The Minnesota Timberwolves travel to Texas to face the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center on Monday.

The Timberwolves (16-39) roster is a shell of itself right now. Since the beginning of the year, they've lost Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Robert Covington, Jeff Teague and Shabazz Napier. Towns is actually the only one remaining on the roster and the only really valuable piece they got from all of those guys is D'Angelo Russell. The southpaw from Golden State is also injured himself and it's left this roster almost unrecognizable. That's forced guys like Naz Reid, Jordan McLaughin, Juancho Hernangomez and Malik Beasley into huge roles and one has to wonder just where this franchise is headed behind average players like those.

The Mavericks (34-23) are one of those rare teams that play better away from home. In fact, they own a 15-14 record in Dallas and a 19-9 record outside of of their home building. There's really no explanation for that, especially when you consider how rowdy the Dallas crowd usually is. One has to believe that it will inevitably positively regress but it also makes them a dangerous team come playoff time. The most important thing heading into the postseason is the health of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis though. Those two guys were actually rested in the team's most recent loss on Saturday against the Atlanta Hawks and it's clear that having them healthy come April is the most important thing for this franchise.

These teams have played once this season, with Dallas prevailing, 121-114, on December 4. Prior to that, the T'Wolves won six of their previous eight games over the Mavs.