Timberwolves clinch top-3 seed entering final week of regular season
Minnesota plays Denver in the newest, biggest game of the season Wednesday.
After toppling the Lakers 127-117 in Los Angeles Sunday night the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets have matching 54-24 records entering the final week of the regular season – and fight for the No. 1 seed could be decided when the budding rivals meet in Denver Wednesday night.
On Sunday, the Wolves caught multiple breaks as the Lakers played without LeBron James (flu-like symptoms) and Anthony Davis didn't play after the first quarter due to his bothersome knee. Without two stars Minnesota put up 79 points in the first half, let the Lakers back into the game in the third quarter only to destroy them in the fourth quarter for their 54th win of the season, which is the second most in team history behind the Kevin Garnett-led team from 2003-04 that won 58 games.
No matter what happens Wednesday night there will be questions about how the Wolves and Nuggets match up when fully healthy. It'll be the fourth time they've met this season and the third straight contest in which one or both teams is missing key players.
The last time they met – March 29 in Denver – the Timberwolves were without Karl-Anthony Towns and Denver didn't have star point guard Jamal Murray. When the Nuggets beat the Wolves in Minneapolis on March 19, Minnesota was without Towns and Rudy Gobert.
The Wolves won't have Towns again on Wednesday night, though he took shots at the end of Sunday's shootaround in L.A. and appears to be getting closer to a potential return for the postseason.
This year's Timberwolves are trying to emulate what the 03-04 club did: earn the No. 1 seed in the West and advance to the conference finals. Those Timberwolves ran into Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal in the Western Conference Finals and lost in six games. These Timberwolves are hoping to take it one step further.
Minnesota plays four games this week. They host Washington Tuesday, go to Denver Wednesday and then finish with home games Friday and Sunday against Atlanta and Phoenix, respectively.
The NBA play-in tournament is April 16-19 followed by the official playoffs starting April 20.
