{"id":90833,"date":"2026-04-13T03:23:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/timberwolves-welcome-back-garnett-and-beat-pelicans-in-regular-season-finale-as-playoffs-await\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T03:23:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:23:38","slug":"timberwolves-welcome-back-garnett-and-beat-pelicans-in-regular-season-finale-as-playoffs-await","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/timberwolves-welcome-back-garnett-and-beat-pelicans-in-regular-season-finale-as-playoffs-await\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves welcome back Garnett and beat Pelicans in regular-season finale as playoffs await"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 The Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> rested almost all their regulars for the playoffs during a 132-126 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans 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 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 token start in a 15-point, 10-assist performance. Rookie forward Joan Beringer had 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah Fears had 36 points and 10 rebounds, and Derik Queen 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<\/h2>\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

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 The Minnesota Timberwolves rested almost all their regulars for the playoffs during a 132-126 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, as franchise icon Kevin Garnett made a special appearance for fan appreciation night in the regular-season finale. With the Timberwolves locked into the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28743,541,3203,7644,16088,28741,11468,28742,26383,8030],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}