{"id":698184,"date":"2026-04-04T17:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698184\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T17:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:58:21","slug":"ranking-the-difficulty-of-the-timberwolves-final-five-regular-season-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698184\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the Difficulty of the Timberwolves’ Final Five Regular Season Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Timberwolves are 46-31, and we’ve officially entered the home stretch of the regular season with just five games remaining. Minnesota is nearly locked into the sixth seed for the NBA Playoffs, but let’s rank the final five matchups.<\/p>\n

1. Friday, April 10: @ Houston Rockets<\/p>\n

The Rockets currently have a 48-29 record, and they’re fifth in the Western Conference standings. An early-round playoff matchup with the Wolves seems unlikely based on the current outlook, and they’ve split the season-long series 1-1 up to this point. The Wolves clearly have some fine-tuning to do before the postseason, and beating Houston could give them some confidence.<\/p>\n

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Apr 3, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. (10) reacts after a made basket against the Utah Jazz during the second quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-Imagn Images | Erik Williams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

2. Sunday, April 5: vs. Charlotte Hornets<\/p>\n

The Wolves’ penultimate home game of the regular season is on Sunday against the Hornets. They’ve quietly been a solid play-in team this season, led by potential rookie of the year Kon Knueppel. The Wolves have lost three of their last four games<\/a>, and Charlotte will be no pushover to break that streak on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

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Apr 3, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) during the first quarter against the Indiana Pacers at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

3. Wednesday, April 8: @ Orlando Magic<\/p>\n

Minnesota has lost its lone game against Orlando this season on March 7. The Magic have been relatively disappointing this season at 41-36, but they still present their fair share of challenges to any opponent. The Wolves’ Wednesday night matchup is the second night of a back-to-back, and it’s sandwiched between a pair of road games at Indiana and at Houston. It could be a tough ask to go into Orlando and leave with a win, but it could provide some much-needed momentum before the playoffs.<\/p>\n

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Mar 19, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs (4) drives to the basket during the third quarter against the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Brian Westerholt-Imagn Images | Brian Westerholt-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

4. Tuesday, April 7: @ Indiana Pacers<\/p>\n

The Pacers have struggled without star guard Tyrese Halliburton this season, and they’re set to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2022-23. The Timberwolves are nearly a lock to avoid the play-in tournament, but anything less than a win in Indiana would be a surprising result.<\/p>\n

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Apr 3, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Obi Toppin (1) tries for a three-point basket against Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller (24) during the first quarter at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

5. Sunday, April 12: vs. New Orleans Pelicans<\/p>\n

The Wolves have a great opportunity to end the regular season with a win at the Target Center against the 12th-place Pelicans. They surprisingly lost against New Orleans at home on Feb. 6, but won two earlier season matchups. The Pelicans are out of the playoff picture, so it’s another game where anything less than a win would be a disappointment for the Wolves. A 2-3 finish to the regular season feels like a bare minimum, and anything over would help generate some confidence. <\/p>\n

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Apr 3, 2026; Sacramento, California, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III (25) reacts after dunking against the Sacramento Kings during the third quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Timberwolves are 46-31, and we’ve officially entered the home stretch of the regular season with just five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,307,152,3954,6,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-698184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","11":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116347740821820158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698184","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=698184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}