The Timberwolves and the unfamiliar burden of expectations

One of the bleakest things you can do as a fan or observer of Minnesota sports is head over to Basketball Reference, find the Timberwolves franchise overview page, and sort their seasons by win total.

Six seasons between 15 and 19 wins. Six more with 24 wins or fewer.

And then you get to another 24-win season: this one, in progress, with just nine losses.

It is then that you realize the Wolves have already won more games this season than in roughly one-third of any of their previous 34 years of existence. And you realize that their first two-game losing streak of the season — achieved with Monday's loss at New York and Wednesday's home loss to the Pelicans — is at the very least not cause for overreaction.

Instead, as I talked about on Thursday's Daily Delivery podcast, the Wolves are in the interesting and unfamiliar territory of dealing with the burden of expectations.

They had been so good for so much of the season that a recent dip in play — some of it coming even in victories — feels to some traumatized fans like the sky is falling.

Likely a better way to frame things: The Wolves are in a midyear lull, one of those unexplained but understandable blips in an 82-game slog. Head coach Chris Finch sounds concerned, but with the proper perspective.

"We've got to get our desperation back," Finch said after Wednesday's loss, pointing to the five games after a Dec. 23 win at Sacramento, during which the Wolves have gone 2-3, as a turning point for the worse. "We've got to play better. We've kind of been in second gear since then. This had been coming for a while. We just hadn't been very sharp."

The bigger picture is that the Wolves still have the Western Conference's best record and have navigated the toughest stretch of their season — 16 straight games against teams with winning records, 11 of them on the road — with a 7-5 record so far.

Diminished sharpness shouldn't be dismissed, but as long as it's temporary it is manageable.

And relative to their wayward franchise history, a two-game losing streak is what Taylor Swift or Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah might call a "champagne problem" — the term he gave almost a year ago to Justin Jefferson contract extension talks.

I'm guessing the Wolves' struggles won't drag on as long as the still-unresolved Jefferson situation.

Here are four more things to know today:

*Speaking of Jefferson, I talked on today's podcast about his media session Wednesday and particularly his comment about the Vikings' impending decision at quarterback this offseason. "If it's Kirk (Cousins), perfect," he said. "If it's whoever they chose, it's not my decision." Seems like further evidence that Jefferson is on Team Cousins.

*Ricky Rubio's retirement from the NBA reminded me that on the cusp of Rubio being traded from the Wolves in 2017 I did a massive oral history on his first stint in Minnesota.

*The Wild have their own losing streak (three games) and a mounting injury list. Their depth will be put to the test.

*Minnesota's PWHL franchise won its first-ever game Wednesday. The Star Tribune's Rachel Blount will join me on Friday's podcast to talk about the franchise and preview their home opener Saturday at Xcel Energy Center.