The Minnesota Timberwolves: More than just an 8th seed?

The playoffs are known for providing a variety of surprises. From 3-1 comebacks to unpredictable upsets, it is at this point of the season where many fans of the game will be proven wrong, maybe even on multiple occasions. After last night's game one of the Western Conference Quarterfinal between Minnesota and Houston, it is obvious that predictions for this series may just be one of those surprising moments.


It's quite shocking that the Timberwolves are going into the series as the 8th seed (which they just barely obtained as they had to win their last game of the season against the Nuggets to get there), as at the beginning of the season they looked like a serious contender, or at least the roster did on paper. Despite the addition of Jimmy Butler to help the rising stars in Wiggins and Towns, they were only able to come up with a disappointing 47 wins. The Timberwolves were not expected to make any sort of noise against the 65 win team in the Houston Rockets. However, after their performance last night, they may be as threatening as they seemed before the season started. This is a young and inexperienced Minnesota team, with two of their top three players participating in their first playoff game last night. It was an all-around team performance that allowed them to keep up with the Rockets, but eventually fell short losing 104-101 in a game most were surprised ended that close. The bench stepped it up, as Rose and Crawford contributed an efficient 31 points, and Butler added a decent 18. In order for them to do better there has to be more done by the young star Karl-Anthony Towns. He has been highly talked of, making his way into top 5 center conversations, and even top 3. Last night was not an example of a player of that caliber as he scored a mere 8 points on 3-9 shooting in 40 minutes. Not only was he not efficient, he was not aggressive. You could see the tension in his game the way he took his shots and did not attack the paint as hard as he could have. On several occasions he was presented with easy opportunities for baskets if he had simply taken advantage of his mismatches. I'm sure after reviewing the tape, the Timberwolves will see the adjustments they need to make in order to beat the Rockets instead of almost beating them.

Although the Timberwolves proved to be a real challenge, let's not underestimate the best team in the league either. Last night we also witnessed why James Harden is in the lead for MVP talks, as when his team wasn't doing so well (except Clint Capela, who played a great game), he was able to lead them to the win. The Beard dropped 44 points on nearly 60% shooting, as well as 7 threes. He was also able to get his teammates involved, dishing out 8 assists and added 2 steals (and they say Harden can't play D). Watching him play really does convince you that he might just be the most unguardable player in the league. He was able to do as he pleased, whether it was a stepback three or him blowing by defenders and taking it to the hole, he seemed unstoppable. Although it took a huge game from Houston's star to scrape a win, the Timberwolves can't rely on them to be shooting an atrocious 10-37 from beyond the arc in the upcoming games.

Even though I still don't have Minnesota pulling off this upset, it will be interesting to see how much they can really do against this championship contender and if they will manage to make this more than a 4 game series.

Game 2 of the Timberwolves and the Rockets will tip-off on Wednesday April 18, at 9:30 p.m Eastern Standard Time.