Wolves' Towns bullish ahead of Clippers clash

MINNEAPOLIS • The Minnesota Timberwolves have reached the National Basketball Association (NBA) play-offs just once since the 2004-05 season, but they have an opportunity to clinch a post-season spot this morning (Singapore time) when they face the Los Angeles Clippers in a play-in game in Minneapolis.

The winners of the contest between the seventh-seeded Timberwolves and eighth-seeded Clippers will advance to the Western Conference play-offs and face the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the first round.

The losers play on Friday against the winners of the New Orleans Pelicans-San Antonio Spurs contest for a second chance at reaching the post-season field.

Minnesota (46-36) appear to be a team on the rise after posting a winning record for just the second time in 17 seasons.

The improvement is directly due to the growing improvement shown by three-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft.

"It's a good first step," said Minnesota coach Chris Finch, who was rewarded with a multi-year contract extension on Monday.

"This needs to be the foundation of what we're trying to build, and regardless of what happens from here, we've got a lot of things that we've learnt."

Falling short isn't on the mind of Towns, who averaged 24.6 points and 9.8 rebounds in 74 games this regular season.

"I'm not too worried about the play-in," the centre said. "We're going to go in there, play Timberwolves basketball, fight the fight, get the win and find ourselves playing for the real thing."

He added: "We feel very confident in what we can do. We know anytime we step on the basketball court, we can beat anyone in the world."

The Clippers (42-40) went 3-1 against the Timberwolves with the three victories (all in November, two of them in Minneapolis) coming by an average of 19.3 points.

However, Minnesota won the most recent match-up 122-104 in January in Los Angeles.

The Clippers own a bigger experience edge when it comes to crunch games, having reached last season's Western Conference Finals.

Even so, Los Angeles coach Tyronn Lue doesn't believe it gives his side an advantage in this game.

"I don't really believe in that," he said. "With one game, anyone can get hot, we can have a bad shooting night or anything."

Kawhi Leonard has not played since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in last season's play-offs and no return date has been set.

But fellow All-Star forward Paul George has been superb since his return from an elbow injury that sidelined him for more than three months, averaging 22.6 points in the five games after rejoining the team in late March.

On the Clippers dangerman, Edwards said: "If we stop Paul George, we win the game."

The visitors have been lifted by the return of guard Norman Powell from a foot injury that sidelined him for 22 games.

REUTERS