Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Philadelphia 76ers matchup breakdown

The Minnesota Timberwolves are traveling to Philadelphia full of confidence after two days of rest with an undefeated record while being led by the best player in the West over the first week in Karl-Anthony Towns.

Both the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Philadelphia 76ers are undefeated and have nothing less than championship aspirations this season.

This game was scheduled at the perfect time, as most fans and media are without a doubt still questioning if the Timberwolves are for real and they’re hungry to prove themselves.

The embarrassment of last season is very fresh in everyone’s mind when the Wolves lost by 42 points in Philadelphia while being led by interim head coach Ryan Saunders, who was still very new to the job at the time.

This time coach Saunders is fully prepared and focused for the challenge. So how will it play out?

The Sixers played against the Hawks two nights ago and featured their massive lineup which ended up shutting down Trae Young in the second half.

Like Towns, Young had also been named Player of the Week and started the game on fire but in the second half only made one field goal.

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The Hawks only attempted 27 threes in the game and instead attacked the rim in the pick and roll to test Joel Embiid’s health as he had recently returned from an ankle injury.

The result was a loss for the Hawks, but Lloyd Pierce’s strategy looked correct because although Embiid was a monster in the box score, his defense around the rim was questionable.

It didn’t look like the hobbled Embiid wanted to contest any shots around the rim and instead focused on boxing out and rebounding. Embiid simply got away without playing much defense since Young is still too small to score over him around the rim even if he doesn’t jump much, and none of the Hawks’ big men were a threat to shoot threes so the Sixers’ center was able to drop all the way to the rim on every defensive play and was never tested laterally.

Unfortunately for Embiid, the Wolves have Towns who mandates attention on the perimeter and Andrew Wiggins, who is a lot bigger and a superior rim attacker than Trae Young. Embiid’s health will be tested to the max and the Wolves will smell blood as long as they keep the game close or possibly take a lead.

The problem for the Wolves is even if Embiid is played off the floor, Al Horford is also very good and can easily be the primary rim protector.

Another problem is how will they hide Jeff Teague on defense? This is probably the game for Saunders to get creative and bench Teague for a wing that can defend Ben Simmons.

Josh Okogie could be in line for some more minutes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Jarrett Culver. Okogie has been a huge boost off the bench, and Culver could be useful as a big point guard in this matchup even though he hasn’t really found himself with the bench unit.

How Saunders shuffles the lineups throughout the game will be fascinating and could really solidify the identity of this team in their toughest matchup of the early season.