The clash between the Wizards and the Timberwolves might not have drawn a lot of eyeballs outside of the respective TV markets of Washington DC and Minnesota, but it was a game fraught with storylines simply because of all the similarities the two teams share:
-Both were expected to make the playoffs, but are on the outside looking in, but are close enough to a playoff seeding that they might as well keep trying their best
-Both had a star player at the beginning of the season who is unexpectedly unavailable to play right now (Jimmy Butler got traded; John Wall got injured).
-Both have a top-two pick from the 2014 draft on their roster, and both of those players maybe haven’t turned out to be the surefire All-Stars they were supposed to be.
-Both are located in cities where winter weather isn’t always the greatest.
Going off point three, Jabari definitely won the Parker vs. Wiggins contest. If either of them defended the other, I wasn’t paying enough attention to see how that went, but going off points is easier than actually watching games, so Jabari wins by scoring 22 to Wiggins’ 16. If only people would take my “points are the only thing that matter in basketball” philosophy to heart, then these kinds of player comparisons would be so much easier.
By the way, Kareem-Abdul Jabbari the GOAT of all time and nobody’s changing my mind on that one.