Wolves

Timberwolves to play at Oklahoma City on Christmas Day

The team's home opener will be Tuesday, Nov. 1, against the Memphis Grizzlies.

By Chris Miller

August 11, 2016 at 10:36PM

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio (9) and Minnesota Timberwolves center Gorgui Dieng (5) celebrate after defeating the New Orleans Pelicans 112-110 after an NBA basketball game Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman) (Brian Stensaas — Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The Timberwolves will play this season on Christmas Day for the first time in team history.

The NBA schedule was released on Thursday, and a Christmas Day game at 7 p.m. at Oklahoma City is among the highlights for the Timberwolves.

Here are some other highlights:

The Wolves' home opener is Nov. 1 at Target Center against the Memphis Grizzlies. The regular season opener is Oct. 26, also against the Grizzlies, in Memphis.

The NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers will visit Target Center on Feb. 14.

Golden State is in town Dec. 11 and March 10.

On New Year's Day, the Wolves play at home at 6 p.m. against Portland.

A schedule oddity -- the Wolves play the New York Knicks twice, but in back-to-back games, Nov. 30 at Target Center and Dec. 2 at Madison Square Garden.

New Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau will face his former team, Chicago, on Dec. 13 in the Windy City and on Sunday, Feb. 12, at Target Center.

The Wolves will appear on TNT four times, six times on ESPN and nine times on NBA TV.

The four TNT games are Nov. 17 vs. Philadelphia, Dec. 8 at Toronton, Jan. 19 at the Clippers and April 6 at Portland.

According to the NBA, the Wolves will have 14 games "fresh" during the season -- a team is "fresh" if it did not play the day before and its opponent did.

For highlights of the full NBA schedule, including other Christmas match-ups, click here

The Wolves will play four Western teams just three times: Dallas and the Clippers (twice each at home); and New Orleans and Phoenix (once each at home).In a scheduling quirk, the Wolves will play the Los Angeles teams on consecutive days at Target Center -- Clippers on Nov. 12 and the Lakers on Nov. 13.

The Wolves opened at home 13 consecutive seasons from 2000 to 2013, and now will open on road for 3rd consecutive year.

There are five Christmas Day games in the NBA -- Boston at the Knicks, Golden State at Cleveland, Chicago at San Antonio, Clippers at Lakers and Wolves at Oklahoma City.

The Wolves schedule has a six-game homestand in February and two four-game road trips.

The complete schedule is here.

about the writer

Chris Miller

Editor

Chris Miller supervises coverage of professional sports teams. He has been at the Minnesota Star Tribune since 1999 and is a former sports editor of the Duluth News-Tribune and the Mesabi Daily News.