Timberwolves

The Timberwolves Must Beat the Spurs To Save Their Season

Photo Credit: Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

From the outside, this Minnesota Timberwolves season probably seems like a small success. Yes, expectations were high after the Rudy Gobert trade, but the Wolves have won 40-plus games in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2004 and are in the thick of the playoff battle with two games remaining. The casuals see a young team trying to gel behind their ascendant star in Anthony Edwards and overcome an injury that cost Karl-Anthony Towns almost two-thirds of the season.

But the sickos have been pulling their hair out ever since finding out Tim Connelly was sending five first-round picks, a pick swap, and three beloved role players to the Utah Jazz for Gobert. Now, the Wolves face a must-win game against the 20-59 Spurs before a game-82 showdown with the New Orleans Pelicans that will decide their play-in fate. Seeing the lowly Spurs on the schedule would have most fan bases popping champagne. But for these Wolves, facing one of the league’s worst teams down the stretch could turn the end of this season into a nightmare.

The Timberwolves have had their struggles all season long: stagnant offense, wonky two big fits, and blowing all of their 10-point leads. But the real reason they’re fighting for their lives just to make the 7-8 play-in game is their inability to dominate bad teams. Earlier in March, the Wolves were in the midst of an impressive four-game winning streak that vaulted them to the sixth seed in the West. They had the rest of the league on notice just over a week ago, but blew it down the stretch with three straight losses:

  • At the Phoenix Suns — no complaints with Kevin Durant back.
  • At home to the Los Angeles Lakers — losing to LeBron James isn’t surprising.
  • And the worst loss of the year to the Portland Trail Blazers in an absolute must-win game.

You might be asking yourself how one of the most talented teams in the league blow a must-win home game to the 33-46 Blazers who started Drew Eubanks, Trendon Watford, Matisse Thybulle, Skylar Mays, and Shaedon Sharpe against four All-Stars and Jaden McDaniels? That’s an easy one to answer because it’s been happening to the Timberwolves all season.

For all the hype around this season, the Wolves are terrible against teams they should beat. They’re 16-18 against teams below .500, which is the third-worst record in the Western Conference and only ahead of the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, and Charlotte Hornets. Speaking of the four worst teams in the NBA with a combined record of 82-237, can you guess what Minnesota’s record is against those four teams who in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes? If you had to hold back tears while guessing 4-7, you are correct. We can go for a group therapy session after the season.

A 4-7 record against teams who just barely win 25 percent of their games this year is usually grounds for a franchise reset, but the Timberwolves are in the interesting position of being all-in on the next three seasons with Edwards, Towns, and Gobert. That makes Saturday’s must-win matchup against one of the bottom feeders that have vexed Minnesota all season all the more cruelly poetic.

While Minnesota’s final seeding scenarios depend on what a handful of other teams do with an unlikely path to the safety of the sixth seed, their focus is easy enough to be summed up by Al Davis — just win baby. If they win their last two games, they’re assured to be at worst the eighth seed. They’ll have the tiebreaker against New Orleans and will have two chances to make the playoffs. But it all starts with the Spurs on Saturday. A loss would kill the vibe and make the Pelicans game and their play-in games essentially all sudden-death games.

The Timberwolves are 1-2 in three previous meetings that all came in October because Minnesota was still trying to integrate its new All-NBA center into the flow of Chris Finch’s offense. Those same issues are still persistent within the team five months later as the entire season hangs in the balance. Led by newly minted Hall of Famer Gregg Popovich, the Spurs are doing everything they can to get Wemby to defend the Alamo. It would bookend Pop’s historic career 26 years after the team drafted Tim Duncan first overall in the 1997 NBA Draft. Pop and Duncan immediately dominated the NBA for the next 20 years, winning five championships between 1999 and 2014.

These are not those Spurs of the early 2000s. Far from it. Pop’s squad is struggling with a 14-52 record since starting the season 6-7, including losing streaks of 16 and 11 games. They started the daunting lineup featuring Keldon Johnson, Tre Jones, Zach Collins, Keita Bates-Diop, and Malaki Branham on Thursday night against the Blazers. That should scare the absolute hell out of any Timberwolves fan that has watched more than three games this season. The worse the opponent is, the more they’re overlooked and the worse the Timberwolves decide to play.

It’s maddening because the Wolves are actually really good against teams above .500. They’re 24-22, the second-best record in the West and fifth-best in the league. If you were to flip their record against the bottom four from 4-7 to 7-4, that would vault them to 43-37 which would have them in fifth in the West within striking distance of Phoenix for home-court advantage in the first round.

But it’s the terrible teams that could decide the fate of this season if the Wolves continue their trend against the Spurs in the penultimate regular season game. The Timberwolves should dominate the Spurs and beat the Zion-less Pelicans, snag the 7 or 8 seed, and make their way back to the playoffs for the second straight season. But nothing is easy for the Wolves, and if anyone is going to play spoiler, it’s going to be a team that wants to do anything but win professional basketball games.

Timberwolves
Draymond Green’s Antics Are Beneath the Wolves
By Andrew Dukowitz - Mar 27, 2024
Timberwolves
The Wolves Unlocked Something By Starting Naz Reid
By Charlie Walton - Mar 26, 2024
Timberwolves

Naz Reid Is the People’s Superstar

Photo Credit: Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

On Saturday, Jake’s Graphs made a compelling case that Naz Reid is the ideal man. He’s loved by all, has a killer crossover, and is hard-working. Reid […]

Continue Reading