NBA: 3 Championship pretenders most likely to get upset early on in the playoffs
There are a few championship contenders that are at risk to get upset early on in the NBA Playoffs.
As the NBA Playoffs quickly approach, there are three championship contenders that should be on upset alert already.
With the number of skilled players in the NBA, there is also some parity among the top teams in each conference. With this comes more potential first-round upsets among top teams. We saw this last year as the 7-seed Lakers made it to the Western Conference Finals and the 8-seed Miami Heat made it to the NBA Finals.
As we quickly approach the start of the NBA Playoffs, we take a closer look at three contenders (or pretenders) with the best chance to have an early exit in this year's postseason.
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves are among the top defensive teams this season due to their size with the Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns duo. However, with Towns now being sidelined due to a meniscus injury and no guarantee that he'll be back for the start of the playoffs, the size advantage they once had has now diminished.
They will have to distribute minutes and shots around to various role players and also leave Anthony Edwards to carry the offensive load. If they catch a bad matchup in the first round, perhaps such as the Los Angeles Lakers, they could end up going home earlier than expected.