4 games Wednesday with huge implications for Western Conference playoff race
Every night of the final 17 days of the regular season will be significant in the NBA, but Wednesday night is the newest, biggest night of action as seven teams within 1.5 games of each other in the standings fight for a spot in the playoffs.
Specifically, there are four games that could result in the jumbled back half of the West race to shuffle.
- 6:30 p.m. – Golden State Warriors at Dallas Mavericks
- 7 p.m. – Atlanta Hawks at Minnesota Timberwolves
- 8 p.m. – Portland Trail Blazers at Utah Jazz
- 9 p.m. – Phoenix Suns at Los Angeles Lakers
Here's how things could shake out for the Timberwolves:
- Wolves win + Warriors loss + Mavericks win = 7th place
- Wolves win + Warriors win + Mavericks loss = 7th place
- Wolves loss + Jazz win + Lakers win = 11th place
- Wolves loss + Jazz win + Lakers loss = 10th place
- Wolves loss + Lakers win + Jazz loss = 10th place
The bottom line for Minnesota is that any loss at this point in the season is difficult to overcome. Tonight's game is even more imperative to win because the Timberwolves are about to embark on a road trip with stops at Golden State, Sacramento and Phoenix.
A win over the Hawks coupled with a Warriors loss in Dallas would put Minnesota in a tie with the Warriors, though Golden State would own the tiebreaker pending Sunday's outcome between the two.
Even more important is that a win at least keeps Minnesota within a game of the sixth seed, which is critical because the top six seeds are playoff locks and don't have to risk it all in the play-in tournament.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.