Julian AndrewsWeb Editorial AssociateTwitter
As the Wolves make their playoff push in the final games of the season, we’re taking a look at possible scenarios for their final position in the Western Conference. As of Wednesday morning, the Wolves are in seventh place. We’ll be starting with what it would take for the team to simply clinch a playoff spot and working our way up to how Minnesota could earn home-court advantage. In this race, things can change every single night, so we’ll also be updating you daily on where things sit.
Clinching a playoff spot is very straightforward for the Wolves, and entirely within their control. Knock on wood, but it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think that Minnesota could clinch this week.
If the Wolves win their next two games, they’re in. A win against the Nuggets on Thursday and the Lakers on Friday would give the Wolves a record of 46-34. If the Wolves do beat the Nuggets on Thursday, the best possible scenario for both the Nuggets and Clippers would be tying with the Wolves, and Minnesota would hold the tiebreakers over both teams.
If it doesn’t happen this week, a Wolves win in either of their games against Denver, plus one additional win against any team would clinch them a spot.
There are other versions of events where the Wolves don’t win these games and still make the playoffs, but it starts to get tricky.
The best possible route to the postseason is for the Wolves to beat the Nuggets themselves, but if Minnesota fails to beat the Nuggets in either one of their remaining games, they’d need to get a combination of three wins and Nuggets losses in their remaining two games to clinch a playoff spot. In addition, if the Wolves don’t win at least two more games this season, they’d need at least one Clippers loss. Also, if the Wolves don’t beat the Nuggets again this season, and the Nuggets and Wolves have the same record, the Wolves tiebreaker with Denver would come down to Denver’s performance against Portland on Monday.
Breaking down all these scenarios is a job best left for computers, and it’s near impossible to parse out every possible course of events. Things will get clearer later in the week, but long story short, the Wolves have an inside track to the postseason if they take care of business.
Let’s get some wins.