The Minnesota Timberwolves’ motley crew brought a burst of fun to the NBA playoffs
T he Minnesota Timberwolves are out of the NBA playoffs . It’s a miracle it took this long. In their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, they saw two starters and another key reserve suffer
ManyPress Editorial Team
ManyPress Editorial
T he Minnesota Timberwolves are out of the NBA playoffs . It’s a miracle it took this long. In their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, they saw two starters and another key reserve suffer significant injuries .
The Nuggets entered the series on a 12-game winning streak and were favored from the jump. After somehow winning that series in six games, finding Denver’s weak points and pummeling them until they broke, the Wolves met an even more daunting opponent in the San Antonio Spurs. Though they’d have been forgiven for tiredly accepting a sweep, the Wolves swiped Game 1 on the Spurs’ home floor, then a close Game 4 at home. After that, the tank finally ran empty. But even in the losses – including Friday night’s in Game 6 – the Wolves found ways to frighten. They’d go down 18-3 and then tie the game by the end of the first quarter. They’d tighten a 29-point deficit to 12 entering half-time. The tenacity and spite they played with was a finite resource, but at times this postseason it was potent enough to convince me otherwise. The Wolves were not the deepest team in these playoffs, nor the most consistent. They may lie closer to the bottom of those categories than the top. After their elimination, coach Chris Finch and players alike admitted they’d failed to take the regular season seriously enough, failing to set themselves up well for the high-stakes games of April and May. (My old teachers probably shared a similar sense of disappointment in me before finals.) And yet this odd bunch regularly play some of the most soulful basketball in the NBA.
Key points
- The Nuggets entered the series on a 12-game winning streak and were favored from the jump.
- After somehow winning that series in six games, finding Denver’s weak points and pummeling them until they broke, the Wolves met an even more daunting opponent in the San Antonio Spurs.
- Though they’d have been forgiven for tiredly accepting a sweep, the Wolves swiped Game 1 on the Spurs’ home floor, then a close Game 4 at home.
- After that, the tank finally ran empty.
- But even in the losses – including Friday night’s in Game 6 – the Wolves found ways to frighten.
This article was independently rewritten by ManyPress editorial AI from reporting originally published by Guardian Sport.
