The Minnesota Timberwolves opened their home schedule Friday night looking every bit like a team that’s come out of the gate with a point to make.
Target Center had the kind of buzz that comes with a long-awaited return home, and the Wolves fed off it. They rolled past the Toronto Raptors by 23 points, making it three straight wins to start the season and all three by at least 20. For now, the early picture is pretty clear: the good has been loud, and the bad has barely shown its face.
Still, Friday gave the Wolves a clean look at both sides of that coin.
The biggest issue came fast when LaMelo Ball ran into foul trouble almost immediately. He picked up his second foul just two minutes into the game, then got his third less than a minute into the second quarter after sitting the rest of the first. That left him with only four first-half minutes, and it forced Chris Finch to patch together the final 11 minutes before halftime with lineups that weren’t exactly standard.
That’s where Minnesota’s depth started to matter. The Wolves leaned into bench-heavy groupings and got real production from Ayo Dosunmu and Terrence Shannon Jr., two players who looked fully comfortable in bigger roles.
Dosunmu handled a lot of the first-half point guard duties while Ball was stuck on the bench. His line - nine points and three assists - doesn’t jump off the page, but the offense kept moving when he was on the floor. Night after night, he keeps looking like exactly the kind of trade-deadline pickup the Timberwolves hoped he’d be, and Friday was another reminder that he belongs in the rotation’s core.
Shannon Jr. was even more impactful. He finished with 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting, hit three shots from deep, and brought strong defense all game long.
With the starting group already looking sharp from the preseason into the regular season, the question was whether the bench could hold up. On this night, it absolutely did.
The one blemish that kept showing up was on the glass. Minnesota again had problems with offensive rebounds when Rudy Gobert was off the floor, just as it had throughout the preseason.
Toronto collected nine offensive rebounds in the first half alone, and seven of them came while Gobert was on the bench. Too often, the Raptors got second chances on the same possession while the Wolves were undersized or simply out of position.
The roster doesn’t offer many obvious answers there. Jonathan Kuminga, Jaden McDaniels, and Trey Lyles have all been solid rebounders for their size, but none projects as a true defensive rebounding anchor. Joan Beringer is the best rebounder among the bench options, though his strength is more on the offensive glass, and at 19, the sophomore is still learning the finer points of defensive rebounding in the NBA.
Even so, the issue did not define the night. Minnesota was able to keep the damage in check after the first half, and through the first three games, the team has mostly avoided getting buried by it.
That’s the larger takeaway so far. Every good team has something it needs to monitor before it becomes a real problem. For the Timberwolves, early on, that something appears to be defensive rebounding.
In Other News...
Timberwolves Face An Early Test With One Key Piece Missing
The Timberwolves get an early season measuring stick Sunday night at Target Center, where they host Toronto in a matchup that has plenty of preseason intrigue even before the opening tip. It is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will be carried on NBA TV, DAZN-MIN, TSN and TSN+, giving both teams a national stage as they settle into the new year.
Minnesota will have to navigate it without Donte DiVincenzo, a notable absence from the rotation as the Wolves try to protect home court against a Raptors team listed as a small underdog. Toronto also has a key injury note of its own, with Nate Bittle ruled out, but the bigger question for Minnesota is how it handles the missing wing depth against a conference opponent that can make a game uncomfortable if the pace gets away from them. [Read more 🡒]
Naz Reid Is Making The Wolves Regret What They Lost
Naz Reids move out of Minnesota always came with some context. The Timberwolves had enough frontcourt depth to keep his role narrower than his talent might have suggested, and in Charlotte he has quickly looked like a player with more to offer when given a larger lane. As a starter, he has bumped up his production across the board compared with his Minnesota seasons, giving the Hornets a more complete version of the big man Wolves fans only saw in flashes.
For Minnesota, the early returns are hard to ignore because Reid is showing he can handle a heavier offensive and playmaking load while still impacting the glass. It is the sort of development that can make a front office rethink how much it was willing to part with, especially in a deal built around LaMelo Ball and a reshuffling of the Wolves roster core. Reid is proving the opportunity mattered, and the question now is how long Charlotte can keep getting that version of him. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Hot Start Is Already Creating A Real Rotation Battle
The early wins have done more than give the Timberwolves a good feeling around the building. They have also turned the back end of Chris Finchs rotation into a real day-to-day puzzle, with the coach still sorting through how different bench pieces fit alongside a team that has come out playing with purpose. Trey Lyles, Bones Hyland and Jaylen Clark have all been part of that conversation, each bringing a different skill set while Finch keeps mixing and matching based on matchups and game flow.
Bones Hylands first non-garbage-time appearance of the season in Orlando was another reminder that nothing is settled yet, and his eight minutes only added to the sense that Finch is still searching for the right balance. The Timberwolves have enough momentum to buy some patience, but the competition for roles is already tightening, especially with multiple reserves trying to separate themselves before the rotation starts to harden. [Read more 🡒]