Minnesota Timberwolves: Predicting the Wolves’ First-Half record
By Paul Langan
Let’s take a stab at predicting the Minnesota Timberwolves record up until the All-Star Break based on the First-Half schedule.
The start of the NBA season is less than a week away, and it’s fair to expect greater things from this version of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
With players like Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell, and No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards, not to mention improved depth, this team should improve upon the lost season that was 2019-20.
With a shortened season and shortened offseason there will be have to be some adjustments made over the next few months in order to win games and not having fans for at least the first half of the season will factor into the predictions.
Let’s take a look at month-by-month predictions based on the Wolves’ First-Half schedule.
Projected Minnesota Timberwolves December Record: 1-3
The first month of the season will not be easy, to say the least.
Three of the Wolves’ first four games will both be against playoff teams from last season (Jazz, Lakers, Clippers) and come on the road.
The Wolves should be favored to win the season and home opener against the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons only had 20 wins last year and even though the Wolves were right there with them at 19 wins, the Wolves have returned healthy stars and had a better all-around offseason than the Pistons.
The Jazz won two of the three matchups against the Wolves last year and seeing that their roster hasn’t changed much it this offseason, it’s fair to assume that the matchup might not change all that much. Then again, the Wolves haven’t played competitive basketball in over eight months, so it’s also fair to assume that Minnesota will have more rust to knock off than Utah.
The Clippers had an interesting offseason but were still a second-round playoff team last season. They’ll be favored to beat the Wolves, and probably handily. It’s a road game and the second night of a back-to-back for the Timberwolves.
Then, the Wolves turn around and take on the reigning champion Los Angeles Lakers just 48 hours later in the same arena. Somehow, the Lakers got even better over the offseason.
That’s a recipe to start the season with a 1-3 mark.