The Timberwolves were frustrated, maybe a little embarrassed and clearly stunned after Friday’s Game 3 defeat to Denver that left Minnesota staring down the barrel of a potential first-round sweep in the NBA playoffs.
Anthony Edwards left the locker room after the game without even speaking to the media.
A team that entered the playoffs on a high after winning a number of critical games to close out the regular season and dominating its play-in victory over Oklahoma City, the Wolves are suddenly missing their mojo.
“Yeah, I didn’t think we’d be here. Honestly, I didn’t think anybody in this room did,” Wolves veteran guard Mike Conley said. “We had been playing really good basketball, playing hard, and doing a lot of really, really good things to get into the playoffs. So, it’s frustrating. Guys are upset.”
But the pity party must be short lived. Because the fate of Minnesota’s season, which was originally expected to extend at least a couple of weeks beyond this weekend, rests in the hands of Sunday’s Game 4 at Target Center. The next loss in this series will be the Wolves’ last. There will be plenty of time to eventually dissect how the team got into this hole, but Minnesota’s current prerogative is find a way to get out of it.
“What’s done is done. In a playoff series or in life, you can’t go back in time. The only thing you can control is how you prepare for the next game, how you wake up the next day and how you play when the day comes,” Wolves center Rudy Gobert said. “That’s the mindset that we should always have, and that’s the mindset that we should have. Learn from today, learn from the first three games that we have, and hopefully being able to capitalize on that and play the way we deserve to play and get a win.”
No team in NBA history has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-7 format to win the series. Doing so against the top team in the Western Conference — one that has dominated this series for 11 of the 12 quarters played — appears highly unlikely, at best. The task is as tall as Everest. That’s why a number of players repeated the mantra of taking things one day at a time.
“Just got a steeper hill to climb to try to do what we want to do. Gotta be ready on Sunday,” Kyle Anderson said. “Just try to watch film, correct mistakes, get our correct preparation in and just be ready to go. Our back is against the wall, 3-0. Try to take it one game at a time, one day at a time. … It’s still a series.”
That’s what Edwards was telling teammates after Friday’s loss — that each round is a race to four wins, not three. There are certainly reasons to continue, beyond extending hope of advancement. Every additional playoff experience Minnesota can squeeze out of this season will be all the more beneficial for the likes of Anthony Edwards, who has shown how bright his star shines but is still learning what is required to win the most important games.
And if the Wolves do indeed plan to run it back next season with a similar roster construction, this group could use all the reps it can get in its ongoing battle to build chemistry and cohesion. Frankly, a couple of wins would provide more evidence that trotting similar lineups out next season has merit.
“We still got another one to extend this series and be the team that we were coming into this playoff with,” Conley said.
There is also something to be said about not entering the offseason on the heels of four consecutive losses.
“You gotta win. I mean, there’s nothing else to think about,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We got to take every game as a single game. We can’t look forward at all, you know, we gotta dominate those days when it’s game day, and we just got to continuously just stick to that day. There ain’t no more wiggle room now, you know, so we got to do something.”
Coach Chris Finch noted the Wolves “have to come out and fight.” There is no reason to leave anything in the holster at this point.
“Obviously it’s back against the wall. All the way against the wall,” Conley said. “None of these guys want to go home or end the season next game. It’s going to be a win or go home situation obviously. We’ve been in that type of environment throughout the last couple of weeks of the season. I expect guys to come in, be free, play together, play to win, do whatever it takes, mentality. So that’s what we got to have.”
