The Timberwolves schedule was released on Thursday afternoon, and to much fanfare.
It’s kind of impressive how the NBA has followed in the footsteps of the NFL and nearly accomplished a year-round news cycle, isn’t it?
My take after glancing through the schedule: The Timberwolves are gaining respect from the league in some ways, but not so in others.
On the positive side, the Timberwolves play a Christmas Day game! I can’t remember the last time this happened (if ever) as the NBA typically only schedules marquee match-ups on Christmas day. I say ‘typically’ because they’ve managed to give the Lakers and Knicks Christmas day games consistently despite their recent records.
The Wolves’ Christmas game is an away match-up at Oklahoma City. The Wolves have been compared quite a bit to the early Thunder teams that featured young stars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. The fact that only Westbrook remains on the team takes a little shine off the game; regardless, it’s a great sign that the Wolves are scheduled on Christmas.
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Plus, these two teams have played a ton of great games in recent years so hopefully they give us another gem when the whole league is watching.
Another positive sign for the Wolves is they’ve been scheduled on TNT four times and ESPN six times. This is a drastic improvement over previous years and a great sign that the NBA is expecting them to be a much more successful team than in years past.
I’m already looking forward to Charles Barkley making fun of Shabazz’s defensive effort and Rubio’s jump shooting ability while also saying a few encouraging words about KAT and Wiggins. Shaq might even offer a few mumbling sentences about KAT’s ability to ‘dominate’ and how his jump hook is ‘barbecue chicken’:
A sign that the Wolves haven’t received the respect of an upper echelon team is they’ve been scheduled for, by my count, 13 back-to-backs. This means that 26 games, or 32 percent of the regular season, will be played on either the first or second night of a back-to-back. The Wolves are notorious for being at or near the league lead in back to backs and the NBA consistently schedules the bottom teams with a higher frequency of them.
On the other hand, I count 16(?!) back to backs for both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. So go figure. I’m pretty sure the league office will be hearing from both of those teams about that issue!
Some other quick notes:
- Their home game against the Cavs is on Valentine’s Day this year. Wish me luck in convincing the lady that we should go to this game. In my defense, I still haven’t seen LeBron in person and the clock is ticking on his greatness. Any tips on how to convince the lady would be greatly appreciated!
- The biggest home games of the year (in my opinion) will be the two against Golden State. The Warriors were a traveling circus last year and expect the excitement level to go up a couple notches with KD now on the team. The two games are Sunday, December 11th and Friday, March 10th (NBA TV).
- For you Wisconsinites living in Minnesota, the Bucks home game is Friday, December 30th.
- The final two games of the season are OKC at home and at Houston. Hopefully these two match-ups will be meaningful for playoff eligibility and positioning!
We’ll have the final part of our top-five games from last season later today.
Next: Reliving Karl-Anthony Towns' Game-Winner
And yes, it will involve those 73-win Warriors, no doubt. Enjoy your Friday, everyone.