The Minnesota Timberwolves are about to tip off in their fourth preseason game. In this contest, the Timberwolves will face the LA Lakers, a team that they had already defeated once by the score of 114-99. But that was a Lakers team that did not play Patrick Beverly, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, or Lebron James.
Well, you can’t expect the Timberwolves to slip past the Lakers twice without facing their big guns, right? The Lakers are going with their competitive starting five in this one, and will even have Dennis Schroeder available to come off the bench.
Darvin Ham says the Lakers will start the following group tonight:
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) October 13, 2022
Russell Westbrook
Patrick Beverley
Lonnie Walker IV
LeBron James
Anthony Davis
But what of the Timberwolves?
Wordlessly watching, they wait by the sidelines and wonder
After all, the Minnesota Timberwolves fans have been more than patient as they await the opportunity to see both Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns play on the same basketball court. Well, patient or not, it looks like fans will need to wait a little longer. The word is that the Timberwolves will hold both players out of the fourth preseason game for the Timberwolves.
“No Rudy, no KAT, no J-Mac, no Taurean Prince, no PJ Dozier, No Eric Paschall.”
— Alan Horton (@WolvesRadio) October 13, 2022
-Chris Finch on who’s not playing tonight vs. Lakers.
The Timberwolves only have one more preseason game to go, an October 14th contest at home against the Brooklyn Nets with a start time of 7:00 pm CT.
It’s understandable for the Timberwolves to mete out playing time for their stars in preseason games, but it feels like the coaching staff is missing out on a golden opportunity to pit their frontcourt stars against one of the more formidable NBA teams. Even if the Timberwolves only play Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns for eight-ten minutes to open the game, the test run would be incredibly valuable for the team to direct future practices.
But it seems to be what it is. For Minnesota Timberwolves fans, it appears more and more likely that the first time Gobert and Towns take the same basketball court for the Timberwolves will likely be the season opener on October 19 (just one week away) to face the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Until then, Timberwolves fans will need to be content watching the rest of the roster compete in preseason games.