There was unbridled joy in the Target Center as The Killers’ Mr. Brighside played at the end of the third quarter. The Minnesota Timberwolves had survived. A team that had squandered double-digit leads after half all season outscored the Oklahoma City Thunder 38-31 in the third frame. A team that had played down to their competition all season would win 120-95 going away. They were going to live to fight another day.
The joy that last year’s team garnered reappeared for the first time in a long time.
Before the game, Tim Connelly threw a “wild” suggestion at Chris Finch. What if they started Nickeil Alexander-Walker against Oklahoma City? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is their biggest offensive threat; Alexander-Walker is his cousin. They grew up playing against one another. Who better to lock him down?
Finch kinda liked it.
“I mean, defense was phenomenal,” said Finch. “We executed everything we talked about doing. I thought Nickeil did a great job setting the tone on on Shai. He’s a really tough cover. But we were closing those spaces around him and did a good job of just kinda not really letting him get into a rhythm other that third [quarter].”
“Every time he was on him, he kind of knew where he was going,” echoed Edwards, who’s dealing with a sore shoulder and hip and would have otherwise had to guard Gilgeous-Alexander. “Where he wanted to go, pump fakes. He did a hell of a job, for real, for real.”
A win over the 40-42 Thunder never was going to evoke the same emotion that last year’s team did when they beat the Los Angeles Clippers to advance to the playoffs. There was no Patrick Beverley to stand on the scorer’s table. No glue girl to leave a mark on the hardwood. A year after winning 46 games, the Timberwolves won 42 and will enter the playoffs as a lower seed.
The supersized Los Angeles Lakers held Minnesota scoreless in the final six minutes of the first playoff game. However, the Wolves scored at will against the diminutive Thunder. Karl-Anthony Towns used his size to exploit mismatches, leading the team with 28 points. Edwards scored 19, and Kyle Anderson had 11 off the bench. Every starter finished in double-figures.
“Offensively, we also did a good job,” said Finch. “Played pretty intelligent offense. It was nice not to give back a lead, which we’ve done quite a bit. But guys were super locked in, and they knew what it was gonna take to win this game, and they went out and did it.”
Rudy chipped in 21 points. But the player the Timberwolves went all-in on occasionally failed to secure rebounds and shot 9 of 14 from the free-throw line, including an airball. Gobert wasn’t playing at 100 percent, but he hardly has looked like the missing piece all year. At one point in the fourth quarter, Edwards ran into him on a drive – a visual representation of an issue that appeared early in the season. But really, the core issue with the Gobert trade is that Tim Connelly disassembled a team that basketball fans in Minnesota fell in love with. One that inspired hope that this team didn’t.
Still, seeing the offense flow 48 hours after the ball got sticky in LA was encouraging. The most frustrating thing about this year’s Wolves was that they repeated the same mistakes. They’d play hero ball in big moments. They’d lose to a sub-.500 team days after upsetting one of the best teams in the West. And they never had a game like their blowout over the Portland Trail Blazers, where Beverley fired the t-shirt cannon into the crowd.
The playoff matchup against the Denver Nuggets is a final chance to sell a skeptical fanbase on the Towns-Gobert Wolves. Like in the play-in games, they will enter without Jaden McDaniels. And it’s uncertain how healthy Edwards will be. Denver’s also a big team, led by Nikola Jokic. If they’re going to win this series, Towns and Gobert will have to assert their size. They’re going to have to drive winning from the frontcourt.
“I’ve always felt confident in our team,” said Towns. “If I didn’t feel confident, I wouldn’t be acting and talking the way I do. I would be a little more timid. I’ve been very confident in our team since Day 1. We have great guys in our locker room. Before we step on the court, to just see the character of everyone in that locker room and the professionalism, I knew we were going to be great. It’s going to take time. It’s not something you just walk in and everything works. We just kept trusting the process of trusting each other and getting to know each other.”
Only a fanbase inundated with years of losing would fall in love with a 46-win team. Last year’s team let an upset of the 2-seeded Memphis Grizzlies slip through their fingers. However, an all-in trade failed to upgrade that team. Instead, it felt like a step back despite Edwards and McDaniels’ ascension. But for a moment, that all didn’t matter. The Wolves pulled their starters with 3:53 left, and fans started chanting, “We want Denver.”
“We should have confidence in anything we do,” said Towns. “We know the work we put in all year, all the adversity we went through, everything we went through. There’s no reason to step on the court and feel like an eighth seed, have an eighth-seed confidence. Anytime you step on the court you should feel like you have a chance to win and you’re the best team on the court.”
A “Wolves in six” chant followed. It was reminiscent of the chant fans used early in Game 3 of the Houston Rockets series in 2018. The only game the Timberwolves won. But this year’s team will have more longevity than Jimmy Butler’s crew. Still, it will require the same unbridled hope to believe this team will upset Denver in the first round. But if the Wolves can play loose against inferior competition in a must-win game, why can’t they do the same as an 8-seed?
