On Sunday, a Big Ten team won the NCAA women's basketball tournament championship for the first time since all the way back in 1999, with conference newcomer UCLA thumping South Carolina 79-51.

Tonight at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the league will hope a similarly long drought will come to a merciful end.

Michigan men's basketball's matchup against UConn in the championship game of the 2026 NCAA Tournament is more than just an opportunity for the Wolverines to earn their second championship (and first since 1989) and for coach Dusty May to complete one of the more remarkable turnarounds in the history of the sport.

REQUIRED READING: 5 reasons Michigan will beat UConn for national championship — and one reason it won't

For all the Big Ten's money, influence and power in the broader world of college athletics, the conference hasn't seen one of its men's basketball programs win an NCAA championship since all the way back in 2000. Since then, UConn, Michigan's opponent on Monday night, has won five national championships by itself.

The Atlanta Hawks, ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference, will host the New York Knicks, who are ranked third in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta is favored with a -1.5 spread and a moneyline of -120.

How to watch New York Knicks vs. Atlanta Hawks

• Date: Monday, April 6

• Time: 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT

• Where: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, Georgia

• TV Channels: Peacock, NBCSN

• Live Stream:NBA League Pass | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Team records

• New York Knicks: 50-28 (#2 in Eastern Atlantic)

• Atlanta Hawks: 45-33 (#1 in Eastern Southeast)

Odds (via BetMGM)

• Spread: Atlanta Hawks -1.5

• Moneyline: Atlanta Hawks -120 (52.2%) / New York Knicks +100 (47.8%)

• Over/Under: 227.5

With just over two minutes left in the third quarter of last Friday’s Sixers-Timberwolves game, Andre Drummond ambled to the scorer’s table. Nothing out of the ordinary about that. The Sixers’ backup center was surely about to give Joel Embiid a break.

Except he wasn’t. 

Drummond, who to that point had not played in the game, checked in not for Embiid, but for forward Dominick Barlow. That meant that for a short stretch the Sixers used a Ralph Sampson/Hakeem Olajuwon-style Twin Towers lineup. In the year 2026.

It proved pivotal. The Sixers, up two when Drummond entered, pushed their lead to 12 by period’s end. And with Drummond still on the floor as Embiid rested to start the fourth quarter, the Sixers went up by as many as 17 en route to a 115-103 victory.

The lineup was an anomaly, having been seen for just 15 possessions all season entering the game, per Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports. And it is unlikely to be seen again. But the fact that Nick Nurse used it at all is illustrative of how adaptable an NBA coach has to be, particularly one who has faced as many rotational obstacles as Nurse has faced this season. And particularly now, with four games left and playoff seeding at stake.

Nurse has more players at his disposal than he has in weeks, now that Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Kelly Oubre Jr. have returned from their injuries and Paul George is back from his suspension (and despite the fact that Cameron Payne has been lost with a hamstring injury). That obviously gives him more options as his team attempts to navigate a closing stretch that includes visits to San Antonio, Houston and Indiana before the finale next Sunday at home against Milwaukee.

In other words, the Sixers, who enter the week 43-35 and sixth in the East (i.e., in the final non-play-in spot), face two playoff teams (one, the Spurs, with championship aspirations) and two teams already booked for Cancun.

Given Philadelphia’s position – a tie-breaker ahead of Toronto (also 43-35), with Charlotte (43-36) and Orlando (42-36) looming as well – everything is magnified. Every potential advantage must be exploited. Which is why Nurse would do well to be as creative as possible.

When asked about the Drummond-Embiid pairing following last Friday’s game, Nurse said it had been in the back of his mind going in, given the fact that Minnesota often plays two bigs in Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert. Even so, Nurse was prepared to insert Drummond for Embiid before Embiid packed seven of his 19 points into a two-minute, 43-second stretch.

“And,” Nurse said, “I just decided to flip that (i.e., yank Barlow instead). So it wasn’t totally against some pregame thoughts, and it just kind of presented itself there. And obviously it’s one of those lineups that I’ve been wanting to look at a little bit here down the stretch as well.”

Drummond, plus-11 in 9:04, finished with four points, six rebounds, a block and a steal. And he said he wasn’t surprised by the move, even though Nurse has more often used another big, Adem Bona, in tandem with Embiid.

