AbeVigodaLive wrote:9 home games left.
17 road games left.
The team is 20 - 12 at home.
And 9 - 15 on the road.
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The Wolves have 11 games left vs. teams with winning records. The Wolves are 3 - 8 on the road vs. teams with winning records so far.*
* They beat CLE without Mitchell and Allen. PHI without Harden and Harris. NOP without Zion and with Ingram limited in minutes in his first game back from extended injury.
Who was Minnesota playing without? Or does that not factor into the equation?
Sure. It's only fair, I guess.
The Wolves had all 5 starters vs. CLE and PHI. Towns was out during the NOP victory.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:9 home games left.
17 road games left.
The team is 20 - 12 at home.
And 9 - 15 on the road.
________________________________
The Wolves have 11 games left vs. teams with winning records. The Wolves are 3 - 8 on the road vs. teams with winning records so far.*
* They beat CLE without Mitchell and Allen. PHI without Harden and Harris. NOP without Zion and with Ingram limited in minutes in his first game back from extended injury.
Who was Minnesota playing without? Or does that not factor into the equation?
Sure. It's only fair, I guess.
The Wolves had all 5 starters vs. CLE and PHI. Towns was out during the NOP victory.
Ouch, a dose of reality I guess. We need 40% 3-point KAT to return soon. If not, that schedule could drop us out of the top 10.
Minnesota's 9-15 in 24 games on the road this season.
They've played just 10 of those 24 games with Karl-Anthony Towns (who has missed 35 games overall), including the game against Washington where he logged 22 minutes. They're 5-5 in those 10 road games and 2-2 against the four teams with winning records (who were missing key players of their own).
Minnesota's 5-5 (.500) on the road with Towns and 4-10 (.286) on the road without him. Seems significant. Seems worth mentioning. They need him to return healthy very soon.
And that obviously isn't accounting for the games that Jordan McLaughlin (37), Taurean Prince (24), Kyle Anderson (11), and Rudy Gobert (10) have missed along the way. That's just the nature of the NBA. But if they can collectively get healthy for a final push I like their chances no matter the location.
It would be interesting to review the remaining schedule in a couple days after the trade deadline. Some teams might be stronger or weaker etc. one example the Nets now don't have Kyrie. Will that matter? Will someone else get injured on a team they face multiple times? I think looking at the remaining schedule is with looking at and the strength of schedule based on the total records of the teams everyone is facing has value...it could change pretty quickly.
monsterpile wrote:It would be interesting to review the remaining schedule in a couple days after the trade deadline. Some teams might be stronger or weaker etc. one example the Nets now don't have Kyrie. Will that matter? Will someone else get injured on a team they face multiple times? I think looking at the remaining schedule is with looking at and the strength of schedule based on the total records of the teams everyone is facing has value...it could change pretty quickly.
Historically, bad teams go on epic losing streaks late in the year. I've chronicled the Timberwolves bleak end-of-season runs for years on this forum. They were like 4 - 72 to end "tanking seasons" over a 4 or 5 year span. That might not be the exact record... but it was seriously abysmally bad and not that far off.
Meanwhile, teams trying to win... WIN. They often go on mini-runs to end the season, in part because of more games vs. teams actively trying to lose.
The rub is the play-in tournament this season. There are 13 teams still in play. More teams will be trying to win.
