Breaking down the Minnesota Timberwolves' playoff seeding scenarios

The Minnesota Timberwolves' path to a top-six seed in the Western Conference is simple: win the last two regular-season games. The Wolves now control their own destiny as they look to avoid the play-in tournament in the season's final days.

Following Thursday's win over the Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota is eighth in the Western Conference standings, which feature a three-team tie between the Golden State Warriors, Grizzlies and Wolves from Nos. 6-8. But Minnesota would guarantee itself a top-six seed with wins over the Brooklyn Nets and Utah Jazz in the last games of the regular season.

With two wins, the Wolves would finish with a 49-33 record, and they hold tiebreakers over the Denver Nuggets (fourth) and Los Angeles Clippers (fifth), who are both a game ahead of Minnesota in the standings. The Grizzlies and Warriors, who are tied with the Wolves in the standings, both hold tiebreakers over Minnesota. But matchups between Memphis and Denver and between Los Angeles and Golden State remain on the schedule, meaning something will have to give.

For example, if the Nuggets win out and the Clippers win out, the Grizzlies and Warriors would at best finish with 48-33 records, and the Wolves would be in as the sixth seed. Depending how things shake out, the standings could look like this:

1. Thunder
2. Rockets
3. Lakers
4. Nuggets
5. Clippers
6. Wolves

The Wolves have a pathway to a seed as high as No. 4. If the Wolves win out and they end up in a three-way tie with the Nuggets and Clippers, or a four-way tie with the Nuggets, Clippers and Grizzlies, they'd hold the tiebreaker for best record in games between the tied teams as none of the teams would have won their division. The standings could look like this:

1. Thunder
2. Rockets
3. Lakers
4. Wolves
5. Clippers
6. Nuggets/Grizzlies

Wild, wild West

The most interesting possibility comes if the Warriors and Grizzlies win out, in which case there's the possibility of a five-way tie of teams with 49-33 records between the Wolves, Nuggets, Warriors, Grizzlies and Clippers. In that scenario, a division winner would automatically win the tiebreaker, though that's unlikely to come into play. The next tiebreaker used is record between all tied teams, which would go to the Clippers. The Wolves have the next-best record against tied teams.

In that scenario, the standings could look like this:

1. Thunder
2. Rockets
3. Lakers
4. Clippers
5. Wolves
6. Warriors

In the very unlikely case the Lakers lose their two remaining games and the same other results fell into place, there could be an even more chaotic six-way tie between 49-33 teams. In that scenario, the Clippers would have the tiebreaker as the Pacific Division winner. It would then go to the tiebreaker for record between the tied teams, which would go to the Lakers. The Wolves once again would have the next-best record against the tied teams, and the standings could look like this:

1. Thunder
2. Rockets
3. Clippers
4. Lakers
5. Wolves
6. Warriors

Ultimately, regardless of how crazy things play out in the final days of the season, the Wolves have a very simple path to staying out of the play-in tournament: win their final two games. If they take care of business, they're in the top six.

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