MINNEAPOLIS – Starting in less than two months, the NBA loses a major talking point. Players lose an excuse and coaches lose another reason to bang their heads against gym walls.
In just 51 days, the Timberwolves will tip off their 82-game, 167-day season. There will be no more talk of lockout, of back-to-back-to-back games, of fatigue and lack of practice time and general chaos. The NBA will be back to normal, and the revamped Timberwolves roster will for the first time get a chance to experience a full, normal-paced season under second-year coach Rick Adelman.
When the season begins on Nov. 2 at the Target Center against the Kings, the Timberwolves can look forward to a year that boasts a total of 22 pairs back-to-back games and no instances where they play three games in a row. This year, only 26.8 percent of the team's games will come on the heels of a game the night before; that's down from 30.3 percent of games last year. In this return to normal, the Timberwolves will have an average of 1.04 days between games, a marked improvement from 2011-12, when the average time was just .86 days.
It will be easier this time for Adelman. There's no doubt of that. Yes, every team in the league went through the post-lockout haste, but not like the Timberwolves did, not with the league's second-youngest team and a coach who'd been introduced just months before.
The Timberwolves will ease into 2012-13 in the best possible way. After opening against Sacramento, the team faces a list of November opponents that looks anything but threatening. Only two of its 15 games are against opponents who advanced past the first round of the playoffs in 2012: the Pacers on Nov. 9 and the Clippers on Nov. 28. In fact, the Timberwolves face only six of last season's playoff teams in the first month of the season, a low number when one considers that more than half of the league's teams make the postseason. Here's a look at matchups against 2012's playoff-bound teams by month next season:
- November: The Timberwolves face the Magic, Pacers, Bulls, Mavericks, Nuggets and Clippers. Those teams went a combined 16-28 in the playoffs last year.
- December: They face the 76ers, Celtics, Nuggets, Mavericks, Magic, Heat, Thunder and Knicks, who went a combined 55-45.
- January: They face the Jazz, Nuggets, Hawks, Thunder, Spurs, Mavericks and Clippers, who went a combined 35-34.
- February: They face the Lakers, Spurs, Knicks, Grizzlies, Jazz, 76ers and Thunder, who went a combined 42-36.
- March: They face the Heat, Nuggets, Mavericks, Spurs, Pacers, Grizzlies, Bulls, Lakers and Thunder, who went a combined 61-46.
- April: They face the Celtics, Clippers, Jazz and Spurs, who went a combined 25-24.
Obviously, making the playoffs last season does not guarantee that a team will be a contender, but last year's record is still a good way to evaluate opponents. Of last year's playoff teams, only the Magic and Hawks look to be dramatically worse, and the Heat, Thunder and Lakers look to be as good, if not better, than they were. So, by those metrics and the amount of days off and back-to-backs, March appears to be the Timberwolves' most difficult month by far. They'll be able to ease into the season and back out of it, with gentler opponents in November and April, and they'll have to prove themselves down the stretch in March, when many a playoff bid is solidified.
Last March was a memorable month for the Timberwolves; not only did they lose Ricky Rubio to a torn ACL and begin their downward spiral, but they also went on a seven-game road trip that never seemed to end, from March 12 – 23. Next season, there is no such massive trip; their longest road stretches are two four-game, five-day trips, one in November, the other in January. The team's longest homestand comes between Jan. 30 and Feb. 8, a 10-day, six-game stretch.
Here's a look at some other key games and stretches:
- Nov. 23: The Timberwolves play in Portland for the first time since last summer's antics between the Trail Blazers and Nicolas Batum. It'll be their first time playing against Batum since the negotiations fell through, and Minnesota will likely have a point to prove in what could be a budding rivalry.
- Dec. 18 – 20: The Timberwolves face the Heat in Miami on Dec. 18 and the Thunder at home on Dec. 20, which will no doubt be the toughest consecutive games on their schedule. In four games against these teams in 2011-12, the Timberwolves were winless, but each game was close.
- Jan. 9 – 14: This is one of the two longest road trips of the season, and the Timberwolves will face four solid teams: Oklahoma City, New Orleans, San Antonio and Dallas. A winning record on this trip would be a statement.
- March 15 – 26: The Timberwolves will catch a break in their most difficult month, playing seven more winnable games before closing out the month against the Lakers, Thunder and Grizzlies. During that 11-day stretch, the Timberwolves will play the Rockets, Hornets, Grizzlies, Kings, Suns, Bulls and Pistons, and they should be able to gain a bit of the ground they might have lost earlier in the month against the Heat, Spurs, and Pacers.
- April 3 – 15: The Timberwolves close the regular season in San Antonio, a daunting task. But before that they have an eight-game stretch in which they play only two of last year's playoff teams, the Clippers and the Jazz. They should be able to go into the final game of the season on something of a high if they negotiate this easier stretch properly.
Follow Joan Niesen on Twitter.