“I just didn’t know it was happening today,” Drummond said.

Nor, he added, did he find it particularly difficult to play alongside another big.

“I mean, I’m not sure how much basketball you’ve watched,” he told a lone visitor to his locker, who first covered an NBA game in 1981, “but I’ve played with seven-footers half my career – from 2012 to about 2017, when the Warriors started changing the game. So it’s not something I’m not used to. I know how to space the floor. I know how to guard. I know how to give guys like Joel the freedom to play his game without being in the way, and I can rebound the ball while he’s doing his thing.”

For one night, at least, necessity had proven to be the mother of invention. And the invention hummed off the assembly line. It wouldn’t have worked the following night against the young, fleet Pistons, when Drummond started, Embiid sat and Detroit won by 23. But it worked Friday.

The point, again, is that flexibility and experimentation are not the worst things, even at this point in the season. Maybe especially at this point in the season. Nurse has also shown that by starting Barlow and bringing Oubre off the bench since Oubre returned March 28, after missing eight games with a knee injury.

In the coach’s estimation, Barlow does his best work while playing with Embiid. The flip side is that Oubre has made it clear more than once that he prefers to start.

“I like to set the tone,” he said Friday, “but at the end of the day, that’s above me. I’m still a hooper, so I just go out there and hoop.”

In fact, he added, he views himself as “a Swiss Army Knife, for being able to pull out anything, out (of) the pocket. So we’ll continue to just take it day by day and just figure it out.”

Or let Nurse do so.

“I think we’re experimenting,” Oubre said. “You know, I couldn’t do Coach’s job. I tell him that all the time. So I think he’s just trying to figure out the best formula to win in the postseason.”

Nurse admitted before Friday’s game that while it sounds “really cool” to say that he’s solidifying his rotation down the stretch, the reality is very different. He wants to explore different options, wants to see how things shake out. (Example: He started Oubre on Saturday against Detroit, an inconsequential move considering the veteran forward scored three points as the Pistons rolled.)

“I think we’ve still got a lot of room for growth,” Nurse said, adding that there are “two or three ideas that as a staff we’re kicking around that we think might be advantageous, depending on who we play.”

So yes, it’s late. But it’s not too late to tinker, given the way the season has played out and all the absences the Sixers have endured. Nurse would love to believe that there’s something more within his team, and that it can be unearthed in short order. It’s just a matter of continuing to poke around, continuing to dig deep.

Final week of regular-season play for your New York Knickerbockers.

Would you believe it!? Looks like yesterday when we projected the team to win 50-plus games this season, and look at the boys now.

Do you know what else we projected for the playoffs? Uh, oh, time to get frisky!

Mike Brown

On recent losses to playoff teams entering a tough four-game stretch:

“You gotta give Charlotte, Oklahoma City and Houston credit, they played well. I said it postgame, we did not play well in some areas. … We didn’t play well in those three games and we deserved to lose, as much as you hate to say it. And hopefully we’ll play better going forward because we’ve got a couple of teams above .500, so we’ll see.”

On the Knicks’ playoff readiness:

“You always want your team to be playing at the highest of high cylinders. Do I think we’re there right now? No. Do I have belief in this team? Yes, I do. I’ve seen us play really good basketball throughout the course of the year. Even in games where there’s quote-unquote manufactured pressure (such as the NBA Cup). We’ve played really good basketball. I like what we have in that locker room and I like the things that we’ve done this year, but I expect more from myself first and everybody else second.”

On trusting the Knicks performing under the bright lights:

“All games you want to win, but when you go into Boston, it’s different than maybe going into another arena. Or if you go into OKC, it’s different than going into another arena. Those types of games, there’s a lot of manufactured pressure just because they’re good teams and it’s on national TV and all that good stuff. So to get that (environment) and to be able to perform at a pretty good level – you embrace that opportunity. You want to win all games, but to win those games – our guys have done (well) in those situations over the course of the year. So my belief is, (with) this group going into the playoffs when it’s real, that our guys will rise to the occasion.”

