Early Western Conference playoff picture predictions for the Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves currently sit No. 7 in the Western Conference. Let’s take a look at their competition for climbing out of the play-in tournament and up to the coveted No. 6 spot.

Early Western Conference playoff picture predictions for the Timberwolves

We’re just past the halfway point of the season, and the middle of the Western Conference remains highly competitive as teams fight for position leading up to April’s play-in tournament.

Currently, five teams are within five games of one another, battling to land the No. 5 and No. 6 spots, which would allow them to avoid the play-in tournament.

The teams that are currently direct competitors to the Wolves are the Los Angeles Lakers, LA Clippers, Denver Nuggets, and Dallas Mavericks. Let’s look at each of these teams individually.

Los Angeles Lakers

Riddled with injury and adversity, the Lakeshow has been struggling to live up to their star-studded cast of players. Anthony Davis has missed the past 18 games, and the Lakers have lost 11 of them.

Russell Westbrook has returned to his typical struggles and plays in a manner reflective of the team thus far: inefficient. The only consistency that the Lakers have seen this season is in LeBron James, who is just good as you could expect him to be at 37 years of age. I see the Lakers grabbing a few wins when Davis returns, but with a slightly tougher schedule, they will fall short of the play-in at around 37-45.

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets have been a fun matchup for Wolves fans in recent years, hearkening back to the 2018 win-and-in game in the regular-season finale.

Nikola Jokic has been putting up MVP level numbers again, and although they’ve had to weather injuries to Jamal Murray and Michael Porter, Jr., the Nuggets certainly have the ability to remain sneaky contenders. Certainly, they’ll be one of the biggest threats to the Wolves playoffs contention this year. They’ll finish with a record of 44-38.

Dallas Mavericks

The Mavs had a stretch without Luka Doncic, and it was reflected in their record. So far this season, they are just 6-9 in games without their superstar. If they want to maintain their efficiency this season, they need Kristaps Porzingis and Luka together for as many games as possible.

As of now, Porzingis is battling a bone bruise and remains out, so it’s fair to assume that they may not reach their full potential record-wise. Let’s say that they finish at 43-39.

LA Clippers

The Clippers are in a battle of mediocrity in LA. Led by Paul George and Norman Powell, they aren’t exactly the most-covered team when it comes to the national media but are a sneaky pick for the play-in tournament.

Unfortunately for them, however, Kawhi Leonard remains out and likely will be for the rest of the season. It’s hard to see the Clippers finishing much better than 38-44.

Minnesota Timberwolves

This analysis leaves us with the Timberwolves, who I believe will end up with a few more wins than not in this second half of the season.

Anthony Edwards is hitting his stride more and more, and Finch seems to have a better understanding of which lineups work and how to beat better teams. If all goes according to plan, Minnesota will end up around 44-38, which puts the team in a position to battle it out with Dallas or Denver in the play-in tournament.

We all know that the Wolves historically have struggled when fighting for playoffs spots, but optimism is in our blood as Minnesota fans.