lipoli390 wrote:As much as we'd all like to see the Kings beat the Blazers tonight, that's not going to happen. As I write this, the Blazers are up 5-0.
So the game for Wolves fans to watch tonight is the Clippers/Nuggets game in Denver. We should all be rooting for the Clippers to steal one on the road against the Nuggets. With only 31 wins right now, the Clippers pose the smallest threat to the Wolves playoff chances. The Nuggets, with 33 wins and Paul Millsap returning, pose a major threat to the Wolves chances of finishing in the top 6, which is essential to the chance for a competitive first round playoff series. A win by the Clippers tonight would be a big blow to Denver's chances of overtaking the Wolves in the standings. The Wolves last game of the season is at home against Denver and Jimmy could possibly be back by then. That last game could determine the Wolves final seeding in the playoffs.
Well, the Clippers won, so now we are 3.5 games up on the 8th seed. We will need all the padding we can get with our upcoming schedule. Brutal!
The Nuggets threw that one away. What a bad loss.
They had that game completely under control for the first 34 minutes and just seemed to fall asleep at the wheel.
lipoli390 wrote:As much as we'd all like to see the Kings beat the Blazers tonight, that's not going to happen. As I write this, the Blazers are up 5-0.
So the game for Wolves fans to watch tonight is the Clippers/Nuggets game in Denver. We should all be rooting for the Clippers to steal one on the road against the Nuggets. With only 31 wins right now, the Clippers pose the smallest threat to the Wolves playoff chances. The Nuggets, with 33 wins and Paul Millsap returning, pose a major threat to the Wolves chances of finishing in the top 6, which is essential to the chance for a competitive first round playoff series. A win by the Clippers tonight would be a big blow to Denver's chances of overtaking the Wolves in the standings. The Wolves last game of the season is at home against Denver and Jimmy could possibly be back by then. That last game could determine the Wolves final seeding in the playoffs.
Well, the Clippers won, so now we are 3.5 games up on the 8th seed. We will need all the padding we can get with our upcoming schedule. Brutal!
The Nuggets threw that one away. What a bad loss.
They had that game completely under control for the first 34 minutes and just seemed to fall asleep at the wheel.
We hold the tiebreaker so we are 4.5 up
Just looked at the box score. Boban had 18 points and Harrell had 15 they combined to shoot 12-18 from the floor for 33 points in 40 total minutes off the bench. Yikes.
lipoli390 wrote:As much as we'd all like to see the Kings beat the Blazers tonight, that's not going to happen. As I write this, the Blazers are up 5-0.
So the game for Wolves fans to watch tonight is the Clippers/Nuggets game in Denver. We should all be rooting for the Clippers to steal one on the road against the Nuggets. With only 31 wins right now, the Clippers pose the smallest threat to the Wolves playoff chances. The Nuggets, with 33 wins and Paul Millsap returning, pose a major threat to the Wolves chances of finishing in the top 6, which is essential to the chance for a competitive first round playoff series. A win by the Clippers tonight would be a big blow to Denver's chances of overtaking the Wolves in the standings. The Wolves last game of the season is at home against Denver and Jimmy could possibly be back by then. That last game could determine the Wolves final seeding in the playoffs.
Well, the Clippers won, so now we are 3.5 games up on the 8th seed. We will need all the padding we can get with our upcoming schedule. Brutal!
The Nuggets threw that one away. What a bad loss.
They had that game completely under control for the first 34 minutes and just seemed to fall asleep at the wheel.
lipoli390 wrote:As much as we'd all like to see the Kings beat the Blazers tonight, that's not going to happen. As I write this, the Blazers are up 5-0.
So the game for Wolves fans to watch tonight is the Clippers/Nuggets game in Denver. We should all be rooting for the Clippers to steal one on the road against the Nuggets. With only 31 wins right now, the Clippers pose the smallest threat to the Wolves playoff chances. The Nuggets, with 33 wins and Paul Millsap returning, pose a major threat to the Wolves chances of finishing in the top 6, which is essential to the chance for a competitive first round playoff series. A win by the Clippers tonight would be a big blow to Denver's chances of overtaking the Wolves in the standings. The Wolves last game of the season is at home against Denver and Jimmy could possibly be back by then. That last game could determine the Wolves final seeding in the playoffs.
Well, the Clippers won, so now we are 3.5 games up on the 8th seed. We will need all the padding we can get with our upcoming schedule. Brutal!
The Nuggets threw that one away. What a bad loss.
They had that game completely under control for the first 34 minutes and just seemed to fall asleep at the wheel.
We hold the tiebreaker so we are 4.5 up
Just looked at the box score. Boban had 18 points and Harrell had 15 they combined to shoot 12-18 from the floor for 33 points in 40 total minutes off the bench. Yikes.
Yeah. It was a weird game. Boban did all of that (18 pts, 6 rebs) in the final 15 minutes.