On his planned backup guard rotation:

“I went with the combination of Landry (Shamet) and (Miles McBride) as the backup point guards. We got those two guys out there; I wanted to take a look at that. Jose has done a fantastic job for us, but part of it is that we haven’t had a lot of healthy guards. Jose stepped in and did a nice job. (McBride) is getting healthier, and Landry is getting healthy. I’m trying to find minutes for those guys, because those guys are capable of playing that spot. That’s going to be a priority for me, because they’ve proven themselves for us.”

On OG Anunoby’s recent stretch:

“That’s who he is, in my opinion. He’s an All-Star player. He’s definitely first-team All-Defense, and he’s just showing what he’s capable of because he’s just imposing his will on the game. When he does that with the talent and [feel for the game] that he has, he’s an All-Star-caliber player.”

On Landry Shamet’s playmaking ability:

“He’s a good enough ball handler, he has a good enough feel/IQ to initiate the offense. And then conceptually, because of his feel and the other guys’ feel, we’re able to generate some things offensively. We’re not relying on him to be a traditional point guard. He and Deuce are more than capable of doing the things that we’re asking in terms of initiating the offense. And then at the end of the day, can they play pick-and-roll, can they play the game, get downhill and spray the ball or throw the lob to a guy like Mitch? I think he can.”

Josh Hart

On the final four-game stretch:

“For us, I think it’s just making sure we’re locked in and focused. Obviously, this is a good little stretch to end the season to make sure we’re as sharp as we can be going into the playoffs. The past is the past, nothing you can do about it now. Our focus is on tomorrow being 1–0 against playoff teams, and then we move on to the next one, and then we want to be 1–0, and then we want to move onto the next one and be 1–0. Nothing in the past really matters. It’s about what we do moving forward that we’ll be judged on and what we judge ourselves on.”

On flipping a switch in the playoffs:

“It’s not something you can just flip a switch in the playoffs and say, ‘OK the playoffs are here, let’s go out there and do our thing,’ We gotta make sure that we take these next four games as serious as we can, make sure we lock in mentally and physically to what the game plan is and to what this team wants to do moving forward and execute.”

On OG Anunoby’s impact:

“He’s one of the best two-way players in the league. He’s someone who on any given day can go out and score 25. It makes us more dynamic because obviously you have to game-plan for Jalen Brunson. We got Karl-Anthony Towns you have to game-plan for. And you have to game-plan for someone like OG, so it adds another element to our offense. When he’s locked in offensively and defensively, he’s one of the best two-way players in the league.”

On Anunoby’s aggressiveness:

“He’s starting to fully understand his areas where he can be aggressive within the offense and within the flow of the game. And that’s one thing about Mike. Mike never tells us not to do something. He wants us to be aggressive. He wants us to shoot shots. He doesn’t really put limits on us. And I think OG is really starting to understand, ‘OK, where can I be aggressive? And where can I find my spots to go score?’ He’s an efficient scorer. Physical, athletic. So he’s starting to understand that.”

Landry Shamet

On the importance of the Knicks’ late-season stretch:

“It’s a challenging stretch that not a lot of people talk about. This last stretch of the season, these last few games, you’re kind of gearing up for the playoffs, you know what you’re building for, but you gotta be here and locked in each night, each team, each challenge in front of you. I think it’s more about approaching each game with the right mentality. Make it more about us than who we’re playing. We’re working on something bigger and building for something bigger, keeping that top of mind while still taking each game seriously and approaching them as you should.”

On his Knicks opportunity:

“I don’t take these moments for granted, man. This thing’s delicate, I know that. It’s a special team, special market, special opportunity and just to wear the jersey even. I’m grateful and happy to be a part of this group and have Mike’s trust and my teammates’ trust. I trust in them as well. Super grateful for it.”

Miles McBride

On returning in time for the playoffs:

“Everything, honestly. It’s a tough thing to be out so long, having a surgery in the middle of the season.”

On his recovery process:

“It’s really just a part of the recovery process. It’s just kind of like a tweak, and it’s a painful tweak. It’s not necessarily as bad, it’s just sometimes you can’t really do anything about it. It’s like someone stabbing your groin, hip and ab at the same time. It’s not fun. But I’ll get back right.”

OG Anunoby

On Jordy McClarkson’s healing powers:

“Jordan healed my wrist. It was crazy. I’m very thankful.”

The 27th pick and last first rounder chosen by the Nets in the 2025 Draft spoke to Brian Lewis about his progress this year. The 6’11”, 255-pound Yale and Michigan product was declared out of the season following a sprained ankle on March 22.

