Minnesota Timberwolves: Predicting the Wolves’ First-Half record
By Paul Langan
Projected Minnesota Timberwolves January Record: 9-7
In the month of January, only five of the Wolves’ 16 games are against teams that made the playoffs last season. However, there are some teams that are better than what their record showed from last season. For instance, nobody is expecting the Golden State Warriors to miss the playoffs, so that number is a bit misleading.
The Wolves play the Warriors twice in January. Even though they are without Klay Thompson this season, they are getting Stephen Curry back from injury and added James Wiseman and Kelly Oubre Jr to shore up their rotation.
The Warriors will be another difficult team to beat with the pieces they have, but those games are still winnable. A split against Golden State could be seen as a success.
There are plenty of winnable games in January, such as a matchup against the San Antonio Spurs early in the month and the Cleveland Cavaliers towards the end of the month.
Minnesota faces off against Atlanta on Jan. 18 and even though they only had 20 wins a year ago, there is a lot of potential for them to have a big year after an active offseason. It will be a tough test for the Wolves next month, but again, it’s a winnable game.
Memphis is on the schedule twice, both on Jan. 13 and Jan. 15 at home. Ja Morant and the Grizzlies were better than expected last season and made their way down to the bubble when to NBA started back up. They also just took it to the Wolves twice in the preseason and figure to be one of the teams the Wolves will be battling with for the No. 8, 9 and 10 seeds at the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture.
After what will be a tough December, the Wolves should start 2021 with a January record north of the .500 mark.