The Timberwolves and Lakers Have Been At Each Other's Throats Longer Than Most Fans Realize
When people talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves, they usually bring up Kevin Garnett's MVP season in 2004 or Anthony Edwards' recent explosion. What gets forgotten is that these two franchises have a timeline stretching back to the late 1980s, and it is not just a matter of occasional playoff meetings. There is a through-line from the Lakers' dynasty years to the current rivalry that defines both markets, and understanding it changes how you watch their games now. The Timberwolves entered the NBA in 1989 as an expansion team. The Lakers were already a brand. Early on, the Wolves were genuinely bad. I remember watching some of those games in the early nineties when the Lakers would roll through Minnesota and the score would be lopsided by half. That dynamic shifted slowly as Minnesota began to build around Garnett, who arrived in 1995 and turned the franchise around. By the early 2000s, the Wolves were no longer a joke team. They were dangerous. The 2004 Western Conference Finals is the moment everything changed between these two. Minnesota led the series 3-2. That should have been the end of it. Instead, the Lakers won three straight. Game 7 at Target Center was brutal for Wolves fans. Kobe Bryant averaged something like 27 points across the final three games while Shaq controlled the paint. I still think about that series sometimes because it showed exactly what the Lakers could do when they decided to take you apart. The Wolves had the home-court advantage. They had the better regular-season record. None of it mattered in the closing rounds.
After 2004, the rivalry went dormant for a while. The Lakers moved into different eras. The Wolves fell back into rebuilding mode. Garnett got traded to Boston in 2007, which was a massive turning point for Minnesota. Without him, there was no reason for these teams to care about each other on the floor. The Lakers kept winning championships and moving on. Minnesota scraped together some playoff appearances but nothing that forced a narrative between the two franchises. Then Anthony Edwards arrived. He changed everything about how these games feel. The 2024 playoffs are where the modern rivalry became real. Minnesota swept the Lakers in the first round. That was the first time the Wolves had eliminated Los Angeles in a playoff series since 2004, and it felt like revenge for a lot of people who had been waiting twenty years for it. Edwards was unstoppable in that series. He scored 32, 37, and 30 points across the four games while playing with a level of confidence that reminded everyone why Minnesota had been so good under him. What makes this timeline interesting is that both franchises have gone through identity shifts at the same time. The Lakers lost Kobe and Shaq and spent over a decade trying to figure out who they were. They found a version of themselves again with LeBron James, but the roster construction has been messy. Minnesota spent years being mediocre before Edwards made them relevant again. The timing of their resurgences is what created the current tension.
I will say something that might surprise people who only follow the highlights. The rivalry is not really about star power anymore. It is about coaching matchups and scheme. Minnesota plays a fast-paced system that forces opponents into transition defense problems. The Lakers, especially with LeBron, have struggled with pace before. When these teams play, the Wolves want to push the ball. The Lakers want to slow it down and isolate. That philosophical clash is what makes their games more competitive than their records suggest. There is also a geographic factor that nobody talks about enough. Both cities have large fan bases that travel well. Games between these two always feel packed even when the arena is not full. The media markets overlap in a way that amplifies every result. A Wolves win gets covered nationally. A Lakers loss gets blamed on roster construction. Neither outcome is neutral. If you are trying to follow this timeline without getting lost, start with the 2004 WCF. Watch Game 6 and Game 7 if you can find them. Then jump to the 2024 first-round sweep. Those two moments bookend the entire history of this rivalry. Everything between them is filler. The rest of the timeline is just waiting for the next time these teams meet with stakes.
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The next chapter will probably come in the 2025 playoffs. Both teams are built to compete. The question is whether Minnesota can avoid the mistakes that killed their 2004 run or whether the Lakers will find a way to exploit the same weaknesses they exposed twenty years ago. Either outcome matters more than the regular-season record. These teams do not play each other often enough for one win to mean anything.