As Lewis noted, Wolf had fallen in the draft due to concerns about his defense and shooting. The final ESPN mock draft of 2025 had him pegged at No. 16. His final numbers were 8.9 points and 4.9 rebounds but only 32.2% from deep, not a bad performance for a late first round pick. Indeed, only one player taken after him — Maxine Reynaud, taken at No. 42 by the Kings, put up better numbers: 12.5 points and 7.5 rebounds. It can be argued, of course, that Hugo Gonzales, who was taken immediately after him, looked like a better prospect but in the end, the Celtic wing averaged 3.8 points and 3.3 rebounds. Knick fans will argue Mohammed Diawara, their 51st pick last year, also had a better year, but his time on the court was limited as well and he finished with averages of 3.6 points and 1.3 rebounds

That said, Wolf told Lewis he knows where he has to improve, starting with finishing, so to speak.

“Defensively, there were definitely a lot of people questioning who I’d be able to guard. I took that as a chip on my shoulder to more than prove, but be a good defender,” said Wolf.

“The shooting and the offense, it was nowhere near what I know I’m capable of doing and that upsets me. I was able to shoot well at times, and there’d be times where I felt I couldn’t make a shot. That’s a rookie season; there’s going to be ups and downs.”

The problem was while he often got where he wanted, his ups didn’t translate. His 24-inch standing vertical was tied for third worst at the NBA Draft Combine and it showed. Indeed, his 54% finishing rate put him in the 12th percentile of NBA players.

“Everyone’s bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic [at this level],” said Wolf. “What is it that you need to do to be able to match that, but also be better than that?

“A lot of it is getting stronger. And the positive outlook of an injury [is] I’ve been able to really hone in on the weight room more than I would’ve been able to if I was playing.”

So, Wolf knows where he’ll be once he gets healthy.

“I have a good four or five months of weight room ahead of me and just being able to fill out my frame better. That’ll really help me, just getting stronger; and with that, more explosive. And I know my rim finishing next year, I’ll be able to look back on this year and see that it was something that really, really helped me.”

Jordi Fernandez likes what Wolf has done so far and believes he can get better.

“[H]e’s done a great job and he’s been able to implement a lot of stuff, power through, because you have better balance, finding a body first. This all comes with a lot of work, watching film and through the summer and then the real reps. So the process [has] already started. He’s already gotten better. We’re not concerned about his finishing. We know it has to get better, but we also know it will get better.”

Wolf added that he’s also looking forward to winning.

“Obviously losing sucks, and every time you ask anyone, they’re going to give you the same answer that losing is no fun.” Wolf said. “Everyone in the locker room from top to bottom thinks we could’ve had a much better season. But within that, you have to find things you can learn from, that you can gain from.”

• Nets’ Danny Wolf already working to fix his game’s Achilles’ heel after season-ending injury – Brian Lewis – New York Post

The 2026 men's college basketball season ends tonight. Will it end with a third UConn national title in four years? Or will it end with the Big Ten finally getting a national championship after a long 26-year drought?

Dan Hurley has the Huskies on the cusp of a dynasty, while Dusty May's Michigan team is on a historic run of its own, crushing March Madness opponents on its way to tonight's title game in Indianapolis.

More: 5 reasons Michigan will beat UConn for national championship — and one reason it won't

Can UConn beat Michigan? Huskies have a better chance than you think

Here's what you need to know for tonight's national championship game between the Huskies and Wolverines, including predictions and how to watch.

The Knicks have been swimming upstream for almost two years.

They have won 50 games the last two seasons and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, despite trotting out a starting lineup that has produced diminishing returns.

The unit, which features Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, and Karl-Anthony Towns, has been middling at best. The five-man group is outscoring opponents by just 0.7 points per 100 possession this season. 

At this point, we’ve seen enough. The starting unit has played 494 minutes together this season, the third-highest in the NBA. Last season, it was the most used five-man lineup in the NBA, hitting the court for 960 minutes.

Initially, the starting five looked elite. Through the first three months of the 2024-25 season, the combination was outscoring teams by 6.6 points per 100 possessions in 561 minutes. But those numbers dropped by the end of the season. The playoffs saw the group reach its nadir. The starters were outscored by 6.2 points per 100 possessions in 335 minutes together.

