{"id":714343,"date":"2026-04-20T02:03:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714343\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T02:03:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:03:56","slug":"timberwolves-132-126-pelicans-apr-12-2026-game-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714343\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves 132-126 Pelicans (Apr 12, 2026) Game Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS — \u2014 The Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> rested almost all their regulars for the playoffs during a 132-126 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> on Sunday, as franchise icon Kevin Garnett made a special appearance for fan appreciation night in the regular-season finale.<\/p>\n

With the Timberwolves locked into the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference and the Pelicans long ago eliminated, the main attraction was Garnett’s first visit to Target Center in eight years<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Hall of Fame forward and all-time franchise leader in nearly every major statistical category walked into the arena with Timberwolves co-owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez after player introductions, receiving a roar from the crowd and patting his heart with his hand. After giving current star Anthony Edwards<\/a> a bear hug, Garnett took his courtside seat.<\/p>\n

Garnett, who had a falling out with previous owner Glen Taylor after his career was over<\/a>, reached an agreement last year with the team to serve as an ambassador. His No. 21 jersey will be retired at a later date.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves (49-33) sat nine of their top 10 players, giving fan favorite Joe Ingles<\/a> a token start in a 15-point, 10-assist performance. Rookie forward Joan Beringer<\/a> had 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah Fears<\/a> had 36 points and 10 rebounds, and Derik Queen<\/a> added 30 points with a career-high 22 rebounds for the Pelicans (27-55), who got productive rookie years from their two first-round draft picks amid another injury-affected season. Fears played 82 games, and Queen played 81.<\/p>\n

Up next <\/p>\n

The Pelicans don’t have a first-round pick in the draft this year. Their first offseason priority is naming a head coach. Willie Green was fired after a 2-10 start<\/a>, and James Borrego took the interim role.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves will play the No. 3 seed Nuggets in a first-round playoff series starting in Denver on Saturday.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS — \u2014 The Minnesota Timberwolves rested almost all their regulars for the playoffs during a 132-126 victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-714343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanspelicans","14":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116434584455707773","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714343","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=714343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}