A year ago, the Timberwolves had a week off ahead of each of their first two playoff series — in the first round against Phoenix and the conference semifinals against Denver — and clearly used it to perfection.

Minnesota blitzed the Suns and Nuggets in the first two games of each series en route to reaching the Western Conference Finals.

But to assume the same thing could occur in Minnesota’s Round 1 bout with the Lakers, which starts Saturday in Los Angeles, is dangerous, largely because of one key difference: A year ago, Minnesota had just played Denver and Phoenix in the final week of the regular season, dropping both contests.

In fact, Minnesota played Denver thrice over its final 14 games, and Phoenix twice in its last six. So all the data of what worked, what didn’t and what needed to change was abundant. Key points to drill into were obvious, and practice plans were easy to dial up.

That’s not the case this time around.

Minnesota split four games with the Lakers during the regular season, but only one of those came after Los Angeles acquired superstar wing Luka Doncic. That game in L.A., a nine-point Lakers victory, was Doncic’s sixth in a Lakers jersey, and Minnesota was without Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle.

You can largely throw it out.

“Obviously, an extremely good team, very different than the team that we faced most of the season, of course,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said Tuesday. “In that way, it’s reminiscent of the Dallas series last year, because we hadn’t really faced that iteration of Dallas. Of course, they’ve got different players, different personnel.”

And that Dallas series didn’t go well for the Wolves.

So, that’s the challenge this week for Minnesota, a team that has traditionally thrived off familiarity. Can the Wolves prep for the largely unknown, and adjust and react in real time as they gather more data about the matchup?

Because they do not have a cheat sheet for this exam.

“But we feel like we know who they are,” Finch said. “They’ve been trying to figure it out, and they look like a much better version of themselves. But we’ll have to be ready to make adjustments as we go.”

Wolves guard Mike Conley said the team is “excited” for the challenge, noting Minnesota has watched a lot of film and is “confident in what we can bring to the table.”

Part of that confidence stems from the Wolves’ close to the season, in which they won 17 of their final 21 games. That stretch included a number of blowout victories.

They did a lot of things at a high level.

“I think momentum is huge for us coming into the playoffs,” Conley said. “We want to be able to be playing our best ball at the right time of the year, and we’ve accomplished that. … We came out and handled our business. Our team has been really business(-like in our) approach to all of our games, and has really locked into the defensive end and really locked in on being better offensively by moving and passing and making the right reads, and the early reads, and just trusting each other.”

But not only have the Wolves not played the Lakers in the past month and a half, they really haven’t played much of anyone. The combined records of the teams Minnesota played over its final 21 games is 718-1004. That’s the equivalent of playing a 34-win team — effectively, the San Antonio Spurs — on most nights.

So, there were very few evenings in which Minnesota had its soft spots exposed. Does that mean those weaknesses no longer exist, or aren’t as problematic? Or will a team as good as the Lakers re-open scabs that might not actually have healed.

Minnesota’s soft schedule played a large role in helping the Wolves dodge the play-in tournament. Only time will tell if it properly prepared Minnesota for the playoffs.

“You can only play the schedule that’s in front of you, so to speak,” Finch said. “We’ve been pretty happy with the way that we played for large parts. We’ve done a lot of the controllables well. Those are things you absolutely must do in the playoffs — like take care of the ball and win the possession game and all that stuff. Measuring it by those accounts, we give ourselves a pretty decent grade, and feel confident where we are.”