Former Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau opted to change the starting lineup during the middle of the Eastern Conference Finals last season, inserting center Mitchell Robinson for Hart after Game 2. New York began this season with Robinson in the starting lineup, but went back to Hart quickly.

Thibodeau’s replacement Mike Brown went to Robinson as a starter initially before going back to Hart after an injury to Anunoby in November. New York has gone back to the original five-man unit ever since.

Slow starts

There are several factors contributing to why the lineup hasn’t thrived. Opponents discovered that they can put a wing on Towns while having their center guard Hart. It has mucked up the paint, and disrupted New York’s offensive flow.

Hart is having a career year from three, making 40.9 percent of his attempts. But he can still be a reluctant shooter. Opponents are willing to live with him launching from deep rather than letting Brunson or Towns go one-on-one in the paint. Bridges has also been in a slump recently, creating even more issues.

New York’s defense has been better recently. But over the two seasons, there have been some spells of inconsistency. The starting lineup has also been a mess in the first quarter, which has contributed to the team’s recent trend of slow starts.

The Knicks fell behind, 14-1, in the first few minutes of their 111-94 loss to the Houston Rockets last week.

New York’s starting five has a negative 8.1 net rating in the opening quarter. In the other three quarters, the Knicks are much better. They are a plus-9.8 points per 100 possessions in the fourth quarter.

Options for a change

The Knicks have a few options as replacements. The club can use guards Miles McBride or Landry Shamet. They can go big with Robinson, too.

We haven’t seen much of Robinson as a starter with Towns since the first month of the season, since Robinson hasn’t played back-to-back games this season. In 51 minutes with Robinson in place of Hart, the Knicks have a plus-12.4 points per 100 possessions.

All of these previously mentioned lineups have played so little together that it’s hard to know which ones would actually work.

All of the results of the past two years have shown that this Knicks starting lineup is unlikely to have a turnaround. But there are just four games left in the regular season. With a team gearing up for the playoffs, it sounds unrealistic to make a change this late.

It seems as if Brown will be following a similar path as his predecessor. The most likely scenario will be a starting lineup alteration as a response to falling behind in a playoff series, which could be an impediment to New York’s playoff hopes.

It got interesting at times, but the Milwaukee Bucks mostly dominated the tanktastic Memphis Grizzlies, 131-115. As Deolu put it in his rapid recap, this was the Bucks’ their first win against Memphis since January 2022, which is crazy to think about. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast, Bucks In Six Minutes, below.

Player Grades

Kyle Kuzma

22 minutes, 4 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 turnovers, 2/3 FG, -4

Made some nice reads out of the short roll in the first quarter, and shot efficiently on extremely low volume, but the turnovers were still too high. Also got out-rebounded by smaller players on a few occasions.

Grade: C

Pete Nance

23 minutes, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2/4 FG, 0/1 3P, +23

Pete did most of his best work in the second half as a connector, making a few great passes in tight quarters to cutting teammates.

Grade: C+

Taurean Prince

23 minutes, 19 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 7/8 FG, 5/5 3P, +20

Rain, hail, or shine, TP remains one heck of a shooter. I mean, some of these three-point attempts were not easy, and he just nails them. Given his skill set, I think this might have been his best game of the year.

Grade: A+

Ryan Rollins

32 minutes, 24 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 10/16 FG, 4/7 3P, +0

Rollins was clinical, getting to his spots, working in the pick-and-roll, and taking what the defence gave him. He also had some ridiculous ambidextrous finishes around the rim. Can’t say enough about his development this year.

Grade: A-

Myles Turner

21 minutes, 19 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 6/13 FG, 1/4 3P, -3

Finished around the rim decently (as he should, considering he was the biggest and tallest player out there by some margin). Also got four O-boards because of that height, along with four stocks. Great production on those fronts. Still, got exposed a few times moving his feet on the perimeter against fringe NBA players.

Grade: B-

Ousmane Dieng

31 minutes, 17 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 turnovers, 6/15 FG, 1/4 3P, +8

Not the best game from Ous, who failed to make much of an impact. He certainly had moments of brilliance—such as his full-court outlet pass to Cormac Ryan—but failed to put it together from a scoring standpoint. You want to see him succeed with the ball in his hands to be a long-term player for this team.

