Timberwolves Playoff Matchup on the Line Tonight

The Minnesota Timberwolves play against the New Orleans Pelicans tonight, in their 2025-26 regular season finale.

However, the results will not matter, since the Wolves have already been locked into the No. 6 seed in the 2026 Western Conference playoff bracket. That’s the same seed they held last postseason, before making their second-straight run to the West Finals.

Interestingly enough, they could very well land the same first round opponent as they did last postseason — the Los Angeles Lakers — who even after the shocking addition of Luka Doncic before the 2025 NBA trade deadline, stood no chance against the heavyweight Wolves, who knocked them out in just five games.

MN Timberwolves first round playoff opponent down to Nuggets or Lakers

This time around, while we’ve known the Timberwolves’ playoff seed for a few days, their opponent (3-seed) is still up in the air — between a playoff rematch vs the LA Lakers and Wolves’ postseason nemesis from the two prior playoffs — the Denver Nuggets.

Entering tonight’s slate of games, Denver sits one game up on Los Angeles. However, the Lakers hold the regular season tiebreaker between the two teams.

So, if LA wins tonight over an absolutely brutal (22-59) Utah Jazz team, and the Nuggets lose in San Antonio against the Spurs, then the Wolves will again get LeBron and an injured Luka in round one later this week.

Related: KG’s Return to Target Center is Here; Jersey Retirement Coming Soon

Of course, the outcome of that game won’t matter if the Nuggets take care of business tonight in San Antonio against the Spurs. From the sounds of it, neither Victor Wembanyama or Nikola Jokic will play. However, Jokic still needs one more game to qualify for postseason awards.

If you ask the sportsbooks who Minnesota will play in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs, they have a very definitive answer. Tonight, the Lakers are massive -13.5 point favorites. Meanwhile, in Texas, the Nuggets are huge +10.5 point underdogs against the Spurs.

While the games still need to be played… it looks like the Minnesota Timberwolves have a VERY good chance of getting the (likely) Luka Doncic-less Lakers, instead of the Nuggets in round one… which would be a big pre-playoff victory for our Wolves.

More About:Minnesota Timberwolves