The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Toronto Raptors 117-94 at Target Center in Minneapolis on Sunday 25 October 2026, recording a comfortable win in the early weeks of the NBA season, according to the NBA scoreboard. The 23-point margin was one of the largest on a busy Sunday of NBA action. Minnesota’s win came on a day when the league’s attention was elsewhere — Luka Doncic’s 52 points in Utah, Detroit’s win in Philadelphia, Oklahoma City’s injury-hit victory over the Clippers — but the Timberwolves’ performance was no less impressive for being less talked about. A 23-point win, at home, against an Eastern Conference opponent, is exactly the kind of result good teams bank in October.
Wolves take control
The Timberwolves controlled the game from the early stages, building a lead that Toronto never seriously threatened. Minnesota’s defence, which has been the foundation of their recent success, held the Raptors to 94 points, while their offence scored freely enough to turn the game into a comfortable win by the fourth quarter. For Toronto, the defeat is part of a difficult start to a season in which they are trying to re-establish themselves in the Eastern Conference. A road loss in Minneapolis is not a disaster, but the manner of it — a 23-point margin, with the game effectively over before the final quarter — will concern a coaching staff that needs to see more competitiveness from their team.
What it means
For Minnesota, the win is a reminder of their ceiling. When the Timberwolves defend like this and score like this, they can beat anyone in the league. The challenge, as ever, is consistency: turning one comfortable home win into a run of results that puts them among the West’s elite. Toronto, meanwhile, must regroup quickly. The NBA season is long, and one heavy defeat in October does not define a campaign — but the Raptors will know that performances like Sunday’s, if repeated, will make the season a long one. For now, though, Sunday belonged to Minnesota, and the Timberwolves can enjoy a win that was as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.
