Minnesota Sports Forum

Posted: **Wed Mar 04, 2026 12:40 am**

The next week could be very good for the Wolves, assuming they take care of business. They don't have any "gimmies", but they should be able to win their games.

MIN: vs TOR, vs ORL, at LAL. 3-0?
HOU: vs GS, vs TOR, at POR, vs TOR. 3-1?
DEN: vs LAL, vs NY, at OKC. 2-1 or 1-2?
LAL: at DEN, vs IND, vs NY, vs MIN. 2-2 at best?

Those projections would put the Wolves in 3rd place, a half game up on HOU, but tied in the loss column. Just gotta take care of business.

Posted: **Wed Mar 04, 2026 6:30 am**

60WinTim wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 12:40 am The next week could be very good for the Wolves, assuming they take care of business. They don't have any "gimmies", but they should be able to win their games.

MIN: vs TOR, vs ORL, at LAL. 3-0?
HOU: vs GS, vs TOR, at POR, vs TOR. 3-1?
DEN: vs LAL, vs NY, at OKC. 2-1 or 1-2?
LAL: at DEN, vs IND, vs NY, vs MIN. 2-2 at best?

Those projections would put the Wolves in 3rd place, a half game up on HOU, but tied in the loss column. Just gotta take care of business.

This is an exciting time of year with having a target in sight. I'm sure the players feel it which will hopefully mean optimal results. They need to put in a little extra since they have a few critical tiebreaker losses in place against Denver, LA and Phoenix. It would be very big to beat Houston the next 2 times.

Posted: **Wed Mar 04, 2026 7:28 am**

60WinTim wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 12:40 am The next week could be very good for the Wolves, assuming they take care of business. They don't have any "gimmies", but they should be able to win their games.

MIN: vs TOR, vs ORL, at LAL. 3-0?
HOU: vs GS, vs TOR, at POR, vs TOR. 3-1?
DEN: vs LAL, vs NY, at OKC. 2-1 or 1-2?
LAL: at DEN, vs IND, vs NY, vs MIN. 2-2 at best?

Those projections would put the Wolves in 3rd place, a half game up on HOU, but tied in the loss column. Just gotta take care of business.

3-0 for us seems a little optimistic on your part Tim (unsurprisingly, LOL), although you did hedge with a question mark.

Despite the nice little win streak we're on, it still feels like winning these games is a bit of a high-wire act, with always having to rely on Ant to hit clutch - and often very difficult - shots. Can we just go out and dismantle a team for once!?

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:29 am**

The Wolves have moved into sole possession of 3rd place, but I still have them finishing 5th (tied with Houston, but losing the tiebreaker)...sweeping the remaining 2 games against the Rockets would move us into the 4th spot. Some might question my having Denver finishing 2 games ahead of us when they are a game behind us currently, but their schedule gets very easy in the last couple weeks...I have them winning 12 of their last 14 games while our Wolves are losing 4 of their last 7. Be sure to look at remaining games before getting excited when we lead Denver by several games late in the season. OkC and the Spurs remain far ahead of the pack, and the Suns appear locked into a 7th place finish...3-6 are going to be interesting though. Here's my latest forecast:

OkC 62
Spurs 60
Nuggz 53
Rockets 51
Wolves 51
Lakers 50
Suns 46

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:41 am**

FNG wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:29 am The Wolves have moved into sole possession of 3rd place, but I still have them finishing 5th (tied with Houston, but losing the tiebreaker)...sweeping the remaining 2 games against the Rockets would move us into the 4th spot. Some might question my having Denver finishing 2 games ahead of us when they are a game behind us currently, but their schedule gets very easy in the last couple weeks...I have them winning 12 of their last 14 games while our Wolves are losing 4 of their last 7. Be sure to look at remaining games before getting excited when we lead Denver by several games late in the season. OkC and the Spurs remain far ahead of the pack, and the Suns appear locked into a 7th place finish...3-6 are going to be interesting though. Here's my latest forecast:

OkC 62
Spurs 60
Nuggz 53
Rockets 51
Wolves 51
Lakers 50
Suns 46

Interesting and somewhat sobering. I'd be interested in what Tim's latest model says.

What's also interesting and sobering is that despite the nice run of play, we are now ranked 9th in defense, 9th in offense, and 8th in net rating. So while we are surging in terms of wins/losses, we have actually lost some ground in these other metrics compared to the rest of the league. Obviously wins and losses matter more than anything, but we almost never blow out anyone and a few of these wins were due solely to Ant's late-game heroics.

I feel like to truly be hitting on all cylinders, we need better play from our PF position. It's interesting that both Randle AND Naz are going through a rough stretch and simply haven't been all that great for about 4 or 5 weeks now. We need at least one of them to step up and start producing like they were in December or January.

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:54 am**

Yeah, I'm also interested in Tim's latest. His win totals were higher than mine across the board in his last forecast, and I suspect he has had a few klunkers in the past week. I'm guessing he also has us 5th now, but he probably has the Nuggets 5th and Houston 4th.

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2026 10:30 am**

FNG wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:29 am The Wolves have moved into sole possession of 3rd place, but I still have them finishing 5th (tied with Houston, but losing the tiebreaker)...sweeping the remaining 2 games against the Rockets would move us into the 4th spot. Some might question my having Denver finishing 2 games ahead of us when they are a game behind us currently, but their schedule gets very easy in the last couple weeks...I have them winning 12 of their last 14 games while our Wolves are losing 4 of their last 7. Be sure to look at remaining games before getting excited when we lead Denver by several games late in the season. OkC and the Spurs remain far ahead of the pack, and the Suns appear locked into a 7th place finish...3-6 are going to be interesting though. Here's my latest forecast:

OkC 62
Spurs 60
Nuggz 53
Rockets 51
Wolves 51
Lakers 50
Suns 46

The Wolves tend to play up to competition though. I would be betting on the Wolves the rest of the way and into the playoffs. Our time is NOW!!!!

