Sunday’s win over Detroit wrapped the Timberwolves’ most successful March in franchise history. Minnesota went 11-3 to set a new franchise mark for most wins in March.
On top of an eight-game winning streak, Minnesota also won its past two games of the month to move itself to the precipice of a top-six seed in the West, which would allow the Wolves to bypass the play-in tournament and go directly to the first round of the playoffs.
Minnesota posted the third-highest winning percentage in March across the NBA, trailing only Boston and Oklahoma City — the two betting favorites to appear in the NBA Finals. And not only did the Wolves win, they were dominant in doing so. They posted the fourth-best offensive rating (scoring 122 points per 100 possessions), the fourth-best defensive rating (110.1) and the third-best net rating (11.8).
Minnesota led the league in effective field goal percentage (59%), was sixth in rebounding percentage (51.4%) and eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.20). There were no weak points.
As of Monday afternoon, the Wolves had four players in the top five in the NBA in plus-minus this month. The Wolves outscored opponents by 150 points over the course of the month when Mike Conley was on the floor, by 149 with Rudy Gobert and by 147 with Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels.
Conley and Gobert were the best two-man pairing in the NBA after Gobert returned from his lower back injury on March 9. Minnesota outscored opponents by 26 points per 100 possessions in March with those two in tandem.
Some of Minnesota’s dominance can be attributed to a lighter schedule. The Wolves played just four games in March against teams with winning records and split them. But the ways in which Minnesota won often mirrored the team’s path to success a year ago.
Perhaps the road map to success has been rediscovered. With fewer than two weeks remaining in the regular season, it couldn’t have happened at a better time.
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