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(1-0)
COACHES
STARTING FIVES
MAURICE WILLIAMS - JONNY FLYNN
ANTHONY PARKER - COREY BREWER
LEBRON JAMES - DAMIEN WILKINS
ANDERSON VAREJAO - RYAN GOMES
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL - AL JEFFERSON
THE BENCHES
GIBSON / MOON / HICKSON / ILGAUSKAS / JACKSON
SESSIONS / PAVLOVIC / CARDINAL / HOLLINS / PECHEROV
GAME PREVIEW
Cleveland arrive in Minnesota riding a seven game winning streak against the Timberwolves, however it is the hosts who are smiling. Minnesota, behind strong rookie play from boom point guard Jonny Flynn (excellent pickup by Karma Police in the RCF's Oficial Fantasy league) with 13 final quarter points, scored a miraculous come from behind win against Sacramento. The Wolves trailed by 16 with less then 7 minutes left on the clock, sneaking in a win with Damien Wilkins buzzer beating put back.
The Cavalier's however have had a much publicized 0-2 start to the season with the last outing in Toronto being a poor one. Cleveland haven't lost three straight since the 2007-08 season and a loss here to the lowly rated Wolves would dent the already low confidence levels.
Both teams are missing key players with Minnesota star big man Kevin Love out for an extended period, whilst Cleveland have rotation players Delonte West and Leon Powe out for varied reasons. So we will see Minnesota struggle to rotate their bigs with limited depth, you will see something similar with Cleveland in the backcourt.
KEY FACTORS
* LeBron as per usual needs to be in attack mode as he will be tagged by Wilkins and Brewer who should not slow him. It will be interesting to see whether former Cavalier standout, Aleksandar Pavlovic will get some minutes on James as his mixture of size and knowledge of the Cavalier star may be a factor.
* Minnesota will likely attack with penetration through their point guards in Flynn and Sessions. Flynn in particular has lightening speed and will cause Williams and our help defense all sorts of problems. If they get inside regularly, it could be a tough night for the Cavaliers.
* Whilst the Wolves will be attacking with the small guys, the Cavaliers should be using the brute force of O'Neal and James to get their skinny front court in foul trouble. Behind Jefferson and Gomes is Hollins, Cardinal and Pecherov. Something this Cavalier team must expose.
* The center matchup between Jefferson and O'Neal should be a classic. Should both players be kept in check, you would think the LeBron factor will be enough for victory.
PREDICTION
Cavaliers with a scrappy but comfortable victory. The much maligned front court rotation of O'Neal, Varejao and Ilgauskas will be too much on top of the dominant James. Cavaliers by 12!
