The San Antonio Spurs have pushed the Minnesota Timberwolves to the brink. By losing to the bigger, stronger, faster, and younger Spurs in Game 5, Minnesota’s fifth straight trip to the playoffs could end with a loss in Game 6 on Friday night at Target Center. If Victor Wembanyama can keep his elbows to himself and end Minnesota’s season, he’ll likely also snuff out Mike Conley’s 19-year career without a championship.
For the Timberwolves to win Game 6 and keep the season and Conley’s career going, they’ll need one last chomp from Bite Bite to get to Game 7.
While Mike Conley’s role on the court has greatly diminished this season, he’s still a valued mentor for the still young core of Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid. Many of his Wolves teammates have expressed their desire to win not only for themselves but to win for Mike Conley. He’s a beloved teammate and an integral member of Minnesota’s roster, who has brought about the most sustained success in franchise history.
Conley is averaging a career-low 4.5 points per game in his 19th regular season. His 4.3 points per game in 11 playoff appearances in a career low 13.5 minutes per game in his 13th playoff run. But even at his career worst, the wily veteran has impacted both of Minnesota’s playoff series.
He played a total of 16 minutes in Minnesota’s first three games of the first-round series against the Denver Nuggets. Donte DiVincenzo collapsed to the hardwood with a torn Achilles tendon in the opening minutes of Game 4. Soon after, Anthony Edwards left the game with a hyperextended knee. Still, Conley stepped up in the absence of the starting backcourt with five points, four assists, and two steals in 20 minutes to help the Wolves win Game 4 and take a commanding 3-1 series lead. He started Games 5 and 6 to close out the Nuggets and get the Timberwolves out of the first round for the third straight season.
However, Conley’s late-career magnum opus was Game 1 of the second round series against the Spurs. The former All-Star got the start as Anthony Edwards returned to the lineup, but came off the bench. In 24 minutes, Conley shot 4-7 from three and scored 12 points, dished out six assists, and was a plus-13 to help the Wolves steal Game 1 in San Antonio.
He scored three points combined in games 2 and 3, both Timberwolves losses. In Game 4, Conley scored eight points in ten pivotal minutes to secure the win in front of Wolves fans in Minneapolis. He had five more in Game 5’s blowout loss. Now that the Timberwolves are one game away from elimination, they need one more vintage Mike Conley game now more than ever.
Conley’s size and age have played him off the court against San Antonio’s big, strong, young, and fast guards like Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper. The young Spurs guards can bully Conley, exploit his athletic and defensive shortcomings, and put him in the basket at will. But Conley can do something Minnesota’s offense needs badly, and it could be enough to throw a wrench into San Antonio’s plans for the Western Conference Finals.
He’s one of the few Wolves players who can actually knock down a three in the playoffs. As a team, the Timberwolves are shooting 33.5 percent from the 3-point line, which is 11th-best in the playoffs and dead last among the eight teams to make the conference semifinals. It’s a far cry from their regular-season three-point shooting rate of 37 percent.
Jaden McDaniels can’t buy a three and is just 8 of 38 from distance in the playoffs. Julius Randle is shooting 25.6 percent from deep. Edwards, on two bad legs, is down to 32.1 percent. And Terrence Shannon Jr. and Bones Hyland can’t find the right frequency.
However, Mike Conley is thriving. He only shot 33.7 percent from three in the regular season. But in the playoffs, Conley is a scorching 11-23 (47.8 percent) from long range. It’s a low volume, but all it takes is a couple of threes to go down to give the rest of the Wolves some room to operate and swing a playoff series.
Chris Finch will be looking at all options to even the series and get the Timberwolves to Game 7, where anything can happen. Jaylen Clark could match San Antonio’s physicality and drag the game into the mud of a defensive battle. Bones Hyland is a microwave scorer but has gone ice-cold in the playoffs, and Finch can’t fully trust him. Joan Beringer would be an interesting card to play to add more length inside and another six fouls off the bench to try to torture Wembanyama for three minutes each half.
But Chris Finch knows he has one player to go to when the Wolves are playing for their lives. If Mike Conley can play the hero one more time in a Timberwolves uniform, he can live to fight for at least one more game.
