3 keys for the Minnesota Timberwolves for the rest of the season

3 keys for the Minnesota Timberwolves for the rest of the season: It only gets harder from here

The Timberwolves are two games below .500. A few years ago, that .500 mark would have been the bare minimum for any Western Conference team to make the postseason.

And although, with the NBA’s play-in tournament, it is possible in theory for a sub-.500 team to make the playoffs, it’s undeniable that a higher seeding helps, especially if you can surpass the seventh seed and skip the play-in tournament altogether.

While it’s still not impossible for Minnesota to reach that sixth seed benchmark, the upcoming games on their schedule are going to make that very difficult.

Over their next 9 games, Minnesota will face the Golden State Warriors (currently the second-seed in the West) twice, the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks (two teams struggling to stay relevant in the East), the Brooklyn Nets (currently the third seed in the East), the Portland Trailblazers (who sit one seed below Minnesota), the Phoenix Suns( who have the best record in the NBA), and the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets (two teams who sit above that sixth seed line).

Throw in a matchup with the struggling Detroit Pistons, and that’s a 10-game run that could easily see Minnesota go 4-6 (and that’s assuming everything breaks Minnesota’s way).

That same10-game run could easily see the Wolves go 2-8 and fall to 22-30 which, while it wouldn’t disqualify them from postseason play, would ensure Minnesota was fighting an uphill battle the rest of the year.

If Minnesota wants to be seen as a competitor in the West and be taken seriously by the national media landscape, a couple of gutsy, underdog wins will need to be pulled out of that 10-game stretch.

Especially since only four of those games are home games, and only two of those are back-to-back. The others have multiple away game separating them.