Are you gonna make it after all?

That question applies not just to the Atlanta Hawks but their hosts tonight, the Minnesota Timberwolves (8:00 PM Eastern, SportSouth, FoxSports North). Both teams come into tonight’s action having dropped three straight. But unlike the Hawks, who have the Knicks jogging in mud to chase them for the final spot in the East, the T’Wolves (34-35) have frittered away almost any chance they have to catch the far superior 8-seeds out West and make their first playoff appearance since 2004.

With a home-game attendance percentage (76.8% of capacity) equivalent to the Hawks’, Minny has already zoned out a large percentage of their own fans. Have they already spaced out Kevin Love, too? Boasting career-highs in scoring (26.2 PPG; 2.5 3FGM per game; 50.4 FG%) and assists (4.2 APG), he hasn’t let up at all lately (28.6 PPG, 41.0 3FG%, 5.3 APG post-All-Star-break). Yet the prospect of the three-time All-Star and league’s double-double leader someday getting enshrined as the greatest NBA player never to make the playoffs is becoming very real.

Love, who will likely get his 400^th career double-double tonight, can opt out of his contract in 2015. On the heels of this disappointing season, and all but four players under guaranteed contracts, the Wolves’ brass must either enact a major shake-up this summer to appease Love, or wait for an inevitable one the following summer when Love bails.

That shakeup is likely to start on the sideline. Head Coach Rick Adelman hasn’t been able to move the meter at all since Ricky Rubio tore his ACL in March 2012, the Wolves’ record 71-105 since then. Not having led a team to the postseason since 2009, Adelman is in his 23^rd season and looks to be completely out of answers. The novelty of having a son who played with Love in high school doesn’t seem to be compelling enough to salvage his job.

Love will likely to go into tonight’s contest once again without his partner-in-crime in the paint.Center Nikola Pekovic has been struggling to stay on the floor due to persistent ankle bursitis. The Wolves had to play without Pek back on February 1, when the Hawks pulled away in the third quarter, notching their final victory before the freefall that dropped them comfortably below .500. Typical of his season, Love had a monster game (43 points, 19 rebounds) in a losing effort. Ronny Turiaf filled in at center in that game, blocking five shots, but he’s missed the past month with a bruised knee.

Adelman has been reticent to playing his rookies, forward Shabazz Muhammad and center Gorgui Dieng each getting well under ten minutes per game on average. But now that he’s been forced to lean on his third-stringer at center, the fashionable Dieng (doing ads already for Nordstrom) is proving himself well-suited for the task.

In his first five starts of his NBA career, he’s averaging 12.2 PPG and 13.8 RPG (4.8 offensive), plus over one block and one steal (less than one turnover), while shooting 56.1 FG%. Before this, Dieng exceeded 15 minutes just once in 42 appearances. Since swatting five Kings shots in his NBA starter-debut on March 16, though, he’s rejected just one shot in his past four games, none in his past three.

Dieng is one genie Adelman will have a hard time stuffing back in the bottle, but his presence is a relief for Love, who seems to be Option A and/or B for just about everything the T’Wolves do.

The power outage from the perimeter continues for Atlanta as Kyle Korver (team-high 24 points and 3 three-pointers on February 1 vs. Minnesota) continues to deal with back spasms back home. Shooting just 8-for-23 in the home loss to Phoenix on Monday actually improved their three-point shooting of late (29.3 3FG% in the past 3 games). If Adelman intends to end their losing streak tonight, he’ll peel one of his wing defenders off the three-point line to help Love deal with Paul Millsap. Minnesota gives up scores at the restricted area at a league-high 65.4 opponent FG%.

Love will try to goad Millsap, Mike Scott and Pero Antić (combined 1-for-9 on 3FGs in Monday’s loss vs. Phoenix) to hang out at the 3-point line to try and keep up with his occasional marksmanship, making life simpler in the interior for Dieng. They can keep up, but only by working around Love and drawing fouls on the way to the rim.

Human demolition derby car DeMarre Carroll will have to avoid foul trouble while playing solid defense against Kevin Martin, who is again finding his offense (19.3 PPG, just 42.6 FG%) by drawing fouls and capitalizing on his 89.3 FT%. Martin is hardly a threat on the other end, so the Hawks’ guards need to look for Carroll to get open.

In the halfcourt, Jeff Teague, Shelvin Mack, Dennis Schröder and/or Lou Williams (17 points vs. Phoenix off the bench) should collude to keep the ball on the other side of the floor from theft-maven Ricky Rubio (2.4 SPG, second in NBA). A two-man game featuring the forwards posting up on Martin and Love should prove fruitful enough to draw Rubio's help. Whichever player he’s covering should try cutting toward the hoop when Rubio starts roving to the strong side looking for the pickoff.

On defense, all of Atlanta's guards have to do a better job (than they did versus Phoenix) recovering on the pick-and-roll, and keep Rubio (8.5 APG) from finding easy outlets to his T'Wolf teammates from the paint.

Go Hawks!

~lw3