Sustaining success and consistency throughout the entire NBA season is extremely difficult. Even the reigning champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, have had to deal with fluctuations in team play, in addition to their injuries. The Minnesota Timberwolves are no different.
The Wolves have remained one of the NBA’s most healthy rosters outside of Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels’ recent injuries. However, they have experienced another season of uncertainty, playing inconsistently from game to game.
Every team has statement wins and demoralizing losses. However, the Wolves have been consistently inconsistent in the recent ‘Golden Era of Timberwolves basketball’ era under Chris Finch.
While the Wolves have maintained their old habits of playing down to competition too often this season, they have still tallied one of the league’s best resumes against some of the league’s elite.
Their losses to some of the league’s worst teams will affect their playoff seeding, which is unfortunate. Still, once the playoffs start, they will only be playing against competitive teams, which they’ve played well against.
Whether it was their December 27 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, when now-free-agent Cam Thomas poured in 30 points en route to a 16-point Nets win. On January 20, they lost to the Utah Jazz, when Keyonte George tallied 43 points to carry a tanking team to a victory. There’s also their 32-point loss on February 22 to a Philadelphia 76ers team without Joel Embiid and Paul George.
The Timberwolves have also had plenty of questionable losses in which they blew large leads or played down to their opponents.
On the positive side, the Wolves have countered their lingering woes by continuing to play up to the competition and take down some of the league’s best.
Minnesota’s standout wins include their first in Boston since 2005, which capped off a season sweep of the Celtics. They split the four-game season series against Oklahoma City. They also won two of their three games against the San Antonio Spurs, with the only loss a thriller between Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama in the fourth quarter.
According to Cleaning the Glass, Minnesota’s pedigree against teams with a top ten net rating is among the league’s best. The Wolves are only one of five teams to have a positive net rating against the league’s top 10 teams, with a slim +0.2 margin.
They are also one of five teams with a positive win percentage against teams with a top ten net rating.
The season-long outlook favors the Timberwolves. However, Minnesota’s most likely matchups are the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, and Denver Nuggets, and the Wolves are 2-7 with one game left against Houston before the regular season wraps up.
This year’s regular-season outcomes are not perfectly indicative of the potential series against any of these three opponents. For example, the Wolves swept the Suns in the first round of the 2024 playoffs after losing all three regular-season matchups. Still, they can reveal some holes in the matchups.
The Wolves have faced the Nuggets in two of the last three seasons and had a first-round matchup with the new-look Luka Dončić Lakers last season. Therefore, they have faced similar iterations of two of their three potential playoff matchups.
Time will ultimately tell where Minnesota’s fate will lie.
Anthony Edwards is ramping back into shape after dealing with a foot injury, and Jaden McDaniels is week-to-week with a knee injury. Still, with just six games remaining in the regular season and no safety net of success built around back-to-back conference finals appearances, the Wolves have no choice but to show up against their first-round matchup.
Minnesota’s success against some of the league’s most prominent teams at the moment – Boston, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio – felt like an outlier in a season where they were inconsistent and played down to their competition.
The Timberwolves are a good team. They still have plenty of proven talent and a resume that will limit doubters. Even with that, the results when the playoffs arrive, and the game tightens at the end of the month, will ultimately decide their destiny as they continue to navigate the battles of sustained success.
