The worst of it is now behind them.
After their win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves managed to survive the toughest part of their schedule with a moderate amount of success. They went 3-5 over a three-week stretch with games featuring exclusively playoff and title contenders, including Boston, Golden State and Houston.
With 10 games to go, only three games remaining on the schedule — not counting the ninth-seeded Denver Nuggets, whom they play twice — are against teams currently slated for the playoffs.
And with the Wolves two full games ahead of the Clippers and 2.5 games ahead of the Nuggets, their safety net from falling out of the playoffs is getting sturdier.
But even with the favorable schedule finish, the net still has holes. Other teams in the past two weeks have proven that.
The Timberwolves have gone 5-5 without Jimmy Butler, and have yet to lose to one of those “bad teams” over that stretch. They haven’t played any teams like that since the end of February, either — blowout wins over Chicago and Sacramento, respectively.
Even a team like the Clippers — their most recent game, and win — has been taken seriously by this team.
“We know that we needed this game,” Andrew Wiggins said after Sunday’s game. “They’re right behind us and it’s a race to the playoffs right now for a lot of teams and we know that we needed to have this one, so we came out ultra-aggressive.”
When they started that run, they were the third seed in the Western Conference. They’ve fallen as far as eighth.
Meanwhile, some teams have gotten worse as they’ve technically gotten healthier.
The Denver Nuggets got All-Star Paul Millsap back from a broken leg right around the time the Wolves lost Butler, but have yet to improve despite the major addition.
Part of it could be rust — Millsap had a “breakout game” of sorts in their recent overtime win against the Chicago Bulls, marking his first 20-point performance since re-entering the lineup. He had 22 points on nine shots and five steals, and looked much more like the Millsap of old.
But even so, it still took overtime to beat the Chicago Bulls.
On top of that, they have accumulated losses to Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks in that same stretch of games. They have some impressive wins, but losses against bad teams remain a killer at this point of the season.
And those three teams that beat the Denver Nuggets — thus forcing them to play catch-up, now ninth in the West and just 1.5 games back, but quickly trending downward — play the Timberwolves in the next two weeks.
But don’t get it twisted: After a three-week stretch that included games with Golden State, Houston, (a healthy) Boston, Portland and Utah, the final 10 games looks like they’re moving down from the Premier League to League One.
But one fact they can’t escape remains: the Timberwolves have lost to bad teams this year.
Of course, all good teams — yes, even Houston and Golden State — have lost to bad teams this season, but that’s part of the point. As the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference, the Timberwolves are not in a position to see these final games.
They have lost this season to Atlanta and Memphis already, in addition to a pair of losses to Phoenix and another loss to Orlando.
And potentially being without Butler for a good chunk of this final stretch could make those games all the more interesting.
Even with the knowledge of past bad defeats, it’s important to remember how they got into playoff position in the first place. They did it by beating a bunch of good teams.
The Timberwolves own or are in position to obtain virtually every tiebreaker with competition for seeds 3-8 — excluding San Antonio — and that competition is collectively dealing with a much tougher finish to the season than Minnesota.
In fact, the other seven teams vying for the same playoff positioning have it tougher than the Wolves.
Much tougher.
This is great news for the Wolves, especially with the knowledge that Butler is vying for a return as soon as he is cleared and feels ready to go.
And if/when he returns to the lineup, the confidence the Wolves have built in his absence should continue to grow. Karl-Anthony Towns has played elite-level basketball, Wiggins is more active on both ends than he’s been all season and Jeff Teague finally looks fully healthy.
Adding a superstar to that mix might require a short readjustment period, but it is almost exclusively good news. But for it to be the best kind of news, the Timberwolves still need to go out and execute.
And while teams like Los Angeles, Memphis might be excited to play spoilers, the Wolves will be just as desperate to finish the job and make their way to the postseason. The fact that their schedule, relatively speaking, is easier than their competition makes it that much more likely.
For the first time in 14 years, the Timberwolves could be playoff bound.
If they make it, it’ll be because they figured it out late –both with and without Butler — and managed to beat the teams they were supposed to beat. Pushing for homecourt advantage — likely the fourth seed — is a conversation more appropriate a week from now, but wins Friday in New York and Saturday in Philadelphia would be a good start.
There is work to be done, but the reality of a playoff game at the Target Center in 2018 is becoming more realistic by the day.
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