Sports are strange sometimes.
A few bounces, a few inches, a few seconds don’t go your way, and you find yourself on the wrong end of a tight loss.
That happened a few times to the Wolves early this season, with five of their first six losses coming by a combined 15 points.
Things have snowballed a bit lately for Minnesota, and they’ve lost seven of their last 10, many of those games by margins not nearly as close as they were early in the season.
At 9-10, the Wolves currently sit third-to-last in the Western Conference, ahead of only the West’s two four-win teams, Sacramento and dreadful Utah.
With the close losses, Rick Adelman and Minnesota have to feel with a play here or there going differently, they’d be in better shape.
The numbers say the same, here’s three stats that nearly always come along with a winning club.
+4.1:
The Wolves point-differential this year. That puts Minnesota tied for sixth in the league in the category, with the four top-ranked teams in +/- comfortably resting in the top two spots in their respective conferences. The Pacers, who an incredible +10.1 on the season, are an NBA-best 17-2.
105.9:
Minnesota’s points per game this season. The total puts the Wolves at second in the league, behind only run-and-gun Houston, who are 13-7 on the year. The Wolves score nearly nine more points per game than the aforementioned Pacers.
23.7:
Kevin Love’s points per game, which ranks sixth in the league. Only Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James, Paul George, and James Harden have scored more per contest than Love this year. If you take out Anthony, the other four top scorers play on teams that are a combined 57-18 this year.
To be fair to Minnesota, they might just be in the wrong conference, as their 9-10 record would have them tied for sixth in the East, just a half-game behind the third spot in a conference that has just two teams above .500.
Still, strange to see them struggle with numbers like this.
