We have a winner in the first RandBall Winter Sports Meh-morial Cup, pitting the Wild and Timberwolves against each other in a race to see who won the most regular-season games.
The Wolves won this fictional battle in fitting style, earning their 46th victory of the season by sleepwalking early and pulling away late Monday vs. Memphis.
The Wild finished with 45 wins and awaits the start of the playoffs Wednesday. The Wolves will need to get to 47 Wednesday in a win-or- stay-home finale vs. Denver.
The Timberwolves won more games in a full season than the Wild did for the first time since 2004-05, which tells us a lot about recent history but also the improvement of the Wolves that shouldn't be overlooked.
They already won 15 more games this season than last year. No team in the NBA's Western Conference improved by more victories from last year to this year.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. mrand@startribune.com
