The Minnesota Timberwolves are sitting fourth in a tight top-ten in the Western Conference. Can they close the season strong and land the No. 3 spot in the West come playoff time?
#1 – Keep Winning at Home
At the conclusion of last season, I wrote an article detailing the importance of the Timberwolves’ winning games at home, after their sub-par 20-21 record at Target Center during the 2016-17 season.
This year, however, it seems as though the Timberwolves are understanding the necessity of winning home games. With an impressive 24-7 home record heading into the All-Star break, The Wolves are already guaranteed an above-.500 home record come the end of season. This is important when you consider that no Western Conference team that made the playoffs last season had less than a .500 home record.
While the Wolves have done a great job holding down Target Center in Minneapolis so far this season, including 13 straight before last week’s loss to Houston, there’s still plenty of home games to win before the season is out.
Of the Wolves’ 11 remaining home games, four take place in April, including three straight to wrap up the season. With a lot of games on the road yet to come before the tail end of the season, the Timberwolves, who currently posses a 12-18 road record, need to realize that winning these home games could be the difference between finishing top-four, or even top-eight, in the Western Conference, or missing out on the playoffs for a 14th consecutive year.
Entering March, the Wolves’ home games start with Boston and Golden State, with Houston returning to Minneapolis a week later. These won’t be easy games to win, but if the Timberwolves want to assert themselves as a dominant team in the West and climb their way up the standings, they’ll have to have a good go of it.
The last six home games of the season all feature teams that currently sit outside the top eight, except for Denver in the season finale. These games should be seen as must-win for the Wolves to boost their way up the standings.
With a Western Conference that currently has five games deciding the No. 3 through 10 seeds, those six home games may be all the difference.
#2 – Find Wiggins’ Place
After receiving his max contract extension in the offseason — a contract that will increase his salary each year, all the way up to $33.3 million in 2022 — Andrew Wiggins has had an up-and-down season.
Wiggins had to adjust to becoming the number-two option on the team to the third, behind Towns and Butler. At first, it seemed to work. Wiggins averaged close to 25 points throughout the Wolves first three games, and hit the memorable game winning 3-pointer over Oklahoma to steal a close victory.
However, Butler was acting as more of a facilitator, role player and defender throughout the start of the season, and has since added his scoring game to the Wolves offense.
Wiggins hasn’t managed 20 points in the last nine Wolves games, and has reached 10 points in a third of those performances. Wiggins isn’t necessarily shooting terribly, just inconsistently. An 18-point performance while shooting 65 percent from the field came just four days before a seven-point performance on 14 percent shooting.
While Wiggins’ scoring clearly isn’t essential to the Wolves’ winning, Wiggins finding a different way to contribute, perhaps taking some strain off Butler and Towns, would certainly help the Timberwolves.
Wiggins hasn’t had five or more assists in a game since Christmas Day, hasn’t collected 10 or more rebounds all season and his defense always seems to be questioned. If Wiggins can find his place to contribute, and stabilize his scoring, the Wolves would be in a much better position to win games.
#3 – Survive a tough eight-game stretch
From March 1 to March 20, the Timberwolves have a tough stretch of eight games that they’ll need to do their best to stay afloat in.
Starting in Portland, the Wolves then head to Utah as part of a back-to-back, before Boston and Golden State visit Minnesota. Then, visits to Washington and San Antonio, Houston visiting Minnesota, and a final home game against the Clippers.
Of these eight teams, six currently sit in the top-four of their respective conferences, while Utah sits 10th in the West and just behind the Clippers.
The Clippers game may not be too difficult considering a three day break before the game, but coming at the tail-end of these tough games, an unpredictable L.A. team could find a way to best the Wolves.
While Utah is in 10th place, they currently sit just five games behind the fourth-place Wolves. Utah will definitely be looking to capitalize on the Wolves tough stretch, and a win for them could boost their playoff chances while harming Minnesota’s.
With only 10 games remaining in the season after this stretch of games, a decent record in the stretch will be a necessity in the Wolves’ anchoring their way in the third seed, or at least the top half of the Western Conference.
If, God forbid, the Wolves find themselves with just one or zero wins in that eight game stretch, the Timberwolves can say goodbye to the third seed, a top-four finish and maybe even the playoffs altogether.
#4 – Win the ‘easy’ games
This is the NBA, and no game is ever ‘easy’. But for a fourth-seed team in the West looking to find their way into the top-three, a team outside the top 10 shouldn’t be much worry.
In 2018, the Wolves have recorded losses to Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando and Brooklyn — all teams that the Wolves absolutely should not be losing to. Those four teams are the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Combine Atlanta and Orlando’s win totals and you’ve got the Timberwolves’ win total — it’s that bad.
So how did these teams manage to get the better of the Wolves? These losses all came on the road, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. The Timberwolves need to treat the bottom-tier teams the same as they treat a contender, and prepare accordingly.
Losses like these, in completely winnable games, are what will allow the Spurs to take the third seed ahead of Minnesota, and if they aren’t careful, allow other teams to overtake them, too.
The Wolves remaining games against Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Memphis should all be completely winnable, and could add valuable W’s to the win column.
When the Western Conference is as tight as it is currently, with just five wins being the difference between third and tenth, these ‘easy’ games are all the more important to help the Wolves distance themselves from the back of the pack.
If you have a look at the previous slide, you’ll see the Wolves may have a tough time adding to their win column throughout March, so these games are crucial to the Timberwolves’ clinching the third seed.
#5 – Remember just how badly they want it
It’s been a long 14 years since the Timberwolves were last in the playoffs. There have been plenty of ups and downs, a couple of No. 1-overall picks, and plenty of promise. This year should finally be the year that the Wolves bring it all together and break the playoff drought.
Thibodeau, Butler and Taj have experienced the playoffs recently back in Chicago, Jamal has visited with the Clippers and Jeff Teague has been there each and every year of his career. Yet for a lot of the Wolves, this is the first year the Timberwolves are seriously looking to make a playoff appearance, and they could go further than just the first round.
The young Wolves need to be hungry to taste the playoffs, and let it show in the way they play. Wiggins and Towns need to show why they were worthy of being first overall picks. Tyus Jones needs to show why he deserves to stay with his hometown team. These players need to let their enthusiasm and hunger for success drive the way they play and help lift the Wolves higher in the Western Conference.
Butler and Gibson need to prove Thibodeau was right to reunite them all in Minnesota, and most of all Thibodeau needs to show why he belongs as head coach, and prove all the moves he has made have been worth it.
The Timberwolves need to be hungry for the playoffs, and play their hearts out into the third seed to secure their postseason appearance and give themselves the best chance they can to make an impact.
No team plays harder than a team that’s hungry for success.
This year should be the year the Timberwolves finally break the playoff drought and look to make an impact in the postseason. The players deserve it, the staff deserves it, and us fans deserve it, too.