Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Chicago Bulls
Date: January 22nd, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM CST
Location: Target Center
Television Coverage: FanDuel Sports Network – North
Radio Coverage: Wolves App, iHeart Radio
The calendar has flipped into late January, the “new year, new me” energy is gone, the gym membership card is somewhere in the couch cushions, and the Minnesota Timberwolves have somehow wandered back into the exact same neighborhood they swore they were moving out of on January 1.
For a minute there, Minnesota looked like it had actually found something. After getting embarrassed by the Nets and Hawks, the Wolves came out of the gates in 2026 like a team that finally understood the NBA doesn’t give out “we meant well” banners. They were defending, flying around, stacking wins, playing like the kind of group that could stare down anybody in the West and not blink. And then Tuesday night in Salt Lake City happened, and the whole thing collapsed in real time like a cheap folding chair.
There are no excuses to be found here. Utah was on the second night of a back-to-back. Minnesota had two days of rest. Minnesota had a double-digit lead. And the Wolves still managed to get outscored by 17 in the fourth quarter. That fourth quarter wasn’t just bad basketball. It was disinterested basketball. The kind that makes fans start doing the math on how much time they’ve donated emotionally to this franchise and whether it’s all been a tax write-off.
And the part that makes it sting is the context. The Texas losses? You can at least explain those. Houston was without Anthony Edwards, and Minnesota still had a chance to win before the free-throw line turned into a slapstick comedy routine. San Antonio came without Rudy Gobert and somehow featured a 48-point second quarter, and even then, the Wolves still crawled back and made it a game. Those were painful. But they were at least defensible on the injury report.
Utah isn’t defensible. Utah is a team lined up for the sixth pick in the draft. Utah is the team you beat by 40 when you’re serious. And yet Minnesota let a second 40-piece quarter get dropped on them in two games, melted down late, and walked to the locker room in search of some Benadryl for their defense allergy.
Now the standings do the thing they always do: they strip the narrative down to the numbers and laugh at your feelings. The Wolves are sitting in the seventh seed. All that early-January glow? The “we’re back” headlines? The OKC win? The Spurs comeback? Great memories. Would make a hell of a montage. But if the season ended today, you’re in the play-in. And the cruelest part is the West is still so tight that you’re also only three games behind the Spurs and the two seed. So yes, there’s still hope. But you know what else there is? A really clear paper trail of games the Wolves didn’t take seriously enough, and those games always come back to haunt you in April.
This is how it happens. Not in one dramatic collapse, but in a bunch of smaller ones you try to rationalize at the time. It’s the late-December no-show against Brooklyn at Target Center when you could’ve sent the fans home for the holidays happy and just… didn’t. It’s the Atlanta dud to close out 2025. It’s the Phoenix and Sacramento meltdowns that turn wins into stomach punches. And then it’s a Tuesday night in Utah where you have rest, you have a lead, and you decide that defense is optional. Those are the nights that don’t feel catastrophic in the moment… until you’re in the 4/5 bracket staring at OKC in the second round, or you’re a half-game short of home court, or — worst-case — you’re sweating a play-in game because you couldn’t be bothered to lock in against the Jazz.
So now it’s reset time. Mirror time. “What kind of team are we?” time. Because you don’t get to talk about title aspirations if you can’t handle the boring stuff. If you can’t handle January grind games. If you can’t handle the teams you’re supposed to beat.
Which brings us to Thursday night: Chicago at Target Center, where the Wolves are still undefeated at home in 2026. Maybe that means something. Maybe it’s just a fun stat that we’ll cling to like a life raft. But either way, Minnesota can’t lose a fourth straight game. Not with the standings this tight. Not with the season teetering between “two seed chase” and “play-in anxiety spiral.”
And it’s not like Chicago is showing up as a ceremonial sacrifice. The last time these teams played, the Bulls had a lead before Kobe White and Josh Giddey went down with injuries and the whole thing flipped. If Minnesota thinks it can sleepwalk through this one and get a home win by default, they’re about to learn that the NBA doesn’t do defaults. You either play like you care, or you get punched.
1. Play defense like adults.
This one is not complicated. The Wolves have put together stretches recently where the defense has been downright gross. The Utah fourth quarter was the kind of defensive effort that gets you sent to the bench in middle school, except these guys are professionals playing in front of paying customers. It has to start on the perimeter. No more matador possessions where a guard gets turned around and Rudy has to clean up three mistakes at once. No more jogging through rotations. No more “we’ll flip the switch later” nonsense. You want to win? You defend the ball. You stay connected. You close out like it matters. If they can’t do that, honestly, don’t even bother with the offensive plan, because you’re not outscoring your way out of low-effort defense in the modern NBA.
2. Run an offense that actually resembles an offense.
You could feel the Utah collapse coming because the offense started telegraphing it. The ball stuck. The pace died. It turned into lazy, grimy isolation possessions where everyone stands around and watches someone try to manufacture something out of nothing. That’s how you blow leads. That’s how you let teams hang around. That’s how you start missing jumpers and then stop defending because you’re mad you missed jumpers. The Wolves have too much talent for that. Move the ball. Cut. Drive with purpose. Kick out. Make the defense rotate. Make Chicago guard multiple actions instead of one guy trying to freestyle in traffic. The Wolves are at their best when the ball has energy. When it zips. When the defense is the one scrambling, not them.
3. Win the glass and control the pace.
Chicago wants to run. They want to turn the game into a series of quick decisions and quick shots, and if you’re sloppy, if you don’t rebound, if you don’t get back, then suddenly you’re in a track meet you didn’t sign up for. This is where Gobert, Randle, and Reid have to impose their size. Defensive rebounds end possessions and offensive boards kill transition. If Minnesota does rebound, they can pick their moments to run their way — not chaotic, not reckless, but opportunistic. Easy baskets are the antidote to everything that went wrong in Utah. You want to avoid another late-game nightmare? Don’t spend the night giving the Bulls extra possessions and transition chances.
4. Ant and Julius have to play the right kind of “star basketball.”
This is the key that connects everything. In Houston, Julius became a black hole by dribbling, pounding, forcing, and trying to win the game on brute strength while the rest of the offense suffocated around him. That can’t happen. He’s at his best when he’s a bully and a facilitator, when his gravity creates shots for others, not just bruises for himself. And with Ant, yes, you ride the heater when it’s there. His San Antonio masterpiece happened largely within the flow, and when a guy is in that zone you don’t overthink it. But the default can’t be “my turn, your turn” isolation basketball while everyone else watches. Ant has to set the tone the right way: pressure at the rim, decisive reads, and making sure the other guys feel involved enough to defend like their life depends on it.
Look, there isn’t a ton of poetry left here. Minnesota is better than Chicago. They’re at home. They’re on a three-game skid that’s already starting to smell like one of those season-tilting slides you can never quite undo. They can’t afford to mess around.
This is the exact type of game that determines whether you’re chasing the two seed or sweating the play-in. Not because Chicago is some giant measuring stick, but because games like this are where “serious teams” separate themselves from “talented teams who like to dabble in chaos.” The Wolves have already spent enough time this season dabbling.
So Thursday has to be a line in the sand. Defend your home floor. Keep the undefeated home streak alive. Play like a team that actually wants the top half of the bracket instead of flirting with the bottom. Because if they don’t… if they come out flat again, if they sleepwalk again, if they let another winnable night leak away… then we can stop talking about the two seed and start talking about the play-in with a straight face.
And nobody wants to live in that universe.