Grade: C+

AJ Green

26 minutes, 6 points, 1 assist, 4 turnovers, 2/7 FG, 2/7 3P, +0

A nothing game from AJ. You wish he’d be more impactful against a team of G-Leaguers.

Grade: D

Jericho Sims

26 minutes, 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 6/7 FG, +19

Sims mostly did his job by playing off others, but he showed signs of savviness we hadn’t seen earlier this season. For example, he had a play where he faked the DHO and kept it, leading to the massive slam. Great to see that development.

Grade: B

Cormac Ryan

29 minutes, 21 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals, 7/8 FG, 3/4 3P, +19

Another great game from Cormac, who just keeps showing out. He made threes from both a standing start and on the move, but also did great work inside the arc; he spun for a dipsy-doo fadeaway, and also cut backdoor for the reverse layup. Also showed his stuff as an instinctual defender, racking up five steals.

Grade: A+

Doc Rivers

Thought Doc did a solid job coaching. I’ll echo Finn’s sentiment about Rivers getting the team to “play the right way,” which has been evident over the past two weeks, and honestly, really refreshing. No agendas, just a bunch of dudes playing for each other. Now, the opponent was tanking to a significant degree, but all Doc could do was put guys in position to succeed and get them to play in the way that best helped the team, and I thought he did. The Bucks won a game they should have won, and Doc played a key role.

Grade: B+

Garbage Time: Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo

Inactive: Kevin Porter Jr., Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis, Gary Trent Jr.

Bonus Bucks Bits

• Doc said that although the team is out of playoff contention, these games are meaningful for a lot of guys.
• On Cormac: “Great cutter, great IQ, better with the ball than we thought… and his hands have been everywhere. Very impressed with him.”
• Rivers highlighted how Ryan Rollins is doing his work “in the game flow” and not forcing anything.
• Ousmane Dieng, Rayan Rupert, and Adama Bal all grew up together in France and shared an NBA court in this one. Pretty cool moment.

Up Next

The Bucks are back in action on Tuesday night against yet another tanktastic team, the Brooklyn Nets. Catch the game at 6:30 p.m. CDT on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin.

This is the second part of a two-part season recap series. Read part one here.

With their season-long five-game losing streak in the rearview, the Minnesota looked to transform their team at the trade deadline. The Wolves did just that with a series of moves that traded away Mike Conley, Rob Dillingham, and Leonard Miller, while getting back Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips. They also re-signed Conley following his buyout with the Charlotte Hornets and reunited with Kyle Anderson, who was let go from the Memphis Grizzlies.

The roster shakeup breathed new life into a roster that had seemingly grown stale over the past few months and gave them desperately needed bench depth to use for both the stretch run of the regular season and the Playoffs.

Here are the top Post-All-Star break moments of the Timberwolves 2025-26 season.

The Vibes Were High Against the Raptors

The season of high-highs and low-lows continued into February for the Timberwolves. Following a 115-96 drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers, the Wolves started to put things together.

They won their final two games before the All-Star break, swept a three-game road trip where they beat the Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers, and Denver Nuggets, before capping off a stretch of seven wins in eight games at home in a 115-107 win over the Toronto Raptors.

The game was a professional victory for the Timberwolves. The game was tight the entire first half before the Wolves put their foot on the gas in the third quarter to take a double-digit lead. The ball movement was on point the entire game, and the defense was able to shut down the Raptors with Rudy Gobert dominating the paint, while also leading the team with five assists.

The vibes around the team seemed to be in as good a place as they had been in years. The trade deadline had passed, Ayo Dosunmu and Bones Hyland had transformed the Wolves bench into a quality unit, and the Wolves were up to third in the Western Conference standings for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

Like many times earlier in the season, it felt like the Wolves were finally putting everything together. Despite numerous stumbles throughout the season, the Timberwolves seemed primed to go on an extended winning streak. Instead, the opposite happened.

Rock Bottom in Los Angeles

The win against the Raptors, like many other wins before it, was not the spark that would propel the Timberwolves toward regular-season consistency. Rather, the Wolves lost three straight games by a combined 66 points.

