Maybe you sat in front of a projector screen in your home theater, marveling at Anthony Edwards’ fourth-quarter dunk so much that you had to freeze it on the screen and gather with your buddies to take a photo to commemorate the event.
Maybe you were watching Karl-Anthony Towns deliver one of the best performances of his life to help your Minnesota Timberwolves — yes, they are YOUR Timberwolves — sweep the Phoenix Suns with a 122-116 Game 4 victory on Sunday night and had to wonder if this was all a dream because you were so used to Wolves seasons ending in April.
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Maybe you were lucky enough to be in the Footprint Center in Phoenix, wearing a wolf on your head while you cheered for the road team or swiping away the offer of a Suns T-shirt while supporting your brother-in-law, Jordan McLaughlin.
Maybe you had to set your alarm to get up for a 3:30 a.m. tipoff in France because there was no way you were going to miss seeing your favorite team win its first playoff series in 20 years.
Maybe you cradled your newborn in your arms in Northeast Minneapolis or reminisced at your crib in Los Angeles about how far you have come since the last time the Timberwolves have come this far.
Wherever you were, whatever you were wearing, whoever you were with, I hope you took a moment on Sunday night to soak it all in.
For 20 years, the Timberwolves have been the butt of jokes across the league, and deservedly so. Michael Beasley once showed up to a game with scratches on his face and later said that they came from a Tasmanian Devil that had gotten out of its cage at his home. Kevin Love once said he broke his hand while doing knuckle push-ups. David Kahn passed on Steph Curry … twice, Jimmy Butler detonated the organization from the inside and Gersson Rosas was fired days before training camp opened.
That is just a sliver of the dysfunction and embarrassment that Timberwolves fans have had to endure over the years. You have watched your team change general managers more often than Mario Andretti changed tires at the Indy 500. You have seen players come and go with the frequency of cast reboots on “The Real Housewives” franchise. To be honest, you’re not even sure who owns your team.
None of that mattered on Sunday night. It did not matter that Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, for the first time this series, showed some real determination to not lose a game. It did not matter that the Wolves could not hit a shot to save their lives in the first half of the game. It did not matter that Scott Foster was the crew chief.
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The only thing that mattered was that this Timberwolves team is different than any that has come before it over the last 20 years. This team has a superstar exploding onto the NBA landscape, a supporting cast as tight-knit and talented as any in the 35-year history of the franchise and a coaching staff that is capable of building a game plan to turn a team that dominated the Wolves in the regular season into a frustrated, flopping mess of a group that never stood a chance.
A series that opened with the belief that the Suns would exploit Minnesota’s size ended with a quickness so overwhelming that it led to the conclusion that it wasn’t even all that impressive for the Wolves because they were the ones who had the mismatch so heavily in their favor. A team with Durant, Booker and Bradley Beal would presumably be the kind of shooting-rich, small-ball roster that could run circles around Rudy Gobert, Towns and the bigger, slower Wolves. Instead, the Suns were suffocated by them.
The Suns have flaws, no doubt. But they won 49 games during the regular season, including 10 of their last 14 to avoid the Play-In Tournament. Two of those were decisive victories over the Wolves. But the script flipped in the postseason with Minnesota exposing Phoenix as a glass-jawed opponent, one that couldn’t withstand the pressure of Edwards on the perimeter and Towns and Gobert at the rim.
You heard the questions about Edwards’ love of the game before he was drafted and then you watched him deliver his latest jaw-dropper in Game 4, putting up 40 points, nine rebounds, six assists and two blocks in 41 minutes.
MUST. SEE. TV. 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/RfyEyTIZO5
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 29, 2024
You have seen Towns take all manner of criticism and derision for his lack of success on the court, his battle with Butler, even for the tone of his voice in interviews. Then you watched him deliver one of the very best games of his career, hitting shots early when no one else could to keep the team afloat and finishing with 28 points, 10 rebounds and three assists to close out the Suns.
T O U G H 😤 pic.twitter.com/FN2M1oikqL
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 29, 2024
You endured last season, the rough entry of Gobert and the ridiculing from national media about what was surely a foolish decision by president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to pair Gobert and Towns in the frontcourt. When they re-signed Naz Reid, another center?!?, last summer, the jokes kept flying. Typical Timberwolves, always a step behind the rest. Now here they are, advancing to the second round to face the winner of the Denver Nuggets–Los Angeles Lakers series.
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With the way the Wolves played in this Suns series, with how connected they were on defense and how versatile they were on offense, the possibilities are endless. They have an alpha wolf in Edwards who breathes life and confidence into his teammates daily. They have a generational defense anchored by Gobert, Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker that can tear a team apart. They have a true point guard in Mike Conley to smooth things out when the going gets tough.
The way this team is playing right now, and the way the rest of the Western Conference looks, this could be just the beginning for these Wolves, your Wolves.
“It’s great, but at the same time, we’re trying to get that championship,” Gobert told reporters in Phoenix. “And this is one step of the way. It’s not gonna get easier. So we just gotta stay focused, keep putting in the work every day and keep taking care of ourselves and we’ll be alright.”
The biggest concern at this point may be the health of coach Chris Finch, who ruptured the patellar tendon in his right knee late in the fourth quarter. But the sweep gives the Wolves some time to come up with a plan. The earliest the next round would begin is on Saturday if the Nuggets defeat the Lakers in Game 5 on Monday night. If the Lakers win Game 5, Game 1 of the next series will begin on Monday.
There will be people who snicker at your elation, who look down their noses and point at the folks celebrating a trip to the second round of the playoffs. Pay no attention to the Lakers fans and Boston Celtics fans who haven’t walked through the same fire you have for the last 20 years. They are the same holier-than-thou wet blankets who laughed when Patrick Beverley jumped onto the scorer’s table after the Play-In win over the LA Clippers two years ago. Basketball is supposed to be fun, and you have had precious few moments in which to revel over the last two decades.
You don’t want to hang a banner for this one. That would be silly. But you should enjoy this. It has been a long road to get here. The last time was in 2004, Kevin Garnett’s MVP season. This team is better than that one, deeper, more talented and just as capable of coming out of the West.
Maybe you allowed yourself to think about that while wearing a Stephon Marbury jersey in Phoenix, watching nervously until the last second ticked off the clock to make sure this was happening. Maybe you played some Prince at your home in San Diego while Ian Eagle narrated the closing seconds on TNT.
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Or maybe you don’t have any rooting interest in this team at all. But maybe you’ve spent the bulk of your career chronicling the stories of the people in the jerseys, the coaches leading them and so many of the the anonymous folks behind the scenes. Maybe you would bristle when you would tell people that you cover the Minnesota Timberwolves and they would furrow their brows and ask, “Why would you waste your time with them?” Maybe you always knew this was a basketball state, and that all the people here needed was a reason to watch.
Maybe you didn’t make the trip to Phoenix for Games 3 and 4. Maybe you watched the Wolves complete the first best-of-seven sweep in Minnesota pro sports history in the quiet of your basement with the flat screen on mute (sorry Grady and Jim Pete), while your boy, who has had to deal with health issues that no one his age should have to face, sleeps soundly on the couch next to you. Maybe you understood that as fun as it would have been to be there for a historic moment, it felt even better to be right where you needed to be.
And maybe you smiled and started to think about all the stories that this team has left to tell.
(Photo of Karl-Anthony Towns: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
