Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Los Angeles Clippers
Date: February 8th, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM CST
Location: Target Center
Television Coverage: ESPN, FanDuel Sports Network – North
Radio Coverage: KFAN FM, Wolves App, iHeart Radio
And we can add another page to the 2025-26 Timberwolves scrapbook titled “Games We Somehow Found a Way to Lose.” Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans wasn’t the worst Wolves performance of the season, but that’s only because the bar has been set so incredibly low. Minnesota built a nice, comfortable 18-point lead at home, the Target Center DJ was warming up the celebratory tracks, the standings were getting ready to place the Wolves a mere half game back from the three-seed, and then… well, we all know what happened.
It wasn’t one thing. It was a whole buffet. Lazy closeouts that turned into open threes. Careless live-ball turnovers that turned into transition buckets. And then the most painful part, the offensive possessions late where it looked like Minnesota was playing a different sport than New Orleans. Like the Wolves were trying to win with individual talent while the Pelicans were just… running actual basketball possessions. The lead shrank, the building got tight, the Wolves started playing catch-up, and the whole thing had that familiar “we’re going to need Ant to do something insane” smell. Ant tried, and partially succeeded. Bones even bailed the team out with a monster three to take the lead late. But ultimately, the Wolves couldn’t close a deal that they should have never had to struggle to close in the first place.
Now the Wolves are 1–2 in February with losses to the Grizzlies and Pelicans, two teams that are almost certainly going to be ordering lottery ping-pong balls by spring. And that’s where it gets maddening. February was supposed to be the month where Minnesota stacked wins, padded the record, and started leaning toward that 2/3 seed life. Instead, the Wolves are doing the thing they always do when the schedule finally softens: they start treating games like optional side quests. And in the West, that’s how you wake up one day and realize you’re fighting for the 4/5 matchup, or worse, hanging around the play-in zone like it’s a timeshare you accidentally bought in Vegas.
The frustrating part is we’ve already seen the ceiling. This team can absolutely hang with the best teams out West. They’ve shown it. The problem is the Wolves have also shown, repeatedly, that they can lose winnable game after winnable game because the defensive effort comes and goes, and the offense can devolve into disjointed my-turn-your-turn stuff the moment things get tense. It’s like they’re allergic to the boring, professional “just handle business” games, the ones every real contender treats like a tax payment. Not fun, not optional, but you do it because you want nice things in April and May.
So now Wolves fans get to pin their hopes on the new guy, Ayo Dosunmu. It’s a lot to ask for a player who just walked in the door midseason to suddenly stabilize your late-game offense. Minneosta needs him to be the thing they’ve lacked at the most painful times this season: a guard who can handle pressure, keep the ball moving, and be part of the solution for those late-game possessions where the offense grinds to a halt.
Which brings us to the Los Angeles Clippers, a team that is suddenly in its own weird identity crisis after shipping out James Harden to Cleveland and Ivica Zubac to Indiana. They’re in flux, they’re shorthanded, and it sounds like their newly acquired Darius Garland won’t even go on Sunday. On paper this sets up beautifully for Minnesota. But let’s be honest: penciling in a Wolves win in any spot this season has been like confidently ordering the fish special at an airport restaurant. You can do it. You shouldn’t do it. Minnesota is going to have to earn this one with an actual performance, because nothing has been guaranteed for this team, especially when they’re facing an opponent they’re “supposed” to beat.
So with that, here are the keys to the game.
#1: Make life miserable for Kawhi Leonard.
With Harden gone, Kawhi becomes the gravitational center of everything the Clippers want to do. This is the Jaden McDaniels assignment, but it can’t just be “Jaden guards him, everyone else watches.” Kawhi is too strong for that. You need layers. You need bodies. You need to bump him early, crowd his spots, force him to take tougher looks, and live with the occasional “he’s Kawhi, he’s going to hit that anyway” jumper. If Minnesota can keep Kawhi in the “18 points on 17 shots” zone, the Clippers’ path to scoring enough points gets really narrow.
