The Minnesota Timberwolves still have a shot at the No.1 seed in the West, and they’re set to welcome back Karl-Anthony Towns tonight as they take on the Atlanta Hawks.

Despite a 116-107 setback against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, the Timberwolves are double-digit favorites in the latest NBA odds, while the Hawks are on a four-game skid, including a home loss to the Charlotte Hornets in midweek in Trae Young’s return.

With playoff seeding on the line, check out our latest NBA picks as I lay out my Hawks vs. Timberwolves predictions for this April 12 battle.

My best betTimberwolves -13.5 (-109 at BetRivers)

My analysis

As much as the Atlanta Hawks may still be clinging to hopes of surviving the play-in and springing postseason upsets, there’s some wishful thinking involved there — and I expect a motivated Minnesota Timberwolves team to expose that tonight.

The Timberwolves need a win to keep the pressure on the Nuggets in the race for the top spot in the West, and they’re 29-10 at Target Center this season.

Then there’s the Towns factor. All the signs point to Karl-Anthony Towns returning here, and that should add juice to a Timberwolves offense that’s relied heavily on Anthony Edwards and Naz Reid over the past few weeks.

Even if he’s under a minutes restriction, Towns is helping space the floor by shooting a career-high 42.3% from downtown this year. That paves the way for Minnesota to cover a large spread here — and Atlanta’s depleted rotation is another reason to lay the points. The Hawks will be without Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu, plus Dejounte Murray is listed as questionable on the injury report.

The visitors’ best chance is likely to turn this into an end-to-end shootout, but the Timberwolves have long-armed perimeter stoppers to throw at Trae Young (and Murray), and the rejigged Atlanta bench had a disastrous night against the Hornets to derail a solid effort from the starters.

The Hawks have been an unreliable ATS team all year and they’re just 15-24 on the road. I’m predicting one-way traffic tonight, with the Timberwolves’ talent edge tipping the scales.