On Aug. 15, the NBA released its 2024-25 regular season schedule. Headlining the day for the Minnesota Timberwolves was the league rewarding them with 18 nationally televised games on TNT, ESPN, or ABC and another seven on NBA TV after the team’s historic rise to 56 regular season wins and reaching the Western Conference Finals last season.
When the NBA announces its schedule, there’s always a lot to unpack. Fans are primarily focused on the season and home opening games, the number of nationally televised matchups, and the fact that the Wolves will be playing on Christmas for the third time in franchise history. It can be overwhelming to pick apart the complete seven-month slate, so let’s run through the key points of Minnesota’s schedule step by step, starting with the first three weeks of games.
Immediate Homecourt Advantage
The Wolves open the season on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 22, then swing north to play the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center on the 24th. After that, the Timberwolves play their home opener against the Toronto Raptors on the 26th, opening up a crucial homestand.
Last season, Minnesota played five of its first ten games from the comforts of home. The Wolves began the season with an unimpressive 97-94 loss against the Raptors in Toronto, returned home, beat the Miami Heat in their home opener, and then blew a 21-point lead against the Atlanta Hawks in their third game. After that, the Wolves played five straight at home, including marquee matchups against the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics.
Minnesota went 5-0 through that homestand, setting the tone for the rest of the season.
It will be crucial that the Wolves jump out to that early success at Target Center again this year. Hopefully, the Wolves return from Sacramento with at least a 1-1 record and build on their 16-4 record in home openers with a sizable win against Toronto. Following the Raptors matchup, Minnesota plays five of its next seven games at home.
- 10/29 – vs. Dallas Mavericks
- 11/1 – vs. Nuggets
- 11/2 – @ San Antonio Spurs
- 11/4 – vs. Charlotte Hornets
- 11/7 – @ Chicago Bulls
- 11/8 – vs. Portland Trail Blazers
- 11/10 – vs. Miami Heat
The Wolves went 30-11 at Target Center last season, the fifth-best home record in the NBA, and sold out all 41 regular-season games. On top of sometimes being unbearably cold in winter, Minneapolis became a place teams feared. The Wolves made it known to opposing teams that stealing a win in their home arena would be challenging immediately in 2023-24, and the exact same thing needs to happen this year.
There are back-to-back marquee matchups with the Nuggets and Mavericks. Still, after that, the degree of difficulty decreases over the next three home games – giving the Wolves a tremendous opportunity to jump out of the gates with a winning record.
The In-Season Tournament, or NBA Cup
For the second straight year, we will see the In-Season Tournament in the 2024-25 season, only this year, it is called the Emirates NBA Cup.
The NBA Cup consists of two stages from mid-November to mid-December. The first stage is group play, leading to the knockout rounds and the semi-final and championship games.
Group Play starts on Nov. 12 and runs through Dec. 3. Each team will play four Group Play games on Cup Nights – one against each opponent in its group, two at home, and two on the road. Cup Nights are played on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Photo via NBA.com
The Wolves are part of West Group A. According to the league, they randomly select groups based on win-loss records from the 2023-24 season. Looking at all the Groups, the Timberwolves are most certainly in the easiest group of teams in the West.
Here is Minnesota’s Group Play schedule:
- 11/12 – @ Trail Blazers
- 11/15 – @ Kings
- 11/26 – vs. Houston Rockets
- 11/29 – vs. Los Angeles Clippers
Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the best record in Group Play games in each of the six groups and two “wild cards” (the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group).
The single-elimination Knockout Round games will be played on Dec. 10 and 11, with the Semi-Final and Championship games played on the 14 and 17, respectively. All Group Play and Knockout Round games will count toward the regular season. However, the Championship game in Las Vegas does not.
All 22 teams that do not qualify for the Knockout Round will play two regular season games on Dec. 9, 10, 11, 14, 17, or 18. That’s why the Wolves are only scheduled to play 80 games right now, with no games on the schedule from Dec. 9-18.
Longest Road Trips
It wouldn’t be a Wolves regular season without at least one brutal road trip.
Last season, they had two four-game road trips, two five-game, and one six-game road trip. Woof. It makes sense that the Wolves have long stints on the road because of where they sit geographically. Those road trips from 2023-24 included either a west or east coast swing against multiple teams.
However, Minnesota’s consistent time away from home this year is not nearly as long as last season. The Wolves have no six-game road trips, only one five-game road trip, one four-game, and three three-game road trips.
Nov. 11-15:
- @ Portland
- @ Portland
- @ Sacramento
Dec. 4-8:
- @ LA Clippers
- @ San Fransisco
- @ San Fransisco
Dec. 23-27:
- @ Atlanta Hawks
- @ Dallas (Christmas Day)
- @ Houston
Feb. 24-March 2:
- @ Oklahoma City Thunder
- @ LA Lakers
- @ Utah Jazz
- @ Phoenix Suns
Minnesota’s lone five-game road trip comes at an exciting time and could swing its playoff seeding based on the results. From April 1 to 10, the Wolves play the Nuggets, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Grizzlies. Once that five-game road trip is over, they only have two games left, returning home to take on the Nets and Jazz.