#2: Defend the perimeter.
The Pelicans game was the latest example of Minnesota treating closeouts like a suggestion rather than a requirement. When the Wolves are locked in, their perimeter defense sets the table for everything else, because it funnels drives into Rudy Gobert’s orbit on purpose, not as an emergency response to another lazy blow-by. You want Rudy to be a deterrent, not a janitor cleaning up messes every possession. That means Ant, Donte, Jaden, and whoever else is on the wings have to turn the Clippers’ drives into uncomfortable, contested decisions. And it also means Julius Randle, who can have moments where he’s engaged and physical, can’t be the turnstile that invites L.A. into the paint. The Clippers might not have Harden orchestrating everything, but they still have NBA players who can punish you if you let them feel good. Minnesota can’t give them that oxygen.
#3: Play adult basketball with the ball and stop handing out free possessions like party favors.
The Pelicans game swung on the kind of turnovers that make coaches want to move to a cabin in the woods. Live-ball turnovers. Casual passes. Drives into traffic with no plan. You can survive a missed shot. You can’t survive giving away possessions and then getting scrambled in transition. The Wolves need to play clean. Not perfect, just clean. Value the ball, make the simple read, and don’t let the other team is getting easy runouts.
#4: With Zubac gone, the Wolves’ bigs need to treat the paint like it’s theirs.
This is the part where Minnesota has to act like the bigger, stronger team and make it matter. Rudy Gobert should be a problem, on the glass, as a lob threat, as a putback guy, as the “you’re not getting that layup” presence defensively. Julius Randle has to punish mismatches instead of settling into floaty jumpers when the game gets tight. Naz Reid needs to do the Naz thing, stretch the floor, attack closeouts, and make their bigs defend space. The Clippers without Zubac are a different team. They’re smaller, they’re lighter, and if Minnesota plays it right, they should be losing the rebounding battle and getting worn down physically as the game goes on. The Wolves don’t need to win pretty; they need to win with force. Make it hurt. Make the Clippers feel like they’re playing uphill for 48 minutes.
#5: Ant has to be the grown-up for four quarters, not just the superhero in the last six minutes.
This is the line that separates “fun team that can beat anyone” from “team that actually gets where it wants to go.” Ant came out firing against New Orleans and then appears to lose interest. When the game started slipping, he tried to throw on the cape. But the Wolves can’t keep living on late-game rescue missions, because eventually you run into the night where the cape gets snagged on the door handle and you still lose. Ant doesn’t need to score 45. He needs to control the temperature. He needs to keep the energy up, keep the pace organized, and keep the group from drifting into that sleepy middle portion where Minnesota forgets what got them the lead in the first place. Ant needs to display the right kind of aggression: attack the rim, force rotations, spray it out to shooters, and make the game simple for his teammates. That’s superstar basketball.
And then there’s the bigger picture hanging over all of this: February can still be the month Minnesota wanted, if they stop treating games like optional. The West is tight. The margins are thin. This team has already given away enough “should’ve had that one” games to fill an entire month of therapy sessions. They don’t get to do it again if they want home court. Not if they want to avoid a brutal bracket path. Not if they want to keep OKC on the other side of the draw as long as possible.
This Clippers game is sitting there on a platter. A team in transition, missing pieces, still trying to figure out what it is post-Harden. And Minnesota, for all the chaos and the frustration, has something real: continuity, size, top-end talent, and an identity that can be elite when they choose to honor it. So choose it. Come out with purpose. Play defense like you’re annoyed about Friday night. Play offense like you’ve learned the lesson. Stack a win you’re supposed to get.
And if they do take care of business? Great, then everybody can exhale, flip to Super Bowl mode, and watch my New England Patriots try to pull off the biggest turn-around in NFL history in Super Bowl LX. Go Pats!
