Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Houston Rockets
Date: July 19th, 2025
Time: 4:30 PM CDT
Location: Pavilion, Las Vegas, NV
Television Coverage: NBA TV<\/p>\n
Let me set the scene.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re 4-0 in Summer League. You\u2019ve got one of the most talented rosters in Vegas. You do everything right. You win. You play defense. You give your bored fanbase something to talk about and a reason to get excited. <\/p>\n
And what\u2019s your reward?<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t even get a chance to play for the Summer League title.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. Thanks to the NBA\u2019s tie-breaking formula, your undefeated Timberwolves are heading to the Summer League Consolation Dumpster while four other 4-0 teams get to battle for the banner.<\/p>\n
Now, I know what you\u2019re thinking. \u201cIt\u2019s just Summer League. Who cares?\u201d But let me tell you something:<\/p>\n
WE CARE.<\/p>\n
This is Minnesota sports. Do you know how long it\u2019s been since the Wolves sniffed a trophy of any kind? We\u2019ll take any hardware we can get. Mini Larry O\u2019Brien replica? Bring it. A Summer League chip? Engrave it. A plaque from Vegas that just says \u201cNice Try\u201d? We\u2019ll hang it next to the 2004 Midwest Division banner like it\u2019s the Sistine Chapel ceiling.<\/p>\n
And look, I\u2019m not saying the Wolves are the best Summer League team. But they\u2019re definitely not the worst 4-0 squad. The Kings? Raptors? The Hornets? Come on. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the kicker: the team that just won the actual NBA championship, Oklahoma City, gets a tiebreaker over us. I\u2019m sorry, but if you hoisted the real Larry O\u2019Brien last month, you should politely bow out of a Summer League tie-breaker by default. Let the rest of us eat, Thunder Nation. You already took the good stuff.<\/p>\n
And don\u2019t even get me started on point differential. You know how we break ties in pickup basketball? We shoot free throws. You know how we break ties in Madden? We rematch. You know how we break ties in Vegas? We flip a chip, play rock-paper-scissors, or ask whoever\u2019s closest to the table wearing sunglasses to make a call. But this? Rewarding teams for running up the score in glorified scrimmages? Malarkey. Absolute garbage. It\u2019s like judging a pizza contest by crust crispiness instead of flavor. Sure, it matters\u2026 but that\u2019s not the point.<\/p>\n
Anyway. Rant over. Mostly.<\/p>\n
The Timberwolves close out Summer League against the 0-4 Rockets. So yeah\u2014Minnesota should win this one. Go 5-0. Drop the mic. Walk off the court like Jordan in \u201998.<\/p>\n
As for the game itself?<\/p>\n
Terrence Shannon Jr. could potentially sit yet again. And I get it. He\u2019s dominated for three games straight and already looks like the kind of guy who could torch a second unit for 14 points in 12 minutes in March. Why risk a twisted ankle just to score on another future G Leaguer? He\u2019s passed the test. Put the man on ice and let him get ready for real rotation minutes in October.<\/p>\n
Rob Dillingham, on the other hand? Fire up the projector, let\u2019s roll film. We need to see more. Because right now, he\u2019s the only real point guard option behind Mike Conley. Dilly looked solid against the Suns\u2014good pace, creative passes. If he can keep limiting turnovers and hitting floaters, we might be cooking with gas.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Joan Beringer. He\u2019s everywhere\u2014rebounding, contesting shots, making the right pass. You know how you watch a game and your buddy keeps pointing at one guy like, \u201cThat dude just gets it\u201d? That\u2019s Beringer. He just gets it. <\/p>\n
So yeah, no title game. No banner. No champagne-filled water bottles. But that doesn\u2019t mean this Summer League didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
We saw growth. We saw glimpses. We saw talent. And for a team that\u2019s trying to finally make a real run in 2025\u201326, that matters.<\/p>\n
Let the Kings or Raptors or whoever go celebrate in a glorified high school gym. We\u2019ll take the 5-0 record, the development curve, and a whole lot of optimism back to Minnesota.<\/p>\n
And when Joan Beringer blocks Nikola Jokic in April or Rob Dillingham torches the Lakers\u2019 second unit in February, remember where it all started:<\/p>\n
Vegas. Summer League. The team that got screwed.<\/p>\n
But looked damn good doing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Houston RocketsDate: July 19th, 2025Time: 4:30 PM CDTLocation: Pavilion, Las Vegas, NVTelevision Coverage: NBA TV…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,1076,28,1077,292,194,4066,2501,6,3494,1366,211,3166,308,1369,143],"class_list":{"0":"post-181312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-canis","10":"tag-front-page","11":"tag-hoopus","12":"tag-houston","13":"tag-houston-rockets","14":"tag-houstonrockets","15":"tag-league","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-summer-league","18":"tag-preview","19":"tag-rockets","20":"tag-summer","21":"tag-timberwolves","22":"tag-timberwolves-game-previews","23":"tag-vs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114880024807078174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}