The standings could be in limbo at that point or be cemented in place. Teams are gassed once the final few weeks of the regular season approach. However, the contenders are also eager for the postseason. Hopefully, the Wolves fit into that category. After finishing third last season, anything lower would probably be an internal disappointment, barring injury. Still, Minnesota’s goal is to make the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, and as we saw against the Mavericks last season, postseason matchups are important.
After their final regular season road trip, will the Wolves be a top-four seed with homecourt advantage in the first round? Or will they be starting their fourth-straight playoff appearance in enemy territory? That five-game set away from Target Center in early April is the deciding factor.
A Brutal Travel Schedule
The Wolves have more home games and homestands mixed into their away schedule, but that doesn’t mean their travel isn’t any lighter. They will still rack up frequent flyer miles – more than any other team in the league this year.
Before the NBA includes the two additional games to the regular season schedule, Minnesota will travel a total of 49,937 miles in 2024-25, the most in the NBA, according to Positive Residual. The Portland Trail Blazers are the next closest team at 48,924, which makes sense because they are isolated from the entire Eastern Conference and Midwest teams.
Last season, the Wolves traveled 47,766 miles over 82 games, the third-most in the league, and 46,231 in 2022-23, the sixth-most. This season will be the first time since 2017-18 (55,320 miles) that the Wolves rank first in regular season miles traveled. That further indicates that they really should be an Eastern Conference team, especially when looking at their travel map:
Map via Positive Residual
Having fewer lengthy road trips is a double-edged sword. It allows teams to frequently play in front of their home fans and sleep in their own beds. Still, the Wolves are isolated from all of the teams in your conference, so taking the flight back to MSP consistently will only rack up the total miles flown and could lead to a more fatigued team overall.
NBA teams fly charter flights and stay in four or five-star hotels. Life on the road can be draining, but it is also glamorous. The Wolves are well versed in lengthy flights and will again have to battle with a rather brutal travel schedule in 2024-25.
Longest Homestands
Another drawback to having fewer road trips is not having as many homestands.
Last season, Minnesota had one seven-game home stand, two four-games, and four three-games. However, the Wolves have two five-game home stands this year, one four-game and one three-game, laid out below.
Feb. 1-8:
- vs. Washington Wizards
- vs. Sacramento
- vs. Chicago
- vs. Houston
- vs. Portland
March 14-21:
- vs. Orlando Magic
- vs. Utah
- vs. Indiana
- vs. New Orleans (twice)
Nov. 26-Dec. 2:
- vs. Houston
- vs. Sacramento
- vs. LA Clippers
- vs. LA Lakers
Oct. 26-Nov. 1:
- vs. Toronto
- vs. Dallas
- vs. Denver
Those homestands are important in some capacity, but the one in late March catches my eye. The Magic, Pacers, and Pelicans will be lower-seeded playoff teams if they can stay healthy, but the Wolves should be fine taking care of business and coming out of that five-game stretch with a 4-1 or 5-0 record. Doing so is crucial because Minnesota plays six of its final ten games on the road after that homestand is over. How Chris Finch’s squad fairs in their longest homestand could make or break playoff seeding.
Back-To-Back Sets and Rest Advantages
The Wolves will play 14 back-to-back sets this season, up from the 13 they played last season. However, Minnesota is tied with Indiana and Golden State for the second-fewest B2Bs in 2024-25 – six teams have 13 B2Bs, while nine teams have 15 and ten have 16.
According to the team’s press release, the Wolves will play four home-home B2B sets, three away-away, three away-away, and four home-away.
Breaking the back-to-backs down by month:
- October: 0
- November: 4
- December: 0
- January: 3
- February: 4
- March: 2
- April: 1
Additionally, the Wolves will have a rest advantage 11 times, which means their opponent plays the day/night before, but Minnesota does not. That ties them with seven other teams for the fifth-most times with a rest advantage in 2024-25. Last season, the Wolves had a rest advantage 15 times, the second-highest in the league, according to Positive Residual.
Minnesota will have a rest disadvantage nine times this season, tying them with seven other teams for the third-fewest in the NBA.
Strength Of Schedule
Lastly, according to Positive Residual’s measuring system, we have the projected strength of schedule, which “measures an opponent’s win probability against average league competition, given a set of scheduling conditions.”
Minnesota’s projected 0.508 strength of schedule rating for the 2024-25 season ranks them 14th easiest league-wide. At the end of last season, they had a 0.496 strength of schedule rating, the 10th easiest.
Of course, Positive Residual’s measuring system is only a projection at this point. We don’t know how the standings, injuries, and team success will play out until at least halfway into the season, when we can get a more accurate reading. Additionally, the teams with or projected to have a high seed almost always have a lower strength of schedule because most of the teams they play are mathematically worse than them. For example, according to Positive Residual, the Nuggets, Celtics, and Heat had the three easiest regular season schedules last season, while the Trail Blazers and Spurs had the most difficult.
Hopefully, after reviewing Minnesota’s 2024-25 regular season schedule, you will have a greater understanding of what to expect heading into the season opener in Los Angeles and can use this article as a reference throughout the year.
