And just like that, it’s over.
The Minnesota Timberwolves came into Game 6 of their Western Conference Semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs to replicate their series from two years ago against the Denver Nuggets and force Game 7. Instead, they repeated a different kind of history.
For the third straight year, the Timberwolves’ season ends with a blowout. Two years ago, it was a 21-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Last season, they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder by 30 points. Tonight,
it was 30 points at the hand of the Spurs.
It was clear right from the opening tip that the Wolves were in trouble. Amid countless defensive miscommunications and inept offensive possessions, the Wolves fell behind by 29 points early in the second quarter in a game they needed to win to keep their season alive.
Minnesota did put together a 34-18 run to close the first half and cut the San Antonio lead to 13 points, but the success was short-lived as the Spurs resumed drubbing the Wolves coming out of halftime, going up by as many as 28 points in the third quarter.
The Wolves would fall by a final score of 139-109. Anthony Edwards finished the game with 24 points on 9-26 shooting. Rudy Gobert didn’t score a single point, missing all four of his shots. Julius Randle wrapped up his awful second-round performance playing less than 24 minutes while scoring just three points on 1-8 shooting.
The habits a team has during the regular season will always show up during the playoffs. The Wolves, by their own admission, didn’t take the regular season seriously, and it’s shown up in this series. When they needed to make adjustments, they couldn’t.
The Wolves did “flip the switch” and were fantastic against the Nuggets, and if they had drawn a different matchup or been in the Eastern Conference, they could have made it to the Conference Finals or NBA Finals.
To win 4 straight playoff series, though, you have to be able to solve all the different matchups thrown your way and play with consistency from night to night and series to series. You can’t pick up that mentality during the playoffs; it has to be ingrained in who the team is. The work for that starts in the regular season.
In this series, the Wolves saw their mentality and game plan focus go in and out as the series went along. They were never able to solve their offensive issues when Victor Wembanyama was on the court, and got beat down the court numerous times by the Spurs after made baskets.
Ultimately, the Timberwolves were just outgunned in this series. It’s difficult to have confidence that they would have won this series if they were fully healthy, but with Edwards far from 100 percent and Donte DiVicenzo going down, advancing past the Spurs was also going to be an incredibly difficult task.
Unlike previous seasons, this offseason brings with it a ton of uncertainty for the Timberwolves. This Wolves team seems primed for a shakeup around Edwards, as it appears the team has hit a ceiling with the frontcourt pairing of Randle and Gobert.
The Wolves have been incredibly successful of late, making the Playoffs each of the last five seasons and winning at least one playoff series in each of the last three. It’s been the most successful era, while simultaneously being a step behind the best team or two in the league.
To get over the hump and win the championship, Minnesota will need to put together a team that is even better than the one they’ve had this past half-decade. It’s a tall task, but with a superstar like Edwards and surrounding young pieces like Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid, the Timberwolves have the hard part figured out.
For now, Minnesota will have to stew with a third consecutive embarrassing blowout in an elimination game.
Up Next
The offseason is here. We here at Canis Hoopus will have you covered for all things Timberwolves this summer through the Draft, Free Agency, Summer League, and every move that is made in the coming weeks and months.
For everyone here at Canis, we want to say thank you for following our coverage of the Timberwolves this season and look forward to providing even more this offseason and next season.
