During the 82 game NBA regular season there are ho-hum dates and yawners. Then there are a few like tonight’s Lakers-Wolves date at Target Center that deserve preferred anticipation.
The Wolves, who are playing their best basketball in years, will test themselves against a Lakers team that is No. 2 in NBA.com’s power rankings. Wolves’ assistant coach Jerry Sichting didn’t minimize the game’s importance during an interview with Sports Headliners early in the week.
“That will be a good measuring stick,” he said. “They’re the cream of our conference. That’s for sure. Not only are they good but they’re tall and we’re not the biggest team in the league. It’s almost a double whammy when we play them. They’ve got great players and they’re really big. Al (Jefferson), and (Kevin) Love, they’ll be giving up three and four and five inches to the guys that they’re matched up against. Those guys like to throw over the top and play volleyball on the glass against us. We’re really going to have to be physical and we’re gonna have to play our best game of the year probably to beat them.”
The Lakers, with the Western Conference’s best record at 35-9, have more length than any team in the league, plus all-world guard Kobe Bryant. And not just length, but quality players with exceptional basketball skills and athleticism. Andrew Bynum, only 21, is a 7-footer with long arms who has taken over at center with Pau Gasol, another 7-footer, moving to power forward. Bynum is averaging 13.9 points and 8.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks. Gasol’s numbers: 17.3, 9.0 and 0.9.
Bynum probably has as much potential for improvement as any player in the league and he’s already a handful. He scored a career high 42 points earlier this month against the Clippers. “He’s a monster,” Love said. “He’s what, only 21? … He’s just scratching the surface right now.”
Off the Lakers bench come two 6-10 players, Lamar Odom and Vladimir Radmanovic. The versatile Odom can play both power forward and small forward.
The Wolves’ January record is a flashy 10-3, yet all but two of the wins have come against teams with under .500 records. Sichting, though, said the Wolves have newfound confidence. Instead of experiencing a bad period of play in a game and thinking all was lost, now the team has proven it can even come from behind and win.
“They’re starting to believe that they can play with good teams,” he said. “We haven’t beat a lot of teams with winning records. …That’s the next step we have to take. We’re beating mediocre teams. We’re beating some teams that aren’t very good. ….”
A win tonight against the Lakers will leave no one doubting the reputation of the team the Wolves defeated. And if that weren’t enough, the Wolves are at Boston on Sunday to face the defending NBA champions who are 38-9 and have won nine straight. Can you say Measuring Stick II?