The Minnesota Timberwolves are in a nightly battle for playoff positioning. Sunday’s victory over the Denver Nuggets was a huge one as it gave them a one game lead (now a half-game after Denver’s win on Monday) over their Northwest Division rival.
On the most recent edition of The Hoops Collective podcast, Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps, and Tim MacMahon spoke on a multitude of NBA topics. Once the Minnesota Timberwolves were brought up, there was talk about the importance of where they seed comes playoff time. MacMahon said,
"They’re right now tied with the Rockets…percentage points behind the Rockets for third in the West. Look, if they can get to third in the West, and they can get in a side of the bracket again with the Lakers in the first round and a Spurs team that has absolutely no playoff experience on the other side of the bracket…they’re going to feel pretty good about their chances of getting to a third straight conference finals."
There’scertainly a strong chance for Minnesota to finish third. Even ifit'snot easy, finishing third should be theWolves'goal to closeout the regular season.Â
About avoiding the Thunder
The importance of finishing third in the West is in large part to avoid the Oklahoma City Thunder as long as possible. With OKC the likely top seed, being the third seed would allow a potential matchup with the Thunder to not occur until the conference championship round.
If the Los Angeles Lakers do stay in sixth (certainly not a sure thing with the standings tight), it would be a rematch of last year’s first round of Lakers/Timberwolves (if Minnesota finishes third). The Lakers were huge favorites last year but were disposed of in five games. With LA easily having the worst net and defensive rating amongst the West’s top six, it’s safe to say the Wolves wouldn’t be underdogs again.
The Houston Rockets climbed a half-game ahead of the Timberwolves for third with a win over the bottom-feeding Washington Wizards on Monday. Right now, Houston has won their only game against Minnesota, but they have two head-to-head matchups remaining to determine the tiebreaker.
The Nuggets own the tiebreaker over the Timberwolves and sit a half-game behind Minnesota in fifth.
Tough remaining schedule
If the Timberwolves are going to finish the regular season in third, it won’t be easy. According to Tankathon, they have the fifth-toughest schedule remaining with opponents having a .528 winning percentage.Â
It’s not a huge difference, though, than the teams they are jockeying for playoff positioning with. Denver has the second-toughest schedule, while the Rockets and Lakers are tied for 13th-hardest.
The Timberwolves have dropped some recent outings they shouldn’t have (or didn't play their A-game), and they can’t afford to do so on Tuesday night, when they take on the 23-36 Memphis Grizzlies at the Target Center.