill… Knocking the Lakers mathematically out of the play-in game was. The Spurs and Lakers are old Western Conference rivals and the Spurs fans took greater joy in driving the nail in the Lakers coffin… then they did in securing 10th place or better.  The Spurs are unlikely to make any noise in the playoffs as they have very little to offer on their roster… specifically at the Center position where Minnesota, Denver, Phoenix, and Memphis are so strong.  The Timberwolves are stranded in 7th place with too big a gap to jump to 6th and too big a gap to fall to 8th place.  It is still a wonderful place to find themselves in after spending the last couple of decades as the neutered Minnesota Timberwolves.  Something happened in Minnesota that is near inexplicable… a team that pulled in several all-stars and made several high draft picks over the years has been gut churning-ly awful.  For whatever reason they have consistently made terrible moves on the roster that has kept them among the league's worst teams.  This season it turned around… albeit a little late.  C Karl-Anthony Towns announced himself as the best shooting big man in the league and easily a top-five Center… paired with SG D’Angelo Russell and sophomore SF Anthony Edwards (a #1 overall pick) … the team found a way to play with each other… They found a way to win in the season’s second half.

The San Antonio Spurs have won 8 of their last ten games.  They went 7-3 ATS.  The Spurs have won their last three games AND beat their spread without their best player PG Dejounte Murray.  Murray leads the team in scoring and assists and steals… he has sat out three games with an upper respiratory illness that is only described as non-Covid related.  To be fair however.. The wins came against the terrible Portland Trail Blazers twice and the Denver Nuggets without Nikola Jokic… still the Spurs are on a roll.  It will depend entirely on whether the Timberwolves start resting players in preparation for the playoffs though.  Cause the Spurs without Dejounte Murray would mean that the Timberwolves would have the three best players on the floor.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have won 5 of their last 10 games. They went 4-6 ATS during that stretch.  They did not catch as easy a stretch as San Antonio did.. They got Dallas, Phoenix, Boston, and Toronto among the teams that hung losses on them… It is unforgivable that they let the Washington Wizards get one too… however in their last game, the Wizards got 25 points from C Kristaps Porzingis, 21 from PF Rui Hachimura and, a surprise 24 from PF Daniel Gafford.  Minnesota had bad games from SG D’Angelo Russel, PF Jaden McDaniels, and PF Jarred Vanderbilt.  The Wolves were getting smashed and sat their underperforming players early and let the loss happen.  That does not bode well for a matchup with the Spurs.  What does bode well against the Spurs… is that C Karl-Anthony Towns will face an assortment of Spurs that simply can not play him.  KAT got 25 in the loss to the Wizards but had to face Porzingis on the blocks… He should get 35 against the soft San Antonio combo of C Jakob Poeltl and Tweener PF/C Zach Collins. The player to watch for San Antonio is SG Joshua Primo, the Spurs first round pick in the last draft (#12) who is often compared to OKC’s SG Josh Giddey in his across the board abilities.. The small Canadian Teenager (Primo) has yet to produce much of anything despite getting lots of minutes while Dejounte Murray is missing games.  

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The Spurs are 34-45 on the season, but 41-37-1 ATS.  They have logged 37 Overs, 40 Unders, and 2 Push.  They are 18-21 in road games.

The Timberwolves are 45-35 on the season, but 42-36-2 ATS.  They notched 48 Overs, and 32 Unders.  They are 25-14 in home games.

The San Antonio Spurs are 8th in scoring with 113.2 ppg, 7th in rebounds with 45.5 per game, and 1st in AST/TO ratio.  On defense they rank 23rd while allowing 112.8 ppg.  It is not typical for a Gregg Popovich coached team to be this bad on defense… but it is actually an accomplishment based on their roster.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are 1st in scoring with 115.8 ppg, 14th in rebounds with 44.3 per game, and 14th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank 24th while allowing 113.1 ppg from opponents.

Our prediction for Thursday, April 7th is….. Timberwolves 133 - Spurs 118

KAT is going to smash the Spurs frontline and D’Angelo Russell will smash Joshua Primo.  The offense to defense ratio is too steep a challenge for the Spurs.  The Spurs have been playing great but won’t be able to stop actual scorers with their pathetic defense.  

 

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San Antonio is 22-9 ATS as a road underdogs of 6.5 -12 pts the last 3 seasons.
Minnesota is 11-2 ATS in a home game where the total is greater or equal to 230.
Minnesota is 4-0 ATS versus San Antonio at Minnesota over the last 3 seasons.

Spurs: PG Dejounte Murray (ill) Quest ** C Jock Landale (foot) Quest ** SG Romeo Langford (heel) Quest ** SF Dylan McDermott (nose) Out

Timberwolves: PG Patrick Beverley (ankle) Quest

Spurs: PF Keldon Johnson, SF Devin Vassell, C Jakob Poeltl, SG Joshua Primo, PG Tre Jones

Timberwolves: SF Anthony Edwards, PF Jarred Vanderbilt, C Karl-Anthony Towns, SG D’Angelo Russell, PG Malik Beasley

Spurs: Gregg “the legend” Popovich

T-Wolves: Chris “who?” Finch