HOUSTON – It took overtime on the final night of the regular season for the Minnesota Timberwolves to earn the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs.
Their reward is a matchup with the best team in the NBA - the Houston Rockets.
While the Rockets rested nearly their entire roster of rotation in their season finale, the Wolves were pushed to overtime by the Nuggets in a winner-reaches-the-playoffs game. Minnesota won, 112-106.
Houston handled the Timberwolves during the regular season in all four matchups, sweeping the season series.
Houston won each of the first three meetings by 18 points. They swept the season series with a 129-120 win in Minnesota in March, in a game in which Jimmy Butler missed since he hurt his knee in the previous meeting with Houston.
James Harden averaged 27.3 points and 10.3 assists per game in the four meetings, while Clint Capela added 18.8 points and 10 rebounds against Minnesota.
Chris Paul also posted a pretty gaudy stat line in the four games against Minnesota with 16 points, eight rebounds and 8.3 assists per game.
It will mark just the second postseason meeting between the two teams. They met in the opening round of the 1997 playoffs with the Rockets sweeping that best-of-five series.
The Rockets will have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Game 1 will be at Toyota Center.Â
The first round schedule so far is as follows:
Game 1: 8 p.m. Sun. in Houston. Fans can watch on TNT
Game 2: 8:30 p.m. Wed. in Houston. Fans can watch on TNT
Game 3: 6:30 p.m. Sat. in Minnesota. Fans can watch on ESPN
Game 4: 7 p.m. Mon. April 23 in Minnesota. Fans can watch on TNT
*Game 5: TBD Wed. April 25 at Houston TBD
*Game 6:Â TBD Fri. April 27 at Minnesota TBD
*Game 7:Â TBD Sun. April 29 in Houston TBD
*if necessary
Talking Rockets Playoffs
Posted by KPRC2 / Click2Houston on Wednesday, April 11, 2018