Sitting up in the stands on Tuesday night watching the Wizards going up twenty on the Wolves I understood that we probably weren’t going to get the one seed in the West. As Naz Reid got ejected on one of the worst flagrant 2’s I have ever seen in the first quarter the idea of the back to back in Denver last night grew larger. It was very cool to see Ant refuse to lose to the Wizards as he got his career high of fifty one but worry loomed as the team traveled to Denver.
Last night’s game was for all the marbles of the one seed while OKC still looms the winner would be in the driver’s seat entering the weekend where each team plays Friday and Sunday. It was close but truthfully our team just ran out of gas as Jokic shot 80% and we lost 116-107. This essentially means that the Wolves are more in a playoff position battle for the two seed with the Thunder rather than a battle for the one seed with the Nuggets. The Wolves have the tiebreaker over both teams so if the Nuggets falter against the tanking Spurs or Grizzles and the Wolves win out we could still overtake the one seed. The Thunder and Timberwolves are tied even for second so if the Wolves lose Friday to Atlanta or Sunday to Phoenix they could drop all the way to three assuming OKC beats Milwaukee and Dallas who already has a first round date with the Clippers booked.
The question now becomes for the Wolves who do we want in the first round? It looks unlikely we could get Golden State or the Lakers as they continue to battle for the nine seed and home court on Wednesday. That will lead to Friday’s matchup who would probably face the Nuggets. The Pelicans are the current six however they have a huge game against the Kings tonight who are two games back of them and could jump from 8 with a win or fall to the 9/10 matchup. I think if the Wolves can get a shot at the Pelicans or Kings Sunday as the three seed with a loss it may be good to rest starters because whoever we get out of the play in whether it is Phoenix, Golden State, or Los Angeles would be the worst matchups for the Wolves young core as they all have players with strong postseason success leading the charge. The Suns were the favorite entering the season so I don’t want them at all in April.
West Coast Hoops 