Welcome back to Target Center, Kevin Garnett. If you were hoping to watch Anthony Edwards or any other Timberwolves stars play basketball, you’ll have to come back in the playoffs.
Garnett will be in the house for the Wolves’ regular season finale against the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night (7:30 p.m. CT). It’ll be KG’s first time taking in a game in Minneapolis since 2018, which should provide some excitement and emotion for the fans in attendance.
From a basketball perspective, Sunday’s game doesn’t mean a lot. The Wolves have been locked into the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference for a few days now, and they’ll play either the Nuggets or the Lakers in the first round depending on other results this evening. Because of that, Chris Finch and the Timberwolves are resting basically their entire playoff rotation against the Pelicans.
Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, Naz Reid, Ayo Dosunmu, Bones Hyland, Kyle Anderson, and Mike Conley have all been ruled out with either “injury maintenance” or rest for Sunday’s game. All nine are believed to be healthy and good to go for the playoffs. Edwards was able to get a game in on Friday to shake off some rust, and he scored 22 points on 50 percent shooting in 27 minutes against the Rockets.
The only Timberwolves rotation player active for this game is Donte DiVincenzo, who will reach a complete 82 games played for the first time in his career. It’s possible DiVincenzo will start the game and then join his teammates on the bench for the rest of the contest.
DiVincenzo aside, these are the players on the Wolves’ roster who will get plenty of run:
- Jaylen Clark, G
- Terrence Shannon Jr., G
- Zyon Pullin, G
- Joe Ingles, F
- Julian Phillips, F
- Enrique Freeman, F
- Joan Beringer, C
- Rocco Zikarsky, C
For the third straight game, the ball is going to be in Shannon’s hands quite a bit. He exploded for a career-high 33 points in 31 minutes on Wednesday in Orlando, then followed that up with 23 points in 28 minutes on Friday in Houston. Over those two games, he’s made 19 of his 27 shots and 10 of his 14 three-point attempts. Shannon has made a real case that he should be considered for a role in the postseason, and he can further that case with another big scoring night on Sunday.
It’ll also be interesting to watch Beringer make his third career start. The Wolves’ 19-year-old rookie had 14 points on Friday night. This is a great opportunity for players like Pullin, Phillips, Freeman, and Zikarsky — who will not be playing in the postseason — to show what they can do heading into the offseason.
The games that will determine the Wolves’ first-round opponent will tip off at the same 7:30 (or realistically 7:40) time slot on Sunday night. The Lakers are 13.5-point favorites over the Jazz. The Spurs are 10.5-point favorites over the Nuggets, who are resting many key players.
If both of those games go as expected, the Wolves will get an advantageous matchup against the shorthanded Lakers in the first round. If the Lakers lose OR the Nuggets win, it’ll be Minnesota against Denver instead.
