Why Timberwolves fans should keep an eye on the Lakers

The Minnesota Timberwolves (20-22) are not going to get things the easy way this season. Just as the Timberwolves had the momentum of a four-game winning streak, and an ideal opportunity to extend it by exacting revenge upon the last team to defeat them, the lowly Detroit Pistons, the Timberwolves crumpled like a house of cards.

Once again, the Timberwolves have been sounded crushed by a Detroit Pistons (12-33) team that had themselves been trampled by a Philadelphia 76ers team, not once but twice.  And so, the Minnesota Timberwolves team finds itself at a record of 20-22, a familiar record indeed because at this same point in time in the 2021-22 season, the Timberwolves were 20-22 as well.

But, the LA Lakers (19-22) sit one game behind the Timberwolves. And, if NBA Rumors have any truth to them, the Lakers are prepared to make the type of roster-improving moves that the Timberwolves simply cannot afford to make.

NBA Rumors almost unanimously involve LA Lakers

The Lakers have been connected to Bojan Bogdanović, the player who has single-handedly taken down the Timberwolves in two games this season. The Lakers have also been connected to Chicago Bulls’ Zach Levine as well. And the Lakers are also eager to welcome back their own big man, Anthony Davis, from injury.

Even as the Minnesota Timberwolves used a timely four-game winning streak to rebound in a positive direction in 2023, so too did the Lakers use their own five-game winning streak to return from the abyss of 14-21 to a record that is now just one game behind the Timberwolves at 19-21. The Lakers’ streak also just ended, but in their case, they lost to the Denver Nuggets (28-13).

So why single out the Lakers to monitor? As it stands now, the Minnesota Timberwolves are clinging to a chance at the NBA Playoffs by a gossamer thread of a spider’s web. Any improvement by the LA Lakers team, a team currently behind the Timberwolves in the NBA rankings, can allow the LA Lakers to replace the Timberwolves in almost every NBA Playoffs scenario.

The Minnesota Timberwolves certainly have to keep both eyes on the road ahead to their next NBA opponent. But if not out of the corner of their eye, the Timberwolves can certainly feel the hot breath of a Lakers team drawing close to them from behind.