Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Brooklyn Nets
Date: December 27th, 2025
Time: 7:00 PM CST
Location: Target Center
Television Coverage: FanDuel Sports Network – North
Radio Coverage: Wolves App, iHeart Radio
The Wolves, the Grinch, and the Coal in Our Stockings: How Christmas Night Slipped Away and Why the Next Eight Games Might Define Their Season
For about thirty glorious, irrational, completely intoxicating seconds on Christmas night, Wolves fans felt like they were living inside of a snow globe.
The Timberwolves, buried for most of the fourth quarter against Denver, somehow conjured a miracle. Anthony Edwards buried a corner three with one second remaining to force overtime. Denver fans were stunned. Social media lost its mind. Somewhere in Minnesota, at least three toddlers learned their first swear words from adults screaming at televisions.
Then the Wolves punched first in overtime, raced out to a nine-point lead, and the entire fanbase started doing that dangerous thing: future math. You know the kind — standings projections, seeding scenarios, “if we just close this out…” thoughts. It felt like one of those season-defining nights, the kind you circle in April and say, yeah, that’s when it turned.
And then Scott Foster and crew showed up like the Grinch in steel-toed boots.
What followed wasn’t just a loss. It was a slow-motion train wreck of momentum swings, baffling whistles, and the kind of ending that makes you stare at your wall for ten minutes afterward wondering why you emotionally invest in this sport. A reversed foul that turned Rudy Gobert’s free throws into his sixth. Two free throws now magically gifted to Nikola Jokic. An Anthony Edwards ejection. A game, clearly decided, that stretched on forever without ever feeling like actual basketball.
By the end, Wolves fans weren’t angry. They were hollow. The kind of hollow where your Christmas cookies go stale on the counter while you just sit there.
And yet, despite all the shenanigans from the zebras, Minnesota still mostly lost that game themselves.
Yes, the referees mattered. There’s no way around that. Gobert fouled out in just 34 minutes after finishing with a game-best +18 on the floor. The Wolves were visibly different every time he headed to the bench. The defensive backbone cracked. The paint opened. The entire geometry of the game shifted.
But the Wolves didn’t lose this game just because of the whistle. They lost it across dozens of small decisions: lazy closeouts that turned into wide-open Denver threes, defensive possessions taken off, and the same offensive sin that’s haunted them all season with poor situational awareness when the game demands discipline.
Overtime was the microcosm. Minnesota had a nine-point lead. That should be the game. That should be curtains. Instead, possessions turned frantic. Edwards, who was spectacular in the 4th and to start OT, began chasing hero shots. Ill-advised threes replaced rim attacks. High-percentage looks vanished. Denver, meanwhile, calmly ran offense like a team that’s been through this movie before.
And then there was the three-point shooting. 12-for-45. Thirty-three misses.
Thirty-three.
At some point, the postgame autopsy doesn’t get to hide behind officiating. Cause of death is staring right at us: when the Wolves go cold from three, the whole machine breaks down.
The superstar math also didn’t add up for Minnesota.
If you’d been told pregame that Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle would combine for 76 points, you’d assume Minnesota controlled the night. Instead, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray answered with 91, including a mind-bending 56 from Jokic that felt less like a performance and more like a lecture on basketball inevitability.
Not to pat myself on the back (0k, I will), but the preview nailed it: whichever duo imposed itself would likely win. Denver’s did. Minnesota’s was brilliant, but just not dominant enough.
That’s what makes this loss sting. It wasn’t just winnable. It was in their hands.
Had they closed it, the Wolves would be sitting in the four-seed, breathing down Denver’s neck for the three, with daylight between themselves and the pack. Instead, they handed Denver the tiebreaker, created separation in the standings, and turned what should’ve been a launching point into another reminder of how thin the margin is between “contender” and “frustratingly unfinished.”
Here’s the part that matters now: the season didn’t end on Christmas.
In fact, the league schedule gods have given Minnesota something close to a gift to finish out 2025. Brooklyn at home, then Chicago and Atlanta on the road. Three sub-.500 teams. The exact kind of stretch this version of the Wolves has built its identity on: handle business, stack wins, stabilize the season.
If Minnesota wins those three, they will end the calendar on a 13–3 run. Stretch it further into 2026 and they’ve got a date with the Wizards, two with Miami, and two with Cleveland. None of these teams are in the NBA’s upper eschelon. If Minnesota handles its business, suddenly you’re talking about a Wolves team that’s very quietly positioned itself among the West’s serious threats despite two months of turbulence.
That opportunity only exists if they respond correctly.
Keys to the Game
1. Punch Brooklyn Early and Don’t Let Them Believe
This Brooklyn team is young, inconsistent, and fragile. They do not want to be in a real fight. The Wolves’ biggest enemy here is their own tendency to “play with their food”, drift through the first half, conserve energy, and let inferior teams hang around until the fourth quarter. That cannot happen. Minnesota needs to impose itself immediately with defensive pressure, physicality, and pace. If Brooklyn is still hanging around at halftime, the Wolves have already failed their first test.
2. Keep Feeding the Rudy Monster
Rudy Gobert has been on one of the quietest impactful stretches of his Wolves career. The box score doesn’t always scream it, but the paint belongs to him when he’s on the floor. Brooklyn simply does not have the size or strength to deal with Gobert consistently, especially when he’s paired with Julius Randle crashing from the weak side. This needs to be a night where Minnesota punishes Brooklyn on the glass, controls the rim, and forces the Nets to collapse, opening up everything else offensively.
3. Reset the Three-Point Shot Without Forcing It
Christmas was the latest reminder of how thin the Wolves’ margin becomes when the threes aren’t falling. But this isn’t about jacking up attempts until something sticks. It’s about restoring offensive rhythm: drive-and-kick action, extra passes, letting the defense collapse, and generating clean looks. Brooklyn is exactly the kind of opponent that allows a team to find that flow again if the Wolves stay patient.
4. Use This Game to Grow the Bench
This is a perfect opportunity for Chris Finch to expand the rotation with purpose. Jaylen Clark’s defensive pressure changes games when he’s on the floor. Terrence Shannon Jr. needs to find his summer league form again. Rob Dillingham’s development matters, especially on nights when Mike Conley’s legs struggle against quicker guards. Games like this aren’t just about winning. They’re about building options for April.
5. Edwards and Randle Must Set the Tone
This team goes as its two stars go. Period. Their urgency, their body language, their seriousness dictates the emotional temperature of the entire roster. If Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle come out attacking, locked in, and physical, the Wolves will follow. There is no excuse for this game being close in the fourth quarter if their leaders do their jobs.
Closing
The Wolves can’t fix Christmas. That game is gone, the standings damage is done, and the coal is already in the stocking.
What they can do is decide what the next eight games become. This stretch, starting with Brooklyn, is sitting there waiting to be claimed. Handle business, stack wins, and suddenly the Wolves flip the page into 2026 as one of the West’s most dangerous teams again.
And, of course, there’s one more layer to this one. This isn’t just another game on the schedule, it’s the final time the Wolves take the floor at Target Center in 2025. It’s their chance to make this year feel complete in front of their own people. If this team is serious about flipping the page after the chaos of Christmas, then tonight is the night to show it. Walk off that floor with a win, give the Wolves faithful something to carry into the new year, and leave 2025 in this building on a note that actually feels like the start of something.
Because if 2026 is Minnesota’s year, it just might be.
