Timberwolves

Game 5 Was a Microcosm Of the Entire Season

Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

As the Denver Nuggets took a 3-0 series lead, most Minnesota Timberwolves fans lost hope. And rightfully so. No team in the history of the NBA playoffs has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. However, following an electric Game 4 win, they pumped some optimism into the Timberwolves faithful.

“Narratives are everything in the playoffs,” said Austin Rivers ahead of Game 5.

When we lost the third game by 30, it was ‘They’re gonna’ get swept.’ And then the Game 2, if we would have won that, it would have been, ‘Oh, Denver’s in trouble.’ It’s all narratives. Right now, the narrative’s got to be, ‘Are we satisfied with winning just one game? Are we okay with just not being swept, or are we actually trying to win?’ That’s what’s got to be the message right now. I don’t know about Game 6 because that’s not possible right now. Game 5 is what we got to focus on now. Just take it one game at a time. Otherwise, you’ll get in trouble with that stuff.

That one-game-at-a-time mindset is one of the most challenging things a relatively young playoff team can mentally grasp – especially when that team is in a 3-0 whole. Despite bringing in some key veterans this season/off-season, like Rivers and Mike Conley, the Wolves have still played like a very young team all year. That epidemic would ultimately cost them their season.

“I think the defining characteristic of this team is that we’ve always played our best basketball when we were in desperation mode,” Chris Finch said after Minnesota’s 112-109 loss in Game 6. “It’s not how you want to live. It’s all credit to us, we had many points during the season to let go of the rope or give up on the moment, but we never ever did. So I love that about our guys. They kept competing. A more mature team doesn’t find themselves in those situations as much. That’s part of our growth. We’ve got to continue to do that.”

Pretty much everything waivered surrounding the Timberwolves this season. From the health of its key players to massive personnel changes and players trying to find some type of a groove together, this was by no stretch of the mind an easy or good season for Minnesota. However, when you make the kind of changes that the Wolves made, it’s bound to take time before things truly start to click.

The one thing that was always out of their control: injuries.

“I mean, if we just had SloMo tonight, we’d get out of here and force a Game 6,” Anthony Edwards said postgame. “Bad things, after bad things, after bad things. Just happens to us. All the praise to my teammates, man. All of us. We stuck it out, [despite] all the adversity. Kept fighting. Big shoutout to those guys.”

Losing Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels immediately before the playoffs hurt. But losing Kyle Anderson after taking an accidental blow to the face in Game 4 hurt worse. Anderson has been Minnesota’s table-setter all season long. To lose him right as the team started to build some postseason momentum was absolutely killer. On top of the unlucky postseason, Timberwolves fans could only see the starting lineup of Conley, Edwards, McDaniels, Towns, and Gobert for seven total games. Finch was forced to run lineups that he’s never run against Denver in the first round – something that ideally would never happen.

It was a season that, by and large, wasn’t as bad as it felt less than 24 hours after it ended. Minnesota fought through tremendous adversity from Game 1 of the regular season to the 87th game they played. However, this season is one that I’d love to remove from my memory. Sure, the Wolves clinched the playoffs for the second straight season, and Ant became a first-time All-Star. But the team still has a lot of work that needs to be done before they can be classified as contenders. That positive work will only occur if the team keeps its core locked down.

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Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

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