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By Andy Popp

GAME 27: Blazers @ Minnesota Timberwolves
December 17, 7PM; Comcast Sports
Related: Trail Blazers Games, Schedule, and WIN Tickets

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Miraculously, the Blazers are begin a favorable 4 game stretch tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The 6-20 Timberwolves are a terrible team with 1.5 good players. Their feature player, Lake Oswego native Kevin Love, is absolutely destroying the boards this year. Not only did he record the first 30/30 game in 28 years, he also has the same number of 20/20 games as the rest of the league combined (5). Love is averaging 20 points and 15.6 rebounds per game. The Timberwolves' other bright spot is Michael Beasley. His role on the Timberwolves is primarily to score, but he is a decent rebounder and does an OK job cleaning up boards that Love somehow misses.

The Timberwolves on paper.
Starting five: Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, Darko Milicic, Luke Ridnour, Wesley Johnson
Off the bench: Corey Brewer, Martell Webster, Johnny Flynn, Nikola Pekovic

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Brandon Roy to miss the next 3 games with a sore left knee.
Andre Miller for Marcin Gortat rumors.
Michael Beasley has “SUPER COOL BEAS” tattooed on his back.
Darko Milicic is averaging nearly three blocks per game this season.

STRATEGY
Since Roy will not be playing tonight, expect the Blazers' offense to be more free-flowing. Which I believe really helps the Blazers vs a team like the Timberwolves that doesn't care to play defense. I like Andre Miller to run the ship and find a lot of open teammates.

LET'S GET RICH
To date: 10-10-1.
Blazers -9. I'll go with the Blazers at home.

TRADE ME
Rudy Fernandez

NUMBER OF BACK TO BACKS THIS SEASON (IN SETS)
7 (SPOILER: this number's going up tomorrow)

NEXT 5
vs Golden State
vs Milwaukee
@ Golden State
@ Utah
@ Denver

BOTTOM LINE
With Brandon Roy getting shut down again, things are looking bleaker than they have in a long time for the Blazers. Hopefully the team gets up for this game and wins one for… everyone.

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More Portland Trail Blazers coverage here by

——Andy Popp

Andy Popp is a Portland native that loves sports and beer. You can contact Andy Popp at either andypopp@gmail.com or BlazersPipeline on Twitter. When he's not at PDX Pipeline, you can find him at lowposts.com.