With only about a month and a half left in the NBA season, teams in the playoff hunt are treating each game now more intensely than ever. While some teams are simply vying for a play-in spot, others are closely eying a top-6 seed in their conference. Only the top six seeds make the playoffs without risking the possibility of getting upset in a play-in game.
How significant is it to secure a top-6 seed and avoid the play-in tournament? Ask the Los Angeles Clippers from a year ago.
Championship expectations have surrounded the Clippers ever since they signed Kawhi Leonard and traded for Paul George in the summer of 2019. Unfortunately for the Clips, they suffered one of the biggest playoff upsets during the 2020 bubble playoffs, blowing a 3-1 lead to a young Denver Nuggets squad in the 2nd round. However, the Clippers would bounce back the following year in 2021 by making their first-ever appearance in the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the Phoenix Suns in six games.
Entering the 2021-22 season, many believed that the Clippers were still capable of making a deep playoff run. However, after a fairly disappointing and injury-riddled season, the Clippers ended the season with a 42-40 record and as the 9th seed in the West. As the 9th seed, LA needed to win two play-in games to secure a spot in the first round of the playoffs. However, as many Wolves fans remember well, the Clippers lost their first play-in game to the Minnesota Timberwolves, 109-104. Many Wolves fans still remember Patrick Beverley and Anthony Edwards hopping on the commentators’ table and ramping up the electric Target Center crowd that night.
The Clippers would then go on to lose to a scrappy New Orleans Pelicans team, 105-101, in their second play-in game, and missed the playoffs.
The Timberwolves can end up finding themselves, come this season’s end, in a similar position that the Clippers were in last year. Therefore, with less than 20 games remaining on their schedule, the Wolves have to really come together and be prepared to treat each remaining game as if it were a playoff game.
With the Western Conference being so close between the 4th and 13th seeds, it is not an overstatement to say that each and every game matters from here on out. At the end of February, only about 2-3 games separate the 4th seed and the 13th seed in the West. For that reason, Minnesota’s performance in March will make or break their season.
The health of some of Minnesota’s key players, most notably Karl-Anthony Towns, will play a determining factor in where they finish in the standings. However, so will their strength of schedule from this point on. As of the end of February, the Wolves have the toughest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon’s rankings.
Some of Minnesota’s March opponents include the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, and the Pelicans. All of them are only a couple of wins or losses away from being as high as the 4th seed, or being out of the playoff picture completely.
And that is just in the Western Conference.
The Wolves will also face the Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks, and Toronto Raptors. These teams all find themselves in their own conference warfare, battling for positioning between the 3rd and 9th seed in the Eastern Conference.
With most of Minnesota’s remaining opponents in the playoff hunt, the Wolves will have to play their most consistent and dominating brand of basketball if they hope to come out on top at the end of March.
Unfortunately, consistency has not been Minnesota’s forte this season.
Here is how the Wolves have fared in each month so far this season in terms of win-loss record.
- October: 4-3
- November: 7-8
- December: 5-10
- January: 11-5
- February: 4-6
Minnesota’s season has been a roller coaster. From starting off this season struggling to find any sort of flow and staying right around .500 until the end of November, to having a 360 turnaround between December and January, the Wolves have been anything but consistent this season.
It’s possible the Wolves end up outside of even the play-in tournament if they are unable to find consistency in their play during this next month of basketball. However, if they are able to get healthy and perform to the level that fans have patiently awaited from this team all season, there is still a good chance this team can finish as a top 6 seed in the West. Now it’s up to the Wolves to play with a playoff-like intensity every game from this point on and rise to the level of expectations many had for this revamped team at the beginning of this season.
