The Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors will each endeavor to limit any association with the NBA’s play-in competition when the Western Meeting season finisher hopefuls duel Sunday night in San Francisco.
When the teams meet for the fourth and final time this season, playoff position, the outcome of the season series, and postseason tiebreakers all come into play. Golden State has won two of the first three meetings.
Golden State is sixth in the West and Minnesota is seventh, so the Warriors (39-36) and Timberwolves (37-37) started the weekend on opposite sides of the play-in line.
A Warriors win Sunday would go far toward guaranteeing they will complete in front of the Timberwolves in the last standings. With just six games remaining, it would not only create a gap of 2 1/2 games but also give Golden State the season-series tiebreaker.
On the other hand, with both teams starting play on Sunday at 25-20, a Timberwolves victory would reduce their deficit to half a game, even the series, and give Minnesota a leg up on the second playoff tiebreaker, conference record.
The Timberwolves have won two consecutive games, and perhaps no other game this season has been as crucial as Wednesday’s 125-124 home thriller against the Atlanta Hawks.
The Timberwolves not only avoided their 38th defeat, which would have dropped them at least two spots in the Western standings, but they also welcomed back Karl-Anthony Towns after he missed 51 games with a strained right calf.
In 26 minutes, Towns scored 22 points, saving his best two for a pair of decisive foul shots with 3.6 seconds remaining.
Chris Finch, the Timberwolves’ coach, has said that Towns will have to play fewer minutes in upcoming games. This means that it’s possible that he won’t play both ends of a back-to-back that ends on Monday in Sacramento.
There is no indication of which game Towns might miss, but due to their proximity in the standings, the Timberwolves’ matchup with Golden State is significantly more significant.
Due to a sprained right ankle, Minnesota was without Anthony Edwards for the third game in a row on Wednesday. He was given permission to return to practice on Friday, but he was ill and missed that session, making him also questionable for the Golden State matchup.
In contrast, the Warriors are still without Andrew Wiggins for personal reasons, but Gary Payton II, who was acquired from Portland in February, may make his Warriors debut. Payton was suffering from an adductor injury, but he is likely to play against Minnesota.
Payton said he was ready to play for the first time since a Trail Blazers-Warriors game on Feb. 8 during a Warriors workout on Saturday.
Steve Kerr, the Warriors’ coach, said that he is very excited about the addition.
With three wins in a row over the course of five days, including Friday’s 120-112 home victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, the Warriors have moved into first place in the Western Conference standings.
