In all likelihood, the Minnesota Timberwolves will be the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
Sure, you could dream of doomsday scenarios that have Minnesota rising to No. 5 or falling into the play-in tournament. But the betting odds tend to paint the real picture, and anything other than the No. 6 seed would be a massive shock for Minnesota at this point.
On Tuesday, the Wolves will play an Indiana team currently starting five guys you’ve likely never heard of as the Pacers aim to finish with a bottom-four record for the sake of NBA Draft Lottery odds.
So Minnesota’s spot in the standings is likely soon to be cemented, which will make the Wolves’ games themselves trivial. Yet with only a week remaining in the regular season, Minnesota has to set itself up to make a playoff run that right now feels unlikely.
The Wolves are 6-9 over their past 15 games, including three straight losses. They’re currently without Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels — who are both listed as “out” again for Tuesday’s game against the Pacers — and are, literally and figuratively, limping to the regular season finish line.
“It feels like we’re a million miles away from the team that we can be and that we are,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said after Minnesota was blitzed by Charlotte on Sunday. “We’ve gotta get that back with our connectedness and our spirit.”
Frankly, they’ve got to find a lot of things over the two weeks between now and the start of the playoffs.
Here’s Minnesota’s to-do list in that time:
It’s not in Minnesota’s DNA to take games off. The Timberwolves play. Prior to this recent rash of injuries, the Wolves’ primary rotation players missed the fewest games of any other team’s core this season.
Maybe that’s not a good thing. The Wolves look run down. There is no momentum to be found heading into the playoffs.
But there is a full week between the regular season’s conclusion and Game 1 of the first round. In the past, that’s been a transformative period for Minnesota. The Wolves lock in on the game plan centered on their first-round opponent and execute it at a high level from the opening tip.
It’s been a critical piece of the franchise’s recent postseason success. Ideally, Minnesota is able to attack that week off head on, rather than having to use it to lick wounds.
With that in mind, the Wolves should aim to find rest this week. If Minnesota can ensure a finish ahead of Phoenix by Friday, it could potentially sit key players for each of its final two regular-season bouts.
Alongside the currently missing McDaniels and Edwards, Naz Reid is clearly laboring. Neither Julius Randle nor Donte DiVincenzo has missed a single game this season, while Rudy Gobert has sat out only three.
No postseason switch will be flipped if the team’s collective battery is teetering on empty. A quick recharge could do the Wolves wonders heading into the playoff marathon.
Count Reid as one of the guys who could potentially use a few days of rest — or something. The Timberwolves’ top bench asset has been awful in recent games. Since March 1, Reid is shooting just 38% from the floor and 23% from distance. He went 3 for 14 from the floor in Sunday’s loss to Charlotte.
Reid missed a couple games amid these struggles with an ankle injury, but a shoulder ailment seems to be a bigger culprit. While Finch said he isn’t “100% sure” about the status of the shoulder, he said Reid is rushing his shot at the moment.
“We’ve got to have some guys just play better. Guys are forcing their offense and it’s not going in or they’re not seeing it go in,” Finch said. “It will go in over time. We’ve got to make all the little plays, the gritty plays, stay in it. Then we start gambling on defense and lose our discipline. That’s when stuff snowballs on us.”
Whether it’s a few additional days off, more accommodations for any shoulder concerns or simply a restoration of confidence, Minnesota has to find a way to get its sharpshooting big man back into a rhythm to provide the scoring burst the Wolves so desperately need.
Every now and then in recent years, Finch and the coaching staff have taken a break from the consistent harping and instead played cut-up clips of Minnesota playing some of its best basketball during film sessions.
This might be a ripe time for another of those sessions, because Finch himself noted the vibes are off.
“As a team, rightfully so, we focus on all the negatives when things happen, like ‘we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that,’ ” Wolves guard Mike Conley said. “But we start trying to bring in positive things like, ‘We’re stopping them every single time, we’ve just got rebound.’ Or ‘Donte, keep shooting, Ayo keep shooting, Bones keep shooting.’ … All this stuff that can get guys in a positive mind frame, because I know guys can get down individually if things aren’t going their way, and we do have an emotional team, and it can spiral if it gets too crazy.”
You can tell when the team’s spirit is high. The Wolves are at their best when they’re carrying themselves like the most confident collection of athletes you’ve ever witnessed play basketball. These Wolves currently resemble a pack of wounded animals.
Maybe a quick patch of good play will do the trick, or perhaps the coaching staff will need to get creative in re-installing Minnesota’s swagger.
“It’s just about trying to keep everybody’s spirits up and understanding that we’re a really good team,” Conley said. “Just because we hit a tough stretch with injuries, or whatever we’re dealing with, (doesn’t mean we don’t) have a lot in the tank and we have a very deep team and we should still be able to go out here and compete.”
Text Example
____________________________________
This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here.