The Clippers benched outscored the Nuggets bench 54 - 4...
The Mavs almost forgot to tank tonight, losing by only 1 point in overtime. I'm sure Mark Cuban is relieved. Too bad. A Mavs' win tonight would have been huge for the Wolves. Instead, the Thunder remain on track for the 46 wins I projected at the start of this thread.
The Pelicans pulled off the upset road win over the Spurs tonight. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising given that Kawhi is still out and that Aldridge went down early in the game. This game takes the Spurs down from 49 to 48 projected wins, while bumping up the Pelicans from 48 to 49. So no net gain for the Wolves with this one. I still don't think the Pelicans are as good as they've been playing these past couple weeks. So I'm hoping what I consider to be their lack of depth and overall talent will catch up with them. If Aldridge is out for any length of time, even the great Greg Popovich will have a hard time stopping his Spurs from sliding south in the standings.
Denver's loss at home last night was a huge plus for the Wolves. It takes my projected win total for the Nuggets down from 46 to 45. It does increase my projected wins for the Clippers to 45, but I remain more concerned about the Nuggets than the Clippers. Eventually talent should win out down the stretch and the Nuggets with Millsap back are more talented than the Clippers in my view.
As it stands, based on my projections, the Wolves still need to win 8 of their remaining 18 games to secure at least a 6th seed in the West. If the Thunder had lost tonight that number would have gone down to 7. The Wolves now need to win 7 of their remaining games to finish in a tie with Denver for the 7th spot.
The Nuggets unexpectedly beat the Cavs on the road tonight. According to my prior projections, that brings the Nuggets back to a projected 46 wins for the season. The Spurs lost a game tonight I had them winning against the Lakers, which drives my projected win total for the Spurs down to 47. The Clippers remain on track to win 45, the Blazers 47 and the Pelicans 49.
What does all this mean for the Wolves? It means that, if the Wolves only win the 6 games I project as "should win" games, the Wolves will be in the lottery with 44 wins. My updated projections have the Western Conference standings ending up as follows 3 through 8:f
lipoli390 wrote:The Nuggets unexpectedly beat the Cavs on the road tonight. According to my prior projections, that brings the Nuggets back to a projected 46 wins for the season. The Spurs lost a game tonight I had them winning against the Lakers, which drives my projected win total for the Spurs down to 47. The Clippers remain on track to win 45, the Blazers 47 and the Pelicans 49.
What does all this mean for the Wolves? It means that, if the Wolves only win the 6 games I project as "should win" games, the Wolves will be in the lottery with 44 wins. My updated projections have the Western Conference standings ending up as follows 3 through 8:f
Yeah, not looking good for the Wolves. The Eastern Conference has just killed us recently in terms of their performance against our Western Conference rivals. It's all coming together just as a few of us pessimists at the beginning of the year predicted: A porous Wolves defense, some injury issues, and a really strong Western Conference making it difficult for us to make the playoffs.
lipoli390 wrote:The Nuggets unexpectedly beat the Cavs on the road tonight. According to my prior projections, that brings the Nuggets back to a projected 46 wins for the season. The Spurs lost a game tonight I had them winning against the Lakers, which drives my projected win total for the Spurs down to 47. The Clippers remain on track to win 45, the Blazers 47 and the Pelicans 49.
What does all this mean for the Wolves? It means that, if the Wolves only win the 6 games I project as "should win" games, the Wolves will be in the lottery with 44 wins. My updated projections have the Western Conference standings ending up as follows 3 through 8:f
Yeah, not looking good for the Wolves. The Eastern Conference has just killed us recently in terms of their performance against our Western Conference rivals. It's all coming together just as a few of us pessimists at the beginning of the year predicted: A porous Wolves defense, some injury issues, and a really strong Western Conference making it difficult for us to make the playoffs.
It's still a little early to stick a fork in them although I was relatively pessimistic when the Butler injury occurred. The Wolves have played 5 more games than the Pels. Some of these teams have to have a winning record in the games they have to play to get to where the Wolves are. Even if they had Butler this is a tough stretch of games. Can they win some games when they aren't playing legit good teams especially if they are at home? Let's see. I have some level of optimism based on some of the posts here they can hold on...maybe even to a 6th seed. If that's a hope we probably need a team or 2 like maybe Portland to stay hot and beat the other teams. Either way i don't think the Wolves will completely fall apart. It's gonna be a relatively fun experience we have basically been devoid of for over 10 years. I say let's enjoy the ride a bit.
I saw the Wolves next 6 games, I see 6 straight losses. If they can manage to pick up a couple they can stay in the payoff chase. If not, they are in trouble.
I hate to say it but our playoff hopes rest on Wiggins shoulders. If he plays like he's capable we will win some of those 50-50 games and finish strong. So who looks good in the draft!
