Timberwolves are playing with fire as the season reaches a critical point

In an ultra-competitive Western Conference, the Minnesota Timberwolves have a good chance of landing anywhere between third and seventh in the conference (they are four games behind the second-place San Antonio Spurs, and 3.5 up on the eighth-place Golden State Warriors). Of course, the Wolves certainly would not want to land in seventh, as that would put them in the Play-In Tournament.

With 29 games remaining, a lot can happen. Losses like the one on Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans just can’t happen anymore.

Numerous potential regular season-ending outcomes for the Timberwolves

After Friday’s loss, the Timberwolves now own a 32-21 record. That puts them in the sixth spot in the Western Conference. That is just a half-game ahead of the Phoenix Suns, who are in seventh (Phoenix already owns the tiebreaker over them with a 2-0 series lead with one matchup remaining). They are also only 1.5 games behind the third-place Denver Nuggets.

With seeds 3-7 so tight, it’s pertinent that these teams win the games they should. That wasn’t the case for Minnesota, losing to a Pelicans team that came into the contest with a 13-40 record. What made it doubly worse is that the Timberwolves had an 18-point lead with 9:32 remaining in the third quarter. New Orleans outscored them 60-38 the rest of the way.

Again, to show just how tight it is in the West, Minnesota would have been fourth in the conference standings had they held on for the win (instead, they are sixth). On February 2, the Timberwolves lost to a Memphis Grizzlies team that had fallen short in their previous six games and entered the meeting 10 games under .500.

Minnesota’s next four games, and six of their next seven, come against teams that currently have losing records. They can’t be having the letdown performances that they’ve had in those two recent outings.

Schedule gets much tougher after upcoming stretch

Yes, the Timberwolves’ upcoming schedule doesn’t feature world-beaters, but after that, it does get more difficult. According to Tankathon, Minnesota’s remaining 29 games feature teams that have a combined winning percentage of .517. That is the sixth-hardest remaining schedule in the league.

That further accentuates the need for the Wolves to perform well in these upcoming games against teams not contending for a title. Their next game is Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers, one where hopefully Ayo Dosunmu (and Julian Philips) will be in uniform for Minnesota.