Timberwolves have the chance to end historic streaks in Toronto and Boston
By Will Eudy
The schedule is about to get significantly tougher for the Minnesota Timberwolves over the next two games. Not from a technical strength-of-schedule perspective, but from a more unqiue and historical viewpoint.
In the next two games, the Wolves will travel to the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, and the Boston Celtics on Sunday. While one of those games looks particularly challenging on paper and the other does not, there is more to be unpacked here.
Toronto and Boston may be nice, friendly cities to most outside visitors, but they have treated the Timberwolves exceptionally harshly in recent memory. Incredibly, Minnesota is currently riding a losing streak of 36 games combined between the two cities.
This ridiculous losing streak goes back roughly two decades. The last time the Wolves won a game in Toronto was in January of 2004, and their last win in Boston came in March of 2005. Both of these victories came when Kevin Garnett was still on the roster.
It's time...
— Alan Horton (@WolvesRadio) November 20, 2024
Wolves embark on a 2-game road trip to TOR & BOS, 2 cities where they've lost a combined 36 consecutive games.
19* row in TOR with last win coming in Jan '04.
17 row in BOS with last win coming in Mar '05.
*2/14/21 win at TOR was played in Tampa.
Minnesota has not won in Boston or Toronto since 2005
A run of losing consecutive games like this in not one but two cities is nearly unthinkable. Looking at the Toronto losing streak, some may have gone straight to Basketball Reference and taken note that the Timberwolves did in fact win a road game against the Raptors in 2021. This would invalidate the streak, no?
Normally, the answer would be yes. But during the 2020-21 season, the Raptors were forced to relocate from their home country into the United States during the COVID pandemic frenzy. As such, they played their home games at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida that season.
As such, the Timberwolves' record of consecutive losses in the city of Toronto technically still stands. Thankfully, they will have a solid chance of ending that run on Thursday against a struggling Raptors team that currently holds just a 3-12 record in the Eastern Conference. Granted, we also thought last season's contest in Toronto on opening night would be a gimme, and Minnesota lost there.
Ending the streak against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics should prove a much more difficult challenge. But either way, the Timberwolves will have some extra motivation in the back of their heads to take care of business over the next two games.
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