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2019 Playoff Predictions Part 4: Thunder vs. Timberwolves

By Trey Flynn

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - SEPTEMBER 22: Andrew Wiggins #22, Karl-Anthony Towns #32 and Jimmy Butler #23 of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - SEPTEMBER 22: Andrew Wiggins #22, Karl-Anthony Towns #32 and Jimmy Butler #23 of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The fourth part to our playoff series here at Dunking With Wolves is going to analyze the Oklahoma City Thunder and how they will match up against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Here at Dunking With Wolves we’ve started a series on predicting how the Minnesota Timberwolves will match up against the potential playoff contenders in the Western Conference.

What is being used as the standard of what teams will be in the potential 2019 playoffs is the playoff standings in the 2018 race.

  1. Houston Rockets (65-17)
  2. Golden State Warriors (58-24)
  3. Portland Trailblazers (49-33)
  4. Oklahoma City Thunder (48-34)
  5. Utah Jazz (48-34)
  6. New Orleans Pelicans (48-34)
  7. San Antonio Spurs (47-35)
  8. Minnesota Timberwolves (47-35)

The remaining teams who have a chance of making a splash in the playoffs this year that couldn’t quite make it last year are most likely the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers, so we’ll be taking a look at them too. The Nuggets finished last season with a record of 46-36 and the Lakers finished with a poor 35-47.

I should shout out the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers who will have the chance to surprise some teams with a couple good wins against great opponents this year.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the scarier teams in the NBA because of Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Aside from those two All-Star’s, the Thunder have possibly improved on their bench as well with losing Carmelo Anthony and adding Dennis Schroder.

While the Thunder disappointed by losing to the Utah Jazz last postseason, a lot of it was an unhealthy PG13 who was infamously inconsistent when being defended by Joe Ingles and the defensive monster and Defensive MVP of the league in Rudy Gobert stopping Westbrook at the rim almost every transition play.

However, I would say that Oklahoma City has a lot of positive energy going into this new season, Westbrook and co. are running it back with Paul George signed for the long haul and they may be good to go.

Minnesota Timberwolves compared to the Oklahoma City Thunder

The Timberwolves ended up 3-1 against the Thunder during the regular season last year and that is excellent news for the future. Westbrook and George were fantastic but it was surprising efforts of Andrew Wiggins and Jeff Teague that pushed the Wolves over the edge when Towns and Butler were playing at a high level.

In fact, Andrew Wiggins was second behind Karl-Anthony Towns for points per game against the Thunder with averaging close to 22 a pop.

Furthermore, you can expect that if the Thunder can get in a good grove with Schroeder as their back up point guard that he can dismantle Tyus Jones and Derrick Rose on the offensive end of the court.

Next. All-Time Timberwolves Uniforms. dark

Andre Roberson was out for 3 out of those 4 games, so a healthy defender as good as him at the wing could be a big difference maker for taking a Wiggins or Butler type player out of the game all together.

I expect the Thunder to finish 3rd in the Western Conference on the hinges, pushing our projected 2019 playoff standings to look a bit like this:

  1. Warriors
  2. Rockets
  3. Thunder
  4. N/A
  5. N/A
  6. N/A
  7. Trailblazers
  8. N/A

In our next part to this series we’ll be analyzing the Utah Jazz against the Minnesota Timberwolves, tune in!

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