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2026 10:34 am**

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:41 am
FNG wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:29 am The Wolves have moved into sole possession of 3rd place, but I still have them finishing 5th (tied with Houston, but losing the tiebreaker)...sweeping the remaining 2 games against the Rockets would move us into the 4th spot. Some might question my having Denver finishing 2 games ahead of us when they are a game behind us currently, but their schedule gets very easy in the last couple weeks...I have them winning 12 of their last 14 games while our Wolves are losing 4 of their last 7. Be sure to look at remaining games before getting excited when we lead Denver by several games late in the season. OkC and the Spurs remain far ahead of the pack, and the Suns appear locked into a 7th place finish...3-6 are going to be interesting though. Here's my latest forecast:

OkC 62
Spurs 60
Nuggz 53
Rockets 51
Wolves 51
Lakers 50
Suns 46
Interesting and somewhat sobering. I'd be interested in what Tim's latest model says.

What's also interesting and sobering is that despite the nice run of play, we are now ranked 9th in defense, 9th in offense, and 8th in net rating. So while we are surging in terms of wins/losses, we have actually lost some ground in these other metrics compared to the rest of the league. Obviously wins and losses matter more than anything, but we almost never blow out anyone and a few of these wins were due solely to Ant's late-game heroics.

I feel like to truly be hitting on all cylinders, we need better play from our PF position. It's interesting that both Randle AND Naz are going through a rough stretch and simply haven't been all that great for about 4 or 5 weeks now. We need at least one of them to step up and start producing like they were in December or January.

I'm most likely 100% wrong and an idiot but I see us surging into the playoffs and into the 3 seed. I see both Ju and Naz hitting it big down the stretch, with Ant being Ant and our defense stepping up to stronger opponents.

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2026 11:06 am**

Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 10:30 am
FNG wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:29 am The Wolves have moved into sole possession of 3rd place, but I still have them finishing 5th (tied with Houston, but losing the tiebreaker)...sweeping the remaining 2 games against the Rockets would move us into the 4th spot. Some might question my having Denver finishing 2 games ahead of us when they are a game behind us currently, but their schedule gets very easy in the last couple weeks...I have them winning 12 of their last 14 games while our Wolves are losing 4 of their last 7. Be sure to look at remaining games before getting excited when we lead Denver by several games late in the season. OkC and the Spurs remain far ahead of the pack, and the Suns appear locked into a 7th place finish...3-6 are going to be interesting though. Here's my latest forecast:

OkC 62
Spurs 60
Nuggz 53
Rockets 51
Wolves 51
Lakers 50
Suns 46
The Wolves tend to play up to competition though. I would be betting on the Wolves the rest of the way and into the playoffs. Our time is NOW!!!!

If past is prologue, you will be right, WF, and my wins forecast for the Wolves will be low...Finchy teams always seem to finish strong. And we are hot right now. But we've also been nearly 100% healthy for some time now, and can we count on that continuing? Also, my forecast has home wins against a few teams who are hot right now (Pistons, Hornets and Rockets) and any one of those could end up being a klunker and reducing our win total. On the other hand, my forecast has road losses to 8 good teams, and we could steal a couple of those as anti-klunkers. Right now it looks like a 5th place finish, but 4th is a strong possibility too.

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2026 11:10 am**

Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 10:34 am
Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:41 am
FNG wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2026 8:29 am The Wolves have moved into sole possession of 3rd place, but I still have them finishing 5th (tied with Houston, but losing the tiebreaker)...sweeping the remaining 2 games against the Rockets would move us into the 4th spot. Some might question my having Denver finishing 2 games ahead of us when they are a game behind us currently, but their schedule gets very easy in the last couple weeks...I have them winning 12 of their last 14 games while our Wolves are losing 4 of their last 7. Be sure to look at remaining games before getting excited when we lead Denver by several games late in the season. OkC and the Spurs remain far ahead of the pack, and the Suns appear locked into a 7th place finish...3-6 are going to be interesting though. Here's my latest forecast:

OkC 62
Spurs 60
Nuggz 53
Rockets 51
Wolves 51
Lakers 50
Suns 46
Interesting and somewhat sobering. I'd be interested in what Tim's latest model says.

What's also interesting and sobering is that despite the nice run of play, we are now ranked 9th in defense, 9th in offense, and 8th in net rating. So while we are surging in terms of wins/losses, we have actually lost some ground in these other metrics compared to the rest of the league. Obviously wins and losses matter more than anything, but we almost never blow out anyone and a few of these wins were due solely to Ant's late-game heroics.

I feel like to truly be hitting on all cylinders, we need better play from our PF position. It's interesting that both Randle AND Naz are going through a rough stretch and simply haven't been all that great for about 4 or 5 weeks now. We need at least one of them to step up and start producing like they were in December or January.
I'm most likely 100% wrong and an idiot but I see us surging into the playoffs and into the 3 seed. I see both Ju and Naz hitting it big down the stretch, with Ant being Ant and our defense stepping up to stronger opponents.

I don't think it's outlandish to think this team can truly surge into the playoffs, as there is still "meat on the bone" with two key guys not playing very well yet we continue winning. What if one or both suddenly start playing better?

But this team's floor is always lower than what it feels like it should be because things like energy, effort, and b-ball IQ wax and wane. Likewise, it's ceiling is very high.

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