The Timberwolves understand what’s at stake as they prepare for tonight’s Game 5 in Oklahoma City, writes Cassidy Hettesheimer of The Star Tribune (subscription required). Minnesota narrowly missed a chance to tie the series on Monday, which means three straight wins will now be necessary to reach the NBA Finals. Two of those will have to come at the Paycom Center, where the Thunder won by 26 and 15 points to open the series.
“We’re just trying to get another home game and trying to play in front of our home crowd again,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “Everybody has counted us out all year. We’ve been through a lot. We’re together as a locker room. We don’t care what the media is going to say.”
This is the second straight year the Wolves have reached the Western Conference Finals, and Hettesheimer notes that they were expected to be in a better position this time. Last year, Minnesota was exhausted after coming off a seven-game series with Denver and lost to Dallas in five games. This time, the Nuggets took OKC to seven games while the Wolves had time to rest after a five-game series with Golden State. Despite that, Minnesota is back in the same position, staring at a 3-1 deficit.
Jaden McDaniels believes the key to Game 5 will be getting off to a fast start and not letting the Thunder build up momentum in front of their fans.
“At home, they start super well, so we’ve just got to [slow] their little run at the beginning,” he said. “We’ve got to play tougher, playing stronger and just hold them to one shot.”
There’s more on the Wolves:
- Veteran guard Mike Conley is counting on Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle to bounce back after subpar performances in Game 4, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). OKC’s swarming defense held Edwards to 16 points on 5-of- 13 shooting and Randle to five points on a 1-of-7 night. “We need our best guys to be our best guys,” Conley said.
- Randle seems to have found a home in Minnesota, which is the fourth stop in his 11-year career, McMenamin observes in a full story. He notes that the surprise trade that sent Randle to the Wolves in October reunited him with head coach Chris Finch, who was an assistant in New Orleans earlier in Randle’s career, and he has bonded with president of basketball operations Tim Connelly over their shared love of cuisine. Randle’s comfort level could become important this summer, as he holds a $30.1MM player option and may be interested in a long-term contract.
- The most disappointing part of Minnesota’s performance in the two conference finals has been the failure of its vaunted defense, according to Chris Hine of The Star Tribune. The Wolves weren’t able to control Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving last year, and the Thunder are averaging 115.3 points through the first four games of this series.
Talk about not showing up. I really thought this could go 7. sooo sorry … Thunder playing their best at right time. SGA
Conley is on his last legs. They need a younger ball general out there that will call out the stars for doing dumb stuff on the court.
I hope Edwards stops getting compared to Jordan and all time greats because they badly want to prop an American player up.
Ant still has some growing up to do. I look at how serious Jordan was when playing. Ant is laughing on the bench, jaw jacking with Laker fans telling him his d is bigger. He was fined $50 grand for that. Your head isn’t in the game if you’re doing that. I’m a Wolves fan too.
Despite what some media say, Minny is not a rising team. Unless there are major moves, they will be worse next year, not better.
This is not a young team, key players are leaving, they are in cap trouble, and they have no draft capital to trade.
The 5 of Edwards, Gobert, Randall, McDaniel, and Conley at next year’s price take 90% of the budget.
That means NAW and Naz Reid, both due massive raises, are likely gone.
Edwards and McDaniel should be better, but that’s it.
Whoever said they are a young team is wrong. They may have 3 players leaving that played heavy minutes. A bad off season and losing those 3 they are a play in team.
They were a game or two from being a play-in team this year with how the West is & it’s only going to get tougher.
TWolves are fine. What they need is a real PG. So AE can stop thinking he is Magic. And get off the ball and lead the L in scoring. Only Reid can leave if he wants. He is not getting more from another team. No team that would want him has cap space.
TWolves have 41 mill in expiring money in Randle and Conley. Plus they have two good picks this year #17 , #31. They do this right they can be a better team next yr. Also need Dillingham to start playing and helping. Problem in the West is OKC is still getting better ……
> What they need is a real PG. So AE can stop thinking
> he is Magic.
Unless you’re thinking of Rob Dillingham, that ain’t happening.
Or, maybe you can talk Minny into trading Gobert for Jrue Holiday?
Maybe next year Antman might show up
> Maybe next year Antman might show up
I agree that his problem is mental, but it’s not effort.
Offensively, it remains to be seen whether he’ll ever learn to play the game without the ball on offense. Defensively, if he’s not guarding the ball, he’s often lost.
When he doesn’t have the ball, h
That talk about “understanding what’s at stake” and ” we’ve just got to slow their little run at the beginning” resulted in a 3-0 lead and then they didn’t score again until after OKC was up 8 points. Lost the 1st Q by 15 and the 1st half by 33.
OKC is getting better as the playoffs continue.
Yea, Jaden, that’s not a fast start. It’s slower than a glacier. 3/20 and looked like they wouldn’t even make 30 at halftime. Randle needs to go. OKC scheme was perfect on him.
Reading some of these comments you’d think Ant was a past his prime has been that’s only going downhill from here. The dude is only 23 years old and has led his team to the Western Conference Finals 2 times in a row! Does he have work to do – Yes! Does he have growing up to do – Yes! Does he work hard in the off season and come back better each year – also Yes! He’s done that each year he’s been in the league (which isn’t that long).
The majority of our players are young. Yes, we do have some ‘old’ guys but if you look at our bench aside from Donte everyone is young as is Ant’s running mate in the starting lineup Jaden. Yup, there is work to be done and some moves to be made but we’ve got a young superstar who is still years away from hitting his prime and a young core that will grow with him.