On Thursday, the Minnesota Timberwolves will square up with the Detroit Pistons, the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference. It was just four days prior that the two clubs met up for the first time this season, and Detroit came out on top. The Timberwolves will be without Jaden McDaniels for the contest (who is dealing with a week-to-week knee injury), and Anthony Edwards is currently listed as questionable.
The loss dropped Minnesota to a game over .500 at 22-21 against teams .500 and above on the season. Another loss to the Pistons would drop them to .500 on the year in those games. It would also put them in jeopardy of entering the playoffs with a losing record in those outings, something that does not occur often when looking at prior NBA champions.
Nearly every NBA champion winning record against teams with a .500 or above record
Out of the last 30 NBA champions, 29 of them entered the playoffs with a winning record against teams with a .500 or above record.
That is something you would expect to see from championship teams. In the postseason, the majority of the time, you have to win between 12 and 16 games against winning teams in order to have the opportunity to win a title. If you aren’t winning those games in the regular season, it’s hard to just flip the switch in the playoffs.
The only outlier from the list of NBA champions since 1996 that didn’t have a winning record against above-average teams is the 2005-06 Miami Heat. They went 19-21 in those games before going 16-7 during their postseason run and overcoming a 2-0 deficit in the NBA finals to win four straight against the Dallas Mavericks.
Timberwolves have five games remaining against winning teams
After the Detroit game, the Timberwolves have just six outings remaining in the regular season. Four of those are against winning teams (Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic, and Houston Rockets). In order to finish with an over-.500 record on the year in those games, the Wolves would need to go 3-2 when including the Pistons contest (2-3 would make them .500).
The record could still potentially change in those types of games as there are six teams that haven’t yet assured themselves of having a winning or losing record (although most of those are close to doing so).
Regardless, it would behoove the Timberwolves to win some of these remaining games against other playoff teams in order to enter the postseason with some momentum.