The Houston Rockets are 6-0 against the Minnesota Timberwolves this season, and four of the six have been blowouts of 18-20 points.
It’s been ugly, with Game 2 serving as notice that it could get a lot uglier before the best-of-seven series is over.
After embarrassing Minnesota by 20 points in Game 2, Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni delivered a frightening reality: “We haven’t played very well so far.”
Scared? The Wolves should be.
Houston averaged 122.8 points against Minnesota during the regular season and they’ve barely cracked 100 in both playoff wins.
In Game 1 they missed a ton of open threes, which are their bread and butter. In Game 2, their starters didn’t play most of the fourth quarter, so that blowout could’ve been a lot more than 20 points.
Alas, the Wolves finally get home court in a playoff game for the first time since May 2004 when they host the Rockets in Game 3 Saturday night.
“It’ll be crazy up there,” D’Antoni said, via the Houston Chronicle. “They haven’t been in the playoffs for a long time. It will be a very loud crowd. We have to do our part, play defense and take the crowd out of it.”
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It’ll be even crazier if Karl-Anthony Towns and Jimmy Butler no-show like they have so far this series.
Butler has averaged 12 points per game this series, more than 10 shy of his regular season average of 22.2 points.
Towns has been worse, scoring 8 points in Game 1 and a pathetic 5 points in Game 2, drawing the ire of NBA legends Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley.
“We have to be ready for all they got. Whatever they have left, we’re going to get it full throttle right when we get on the floor to start the game,” D’Antoni added.
If all Butler and Towns have in them is a combined 20 points or less, then this series is already over, simply awaiting finality through time.
And while there’s no doubt that the crowd inside Target Center will be extremely excited, the cheers will turn to jeers really fast if the Wolves perform like they did in Game 2.
