Minnesota Sports Forum

They are going to need to rip off a fat win streak, probably a franchise record one. I see that record is 11.

thedoper wrote:6th is pretty far fetched right? If somehow they managed that I may actually start believing in a first round upset. Oh delusional fandom.

We'll know after the next seven games, in my opinion. They have to keep taking care of business against bad teams to give them a shot. Out of the next seven, Miami is the only team Minnesota can afford a loss to if they want a shot at jumping into the top-six.

Lakers with a nice anti klunker. The rest hold serve. Wolves keep doing what they need to do.

Nice loss by the Clippers. Jazz and Mavs is a big game tomorrow. A win by Dallas will basically pull them even with the Jazz for seed 4. Most importantly the Wolves need to keep it rolling.

Phenom's_Revenge wrote:Nice loss by the Clippers. Jazz and Mavs is a big game tomorrow. A win by Dallas will basically pull them even with the Jazz for seed 4. Most importantly the Wolves need to keep it rolling.

Yeah, good to see the Clippers lose a game. That gives us a bit more breathing room between them and us. And their schedule isn't exactly easy from here on out, so I remain hopeful we can stay a step ahead of them.

This is a great service to the board, phenom, and saves me a lot of time each morning! I continue to see the Wolves as locked into a spot in the standings (7th) as I have ever seen at this stage of the season...Denver is too good for us to make up 3 games in the Klunk-o-Meter (absent a Jokic injury, of course), and I don't see a Clips team without Kawhi or George able to catch us. I also agree with the K-o-M that a hot Pels team will pass up the Lakers to earn a home play-in game.

The most interesting variable for me is whether PG and Kawhi can return and be productive. Kawhi is always mysterious, but while his coach says publicly he doesn't expect him back, teammates sometimes say otherwise. If I had to guess, I would say the earliest he would come back might be May...perhaps a factor for the Clips if they can advance, but irrelevant for the Wolves. PG is a different story though. He's with the team at every practice and game and certainly is acting like a guy who expects to be back this season. More importantly, there is video of him shooting with his right hand at practice this weekend for the first time since his injury. Obviously a PG return presents the Wolves with more of a challenge in what looks like an inevitable home play-in game.

I think the Pels and the Lakers should be feeing fortunate that the Nurkic injury happened (whether it's completely legit or tanking...) because before that the Blazers were rolling and Nurkic was ballin. Portland also has one of the easiest scheduled left (30) and the Lakers (2) one of the Hardest. It would have been interesting to see another team really going for that 7th 8th seed but right now it doesn't look likely.

Shouldn't the other teams be afraid of playing the Wolves.
#1 offense, Kat playing like an All NBA player, Dlo might be playing the best ball of his career. McDaniels best ball of his career. Beasley is on fire since Feb. Wolves have 11 guys you can feel confident about in a game in my opinion. Wolves will be projected to be 10 games over .500 with 14 to play. Wolves aren't limping into the play in game they are legit good and the Wolves can't gain ground not because the Wolves are losing but because the teams above is keep winning.

Who knows how the play in will go, it's just 2 games but teams should be afraid to to play the Wolves and the Wolves are a damn good team

kekgeek1 wrote:Shouldn't the other teams be afraid of playing the Wolves.
#1 offense, Kat playing like an All NBA player, Dlo might be playing the best ball of his career. McDaniels best ball of his career. Beasley is on fire since Feb. Wolves have 11 guys you can feel confident about in a game in my opinion. Wolves will be projected to be 10 games over .500 with 14 to play. Wolves aren't limping into the play in game they are legit good and the Wolves can't gain ground not because the Wolves are losing but because the teams above is keep winning.

Who knows how the play in will go, it's just 2 games but teams should be afraid to to play the Wolves and the Wolves are a damn good team

But the problem is that literally everyone but the Lakers in the play-in pool are surging right now. And who the heck wants to play LeBron and the referees? So I'd argue every team is dangerous. And some of these other teams could have some major talent back in their rotation by then (Paul George, AD, Zion).

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if our #1 goal between now and the playoffs should be staying healthy versus trying to catch Dallas or Denver. That might mean giving KAT and DLO some "load management" off days. It means being really careful in when we bring back Ant. Same with PBev (who I think we have been conservative with all season anyway).

monsterpile wrote:I think the Pels and the Lakers should be feeing fortunate that the Nurkic injury happened (whether it's completely legit or tanking...) because before that the Blazers were rolling and Nurkic was ballin. Portland also has one of the easiest scheduled left (30) and the Lakers (2) one of the Hardest. It would have been interesting to see another team really going for that 7th 8th seed but right now it doesn't look likely.

I just read that the Blazers sat Josh Hart for "load management" in the last Wolves game despite playing in only 3 games over 9 days... and playing only 23 minutes before two full days off... leaving Portland with only 8 bodies vs. the Wolves.

Few franchises know all the different ways teams can tank... but Wolves fans should know exactly what to look for...

The Blazers are DEFINITELY tanking. And I'm pretty damn certain the decision with Nurkic is part of it.