The Minnesota Timberwolves host Jimmy Butler and the reigning Eastern Conference champions this Sunday for an intriguing game down in the Twin Cities. 

Catch this game live on Sunday, October 29, 2023 at 8 AM, Manila time

Away: Miami Heat (1-1/0-1 Away)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Kyle Lowry
  • Tyler Herro
  • Duncan Robinson
  • Jimmy Butler
  • Bam Adebayo

The Heat took their first stumble of the season on Saturday, as they suffered a 119-111 road loss to the Boston Celtics. Jimmy Butler had a relatively quiet night offensively, finishing with only 14 points on 3/11 shooting from the field in 34 minutes, while Tyler Herro put on a show with 28 points on 10/19 shooting with five 3-pointers. Bam Adebayo also had a big night wasted, having racked up 27 points with seven rebounds and two blocks. 

Miami is looking shaky in the early goings of the season, as they also barely edged a young Detroit Pistons squad in last Thursday’s season-opening 103-102 win in South Beach. But after two games, the Heat have seen enough samples of their play to get it together finally. With Minnesota’s big combo of Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony-Towns, the Heat could get Thomas Bryan more minutes this Sunday after he logged in only 13 minutes in the Boston game.

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Home: Minnesota Timberwolves (0-1/0-0 Home)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Mike Conley
  • Anthony Edwards
  • Jaden McDaniels (Doubtful)
  • Karl-Anthony Towns
  • Rudy Gobert

After losing their season opener, 97-94, at the hands of the Toronto Raptors north of the border last Thursday, Karl Anthony-Towns and the Timberwolves fly home for their campaign debut in the Twin Cities. For what it’s worth, the trend is looking good for Minnesota in this matchup; the Timberwolves have won all of their last five games as the home team versus the Heat, dating back to 2019. 

They have also gone 3-1-1 against the spread in those games. Anthony Edwards led the Timberwolves with 26 points in the Toronto game, but he shot an atrocious 8/27 from the field. Towns also struggled mightily, needing 25 shots to get to 19 points. The floor can’t get lower for those two, so they can be expected to find the bottom of the net more consistently this Sunday.

PREDICTIONS:

Spread: The Timberwolves (-5.0) cover the spread.

Over/Under: The total (218) hits the Over.