DENVER (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves reached the Western Convention finals brimming with expertise, belief and tenacity after staging the greatest Recreation 7 comeback because the NBA started monitoring play-by-play information 28 years in the past.
The Wolves trailed the Denver Nuggets by 15 factors at halftime Sunday night time and by 20 factors simply over a minute into the third quarter.
With the gang rocking Ball Enviornment, the Timberwolves didn’t flinch. They doubled down on their dogged protection and roared again for probably the most monumental victory within the franchise’s 35-year historical past.
They did it behind a terrific transition sport and an unwavering celebrity in Anthony Edwards for a surprising 98-90 victory over the reigning NBA champions.
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Edwards helps Minnesota oust defending NBA champion Nuggets
The Wolves will face the Dallas Mavericks starting Wednesday night time at Goal Middle.
“The followers have been ready for this second, and this staff has introduced them this second,” stated Karl-Anthony Cities, including that it definitely wasn’t misplaced on him that Sunday marked Minnesota all-time nice Kevin Garnett’s forty eighth birthday.
“Shoutout to KG, blissful birthday, KG,” Cities stated. “Right here’s your current from all of us.”
Garnett led Minnesota to its first convention finals 20 years in the past. The Wolves misplaced to the Los Angeles Lakers in six video games in 2004 and Garnett by no means made it again to the postseason earlier than leaving for Boston, the place he received an NBA title in 2008.
Clear for takeoff. Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves shoots the ball throughout the third quarter towards the Denver Nuggets in Recreation Seven of the Western Convention Second Spherical Playoffs at Ball Enviornment on Might 19, 2024 in Denver, Colorado. Photograph by C. Morgan Engel / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Pictures through AFP
The Wolves would miss the playoffs 16 instances within the subsequent 17 years, making it solely in 2018, once they misplaced within the first spherical to Houston.
Issues started to show round for the Timberwolves once they drafted Edwards No. 1 general in 2020. They made it again to the postseason celebration the next yr, dropping to Memphis in Spherical 1.
After hiring head coach Chris Finch off Michael Malone’s employees in Denver, the Timberwolves employed away the Nuggets’ roster architect Tim Connelly, who constructed the Wolves explicitly to unseat his former staff in Denver.
Connelly’s first main transfer was a daring get of Rudy Gobert that was as dangerous because it was unconventional — he despatched 5 gamers and 5 picks to Utah for the star defender — however going massive was no small a part of this breakthrough season for the Timberwolves.
“I feel when Tim Connelly made that commerce, all people was laughing at him like, ‘What’s he doing?’ However he made an awesome staff,” Nuggets middle Nikola Jokic stated as this sequence started.
Jokic and the defending NBA champions knew that effectively earlier than dropping their semifinal sequence in such humbling trend to a staff, like theirs, that was assembled largely at Connelly’s course.
As Jokic famous Sunday night time, Connelly’s deep, versatile roster can adapt to any model, meet any problem and, as Sunday night time confirmed, overcome the longest of odds.
Wolves: What seeding?
The Timberwolves’ resolve was hardened a yr in the past once they lurched into the playoffs with a short-handed staff that was shortly dispatched by Denver in 5 video games in Spherical 1.
Fueled by that disappointment, the Wolves received 56 video games this yr, produced the league’s high protection and led the Western Convention for many of the season earlier than ending a sport behind Oklahoma Metropolis and Denver for the No. 3 seed.
The Wolves made positive seeding didn’t matter.
After their four-game dispatch of the Phoenix Suns that marked their first playoff sweep in franchise historical past, the Wolves had been unfazed by the Nuggets’ 20-5 report within the playoffs during the last two years or by their Western Convention-best 36-8 report at dwelling this season.
The Wolves received 3 times in 4 video games at Ball Enviornment. They took Video games 1 and a pair of in Denver earlier than dropping three in a row. Going through elimination, they recovered with a 115-70 demolition of the Nuggets in Recreation 6, the most important win over a defending champion in NBA historical past.
They usually adopted up that win with an epic Recreation 7 comeback.
“The sequence was wild and this sport was only a microcosm of the complete sequence,” Finch stated.
Cities and Jaden McDaniels every scored 23 factors within the clincher. Edwards completed with 16 factors, eight rebounds and 7 assists with most of his contributions coming in Minnesota’s surgical 60-37 second half that knocked out the Nuggets, who received 35 factors from Jamal Murray and 34 from Jokic.
Subsequent for Minnesota: Dallas
Up subsequent are the fifth-seeded Mavericks, who reached their second convention championship in three years. They misplaced to eventual champion Golden State in 5 video games in 2022, however that was earlier than Luka Doncic had Kyrie Irving as his sidekick.
The Wolves received all three of their video games towards Dallas within the common season, profitable by a mixed 60 factors.
“Actually, I feel for us we’re simply so blissful for this second, that we are able to’t even take into consideration the following second,” Cities stated.
“I’m occupied with it,” Edwards playfully interrupted.
“I’ll say for us, if we proceed to play Timberwolves basketball, it should repair lots of issues that we could have with that staff and what they do finest,” Cities instructed. “So so long as we play Timberwolves’ model of basketball, I like our possibilities.”
