Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert to debut together in final preseason game
It won't be Wednesday night in Los Angeles against the Lakers, but all signs point to the Minnesota Timberwolves debuting their twin towers Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert on Friday night against the Brooklyn Nets.
Friday's game at Target Center against the Nets is Minnesota's final preseason game ahead of the regular season opener next Wednesday, Oct. 19 when the Wolves host the Oklahoma City Thunder.
"We're confident they're on track to play together in the preseason," head coach Chris Finch said Tuesday.
One would also assume that the rest of the starters will be in the lineup Friday as it would be the last opportunity for a full dress rehearsal before the season begins. That would mean a starting lineup of D'Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Towns and Gobert.
Gobert will not play Wednesday against the Lakers. Towns will.
The Lakers, meanwhile, will likely role out a lineup that is closer to what they'll go with in the regular season. That could mean Minnesota sees LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis and Patrick Beverley. All four didn't play when the Timberwolves beat them last Thursday in Las Vegas.
Minnesota started Russell, Edwards, McDaniels and Gobert against the Lakers, but Towns was still recovering from an illness that put him in the hospital before the start of training camp. Towns made his debut Friday night against the Clippers, but Gobert didn't play, so the starting lineup was again one star shy of being complete.
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Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.