Minnesota Timberwolves vs. New Orleans Pelicans
Date: February 6th, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM CST
Location: Target Center
Television Coverage: FanDuel Sports Network – North
Radio Coverage: KFAN FM, Wolves App, iHeart Radio
With the trade deadline officially in the rearview mirror, we can finally stop living in the “refresh the webpage“ portion of the season and look at what the Timberwolves actually are for the stretch run.
And the answer is: they’re the same Wolves we’ve been watching all year, only now with one important twist. The Giannis-to-Minnesota smoke? No fire. No blockbuster. No franchise-altering earthquake. Instead, Tim Connelly went with the kind of move you make when you believe your roster is good enough to win in May and you’re just trying to sand down the one spot that keeps making the chair wobble.
So: out goes Mike Conley Jr., shipped to Chicago for cash considerations in an ending that’s a little sad, a little cold, and also kind of inevitable for a veteran whose role had already shifted this season. Then the bigger practical move: the Wolves send Rob Dillingham, Leonard Miller, and some second-round picks to the Bulls for Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips. Not sexy. Not headline-grabbing. But it’s a real, adult trade deadline decision: add a functional ball-handler who can actually survive minutes in a playoff game.
And then, almost like the basketball gods were testing whether Minnesota could handle a week without spiraling, this team finally did the thing that’s been haunting them for more than two decades: they won in Toronto.
Twenty-two years. A curse that was old enough to buy a drink and play craps in Vegas.
And of course it didn’t come easy. It wasn’t a clean wire-to-wire “take care of business” win. It was Minnesota doing the Minnesota thing: sloppy stretches, casual defense, the deficit ballooning to 18 in the third quarter, the team treating the first 36 minutes like a scrimmage and then trying to win the game in the last 12.
But then the fourth quarter arrived, the screws finally tightened, and the Wolves actually guarded. Anthony Edwards threw on the hero cape, made the big plays, and Minnesota stole the game on the Raptors’ home floor. And afterwards Ant dropped the kind of quote that’s going to live in Wolves lore forever: Minnesota hadn’t won north of the border since Bruce Lee died. Which is both completely unhinged and also… kind of perfect? That’s the exact tone of a franchise trying to exorcise demons.
Which brings us to the next opponent: the Pelicans.
And this is where Wolves fans start making that face. The one where you’re happy, but you’re also bracing for impact. Because the Wolves’ toughest opponent this season hasn’t been OKC or San Antonio or Houston. It’s been the mirror. It’s been the version of themselves that decides effort is optional, that defense is something you can turn on late, that “we’ll figure it out in the fourth” is a personality trait instead of a red flag.
New Orleans is the exact kind of team you can play down to. The exact kind of team you can let hang around. The exact kind of game that becomes dangerous if you treat it like a glorified scrimmage, especially because we’ve already seen this matchup nearly go sideways. The first time these teams met in New Orleans, the Wolves needed overtime to escape. That’s not “easy win.” That’s “you got taken to the brink by a team you’re supposed to handle.”
And so, this game has become a professionalism test. Do the Wolves actually want to climb the standings, or do they want to keep wasting weeks?
And with that question in mind, here are the keys.
#1: Take it seriously from the opening tip, not from the eight-minute mark of the fourth.
The Pelicans are bad enough that Minnesota can beat them while playing a B-minus game… but only if they don’t spend three quarters spotting them confidence. This is where the Wolves have repeatedly gotten themselves in trouble: they play with half-energy, they let the other team feel comfortable, and suddenly you’re in a possession game late where randomness can steal it from you. Minnesota needs to come out like a team that just learned a hard lesson in Memphis and Toronto. They need to win the 50–50 balls, get to rebounds like they matter, and play like they understand that there’s no such thing as a “quality loss” out West. If the Wolves set the tone early, New Orleans doesn’t have the horsepower to keep up.
#2: The perimeter defense has to show up.
It’s incredible how different this team looks when the guards and wings actually treat point-of-attack defense like a job requirement. When Donte, Jaden, and Jaylen Clark are hunting, getting into bodies, cutting off lanes, and closing out with urgency, the Wolves become a miserable team to play. When they’re lazy, it turns into the same movie every time: blow-bys, scrambling rotations, Rudy cleaning up messes until he can’t, and a parade to the rim that makes the opponent look better than they are. The Wolves flipped the switch in Toronto’s fourth quarter. Great. Now do it for 48 minutes at home. The Pelicans can’t keep pace unless Minnesota gifts them easy stuff.
#3: Punish them with size.
Gone are the Jonas Valančiūnas days for New Orleans, but don’t mistake that for “no interior threat.” Rookie Derik Queen gave Minnesota problems in the earlier matchups because he played hard, he competed on the glass, and he didn’t act like he was supposed to be impressed by the Wolves’ bigs. Rudy, Julius, and Naz can’t let a rookie outwork them again, not on their floor. This is where Minnesota should be able to build separation: win the rebound battle, create second-chance points, and turn New Orleans’ misses into demoralizing possessions where the Wolves get a putback, then a lob, then another offensive board. The Wolves have the bodies to make this a paint-nightmare for the Pelicans. They have to actually use them.
#4: Keep the ball moving.
This is the trap game trap: you see a lesser opponent, and suddenly everybody wants to “get theirs.” Ant starts hunting highlights. Julius starts trying to bully through three guys. Possessions get sticky. The ball stops. And before you know it, you’ve turned a comfortable game into a grind because you’re playing exactly the kind of isolation basketball that lets an inferior team hang around. The Wolves need to push pace, and keep the offense from devolving into “my turn, your turn.” Make the Pelicans guard multiple actions. Let the open threes come from movement, not from heat-check ego.
#5: Be professionals, because the schedule is finally giving you oxygen, and you can’t waste it.
This is the broader point. February has been set up pretty nicely for Minnesota. The deadline drama is over. The roster is what it is. The standings are tight enough that a two-week heater changes your life. But the Wolves have to stop acting like the season is something they can turn on whenever they feel like it. This game at Target Center against one of the weaker teams in the conference is exactly the kind of win a serious team banks without drama. And it starts with Ant and Randle setting the tone. If they come out locked in, everyone follows. If they come out casual, everyone follows that too. That’s what leadership is, for better or worse.
And here’s the thing: nobody’s coming to save them now. No Giannis cavalry. No deadline miracle. No external fix. The trade smoke is gone, the reality is here, and the reality is this roster has enough talent to make a real run.
But talent doesn’t win games by itself, not for this team. Not in this conference. Not with this many standings landmines.
So beat the Pelicans. Take the points. Stack the win. Keep climbing. Because if Minnesota is serious about turning Toronto into a turning point instead of a fun trivia answer, it starts with the simplest, least glamorous thing in the NBA:
Show up at home. Play hard. Do your job.