It started at home in a 119-92 loss to the Orlando Magic. Next, a 120-106 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers in a game where Anthony Edwards shot 2-15 from the field. The third straight blowout came against the Clippers. The Wolves gave up 153 points, a Clippers franchise record for points scored in regulation.

The losing streak was rock bottom for the Timberwolves. It wasn’t just that they lost three games, all of which to above .500 teams; it was the way they lost them.

In the first two games, the Wolves’ offense completely disappeared. The ball movement had completely deserted them as Edwards, Julius Randle, and others over-dribbled the ball on countless possessions. The Lakers specifically baited Edwards into terrible shots, successfully shutting him down and the rest of the Timberwolves. Hitting a rough patch on one side of the ball for a couple of games would be one thing. The Wolves could pinpoint specific issues that needed to be solved and fix them.

While the Wolves did get their offense going the next night against the Clippers, their defense fell off a cliff.

Scoring just 92 points one game, only to give up 153 points just two games later, spoke to larger issues going on with the team beyond anything strategic or talent-based. It showcased a potential fatal flaw of a team unwilling or unable to provide a consistent performance night-to-night.

A Record-Setting Overtime Comeback

The most insane game of the season, and in recent memory at Target Center, came a week ago against the Houston Rockets. With Edwards and Dosunmu both out, the Timberwolves grabbed a 110-108 overtime victory in a game that won’t soon be forgotten.

The Wolves controlled the lead for most of the game and eventually built up an 11-point lead with less than four minutes left in the game. Just when it felt like the Wolves were going to cruise to a really solid win, the game took a turn toward the absurd.

Following an Alperen Şengün layup and a Timberwolves shot clock violation, Julius Randle ran over Şengün, who was setting a screen, for a foul. The play was upgraded to a flagrant foul for Randle, with crew chief Scott Foster saying Randle unnecessarily “launched” into Şengün on the play.

“I’ve never seen it before,” Finch said about the flagrant call on Randle. “They’re telling me they had a clear opportunity to avoid the screen. They said he sought him out to run him over. I’ve never seen a flagrant like that. He goes through a screen, they call a foul, fine. That’s clearly a foul. Play on. But a flagrant? I don’t know.”

The Rockets hit both flagrant free throws, scored on their next possession, and continued scoring to go on a 13-0 run to take the lead. Randle gave the Wolves the lead back with a bully ball layup in the paint before a Gobert away-from-the-play foul gave Kevin Durant the game-tieing free throw as well as the ball back, while also fouling Gobert out of the game.

With a chance to win the game, the Rockets turned the ball over, giving the Wolves the chance to win it on a Randle layup that was blocked by Şengün.

The game was insane enough, but that was only the beginning. The Rockets opened up overtime to score the first 13 points of overtime, with Naz Reid getting ejected in the middle of the run following a foul call on him not overturned.

The craziness did not stop there as the Wolves responded with the next 15 points with DiVincenzo knocking down the game-tying 3-pointer and Randle capping off the run with a midrange jumper to give the Wolves the lead. After a foul and a pair of missed free throws from Durant (one of which was intentional), the Wolves secured a win in one of the most insane games of the season.

In the hallway to the Timberwolves locker room, Randle shared his displeasure with the lead official, yelling out, “That shit didn’t work Scott Foster.”

The Timberwolves’ winning after trailing by 13 points in overtime was the largest overtime comeback since the NBA began tracking play-by-play data in 1996-97, as the Wolves avenged their nine-point overtime collapse to the Nuggets on Christmas.

Kevin Garnett Returns

The most memorable part of the Timberwolves regular season. On Friday, the Wolves announced that Kevin Garnett would be making his long-awaited return to Target Center during the team’s regular season finale on April 12th against the New Orleans Pelicans.

The announcement comes a couple of months after Garnett agreed to return to the organization in an ambassador role with a jersey retirement ceremony set to take place during the 2026-27 season, with ceremony details set to be released on a later date.

While the game itself might end up being anticlimactic, as the Wolves could potentially be locked into their seed for the Playoffs, the night itself is set to be one of the most memorable and cathartic moments in the history of Minnesota basketball. It’s been an excruciatingly long wait for Timberwolves fans to see their franchise icon back with the organization and pumping up the Target Center crowd yet again.

That wait is almost over.