Playoffs predictor

[BloopOracle]

Brandon Ingram might be out for the season with that knee injury, at the very least until the playoffs

[Wolvesfan21]

Mmmm, kind of wouldn't mind playing Sacramento in the first round, so I probably would have been OK with both teams winning in this case and solidifying their current positions in 5th and 6th place, as I see us probably ended up at #3.

I don't know if you saw, but Huerter looks to be out for the season with a dislocated shoulder and torn labrum. I think the Mavs will likely emerge as the 6th seed. But dang, all three of them (Kings, Mavs and Suns) are tied at 29 losses for the 6th seed. Which means two of them will be in the play-in along with the Lakers and Warriors. Won't that be fun!

Bad timing for Huerter to get hurt! He's supposed to help them secure the 6th seed, and THEN get hurt just before the playoffs against us. Now it looks increasingly likely we'll end up playing Phoenix or Dallas in the 1st round. Ugh.

Bring em on. We got Ant, they don't.

[FNG]

Many of us see the Wolves destined for 3rd place, so who finishes 6th is now getting more interesting. I've added teams 5-8 to my forecast to try to provide a little clarity. Note: my forecast has Ingram out for several games. If he's not, I will recalibrate. Current forecast:

Denver: 59
OkC: 57
Wolves: 54
Clips: 53



Mavs: 48 (they have the tiebreaker over the Suns)
Suns: 48
Pels: 47 (they have the tiebreaker over Sac-town)
Kings: 47

So, 5-8 are extremely bunched together, and a lot will happen in the final weeks. But right now, I forecast a very tough first round matchup with the Suns. What makes this even more intriguing is we play the Suns twice in the next couple weeks. I have us losing both games, but if KAT can return for the playoffs, our chances get much better.

I'm going to cheer for Ingram to come back soon, because that could propel the Pels to a 5th place finish, and give us a first round matchup against Dallas instead of the Suns.

[Q-is-here]

OKC@Toronto tonight. C'mon! Is it just me or does it seem like OKC is constantly playing an inferior opponent on the road or if it's someone decent, they are playing them at home. Just feels like they've had an easy-ass schedule plus no one on their team is ever hurt. They're really starting to annoy me!

[Coolbreeze44]

OKC@Toronto tonight. C'mon! Is it just me or does it seem like OKC is constantly playing an inferior opponent on the road or if it's someone decent, they are playing them at home. Just feels like they've had an easy-ass schedule plus no one on their team is ever hurt. They're really starting to annoy me!

I've been wondering when they were going to have a hard road game.

[FNG]

OKC@Toronto tonight. C'mon! Is it just me or does it seem like OKC is constantly playing an inferior opponent on the road or if it's someone decent, they are playing them at home. Just feels like they've had an easy-ass schedule plus no one on their team is ever hurt. They're really starting to annoy me!

I've been wondering when they were going to have a hard road game.

Patience, Grasshopper, patience...

I opened this thread saying OkC had an easy road for a few weeks and would be in first place in late March, but would fall down when they went on a brutal road trip in April (I had them falling to third with the Wolves first until the KAT injury...now I have them second)...in their final 13 games they have to play Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Indiana, all on the road! How many wins do you see in that stretch?

An Anti-Klunker last night for the Wolves (for me, not for Cool or Tim I think), but we're still in 3rd, 2 games behind OkC on my forecast with 55 wins.

The Pels anti-Klunker in Miami created a 3-way tie for 5th on my spreadsheet between them, the Mavs and the Suns. I'm too lazy to determine the tiebreakers, so I'll update later.

[Q-is-here]

If we play Phoenix and they decide to go to an extreme spread offense with 5 shooters (Durant at Center surrounded by O'Neale, Booker, Allen, and Beal), how do we counter that?

I actually think we have the roster to do it, but it will require Finch to be flexible and potentially sit a couple of our bigs for stretches, as superior 3-point shooting beats bully ball almost every single time in my opinion.

[Lipoli390]

I think it’s highly likely the Wolves finish 3rd.

The Wolves have a good chance of winning 8 of their last 12 games. If they do that, they’ll secure 3rd place with a slight chance of finishing 2nd if OKC falters a bit. Even 7 wins would likely be enough to avoid slipping the 4th. The bummer for the Wolves is that two of their remaining 12 games are at Denver. If we had both those games at home, we’d have a good shot at finishing 2nd and a chance to finish 1st. Maybe the Wolves can win one of the Denver games, but without KAT they’ll likely lose both.

It’s highly likely that Denver finishes first. The Wolves will battle OKC for 2nd but likely finish 3rd. However, if the Wolves falter down the stretch, they could fall to 4th.

[FNG]

I think it’s highly likely the Wolves finish 3rd.

The Wolves have a good chance of winning 8 of their last 12 games. If they do that, they’ll secure 3rd place with a slight chance of finishing 2nd if OKC falters a bit. Even 7 wins would likely be enough to avoid slipping the 4th. The bummer for the Wolves is that two of their remaining 12 games are at Denver. If we had both those games at home, we’d have a good shot at finishing 2nd and a chance to finish 1st. Maybe the Wolves can win one of the Denver games, but without KAT they’ll likely lose both.

It’s highly likely that Denver finishes first. The Wolves will battle OKC for 2nd but likely finish 3rd. However, if the Wolves falter down the stretch, they could fall to 4th.

Lip, I have us going 7-5 down the stretch (although I now think it's likely they beat GS and go 8-4), and still finishing 2 games ahead of the Clips for third. The Clippers remaining schedule is brutal.

[Q-is-here]

Don't we also hold the tiebreaker with OKC and Clippers so that if we end up with the same record, we would be seeded ahead of them?

I still think OKC gets lucky down the stretch and their "tough" road schedule ends up having a bunch of key guys from their opponents resting or injured. I mean, take Boston for example. They have the East totally wrapped up already. They aren't going to go all out against a Western Conference opponent in Game #76 that has no playoff implications for them.