For fans of Minnesota sports, there’s a lot to be proud of. Now, we (I’ve been here long enough to lump myself in) might not be very vocal about that pride, but its certainly been a year of successes. The Vikings flew above expectations, the Wild came out of one of the best divisions in hockey and made it deeper into the postseason than people expected, and the Twins just wrapped up a 13-game win streak to jump into second place of the AL Central. But what the Timberwolves have done this season is flat out incredible, winning 16 of their last 19 games going back into the final stretch of the regular season, Minnesota is now one series-win away from going where they’ve never been, the NBA Finals.
Led by superstar Anthony Edwards, the Timberwolves have made light-work of Lebron and the Lakers, and then Steph Curry and the Warriors in the second round. Sure, Curry was hurt early in the series, but it’s still very hard to win at the rate Minnesota has in the NBA Playoffs. The T-Wolves are 8-2 in these playoffs, their two losses by a combined 20-points. Another point to be made is those two losses came in game two (Lakers series) and game one (Warriors series), which means this team not only shows great perseverance but also knows how to close out a series which bodes well for them against Oklahoma City.
OKC is a young, scrappy and wildly-talented roster that has purely dominated the league this season. OKC won 68 games this year and finished atop the Northwest Division. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the Thunder’s version of Anthony Edwards, he leads their team in field goal percentage (51.9%), points per game (32.7) and assists per game (6.4). He’s their Swiss Army Knife, he does it all. But the Thunder just wrapped up a long and physical seven-game series against the Denver Nuggets while Minnesota has been at home resting for nearly a week. In these playoffs, we have seen plenty of road-upsets, including against the very team they face tonight who lost at home to the Nuggets in game one, two weeks ago in one of the most storybook finishes we’ve seen in some time. Which means the Thunder, while still arguably the best team left, has shown some cracks.
Tonight’s game is massive for this series. It is crucial to get out of the gate on the right foot, and if Minnesota could take game one on the road it would surely give them a leg-up on the rest of the series. If you asked the locker room what the best outcome of their two road games against OKC would be before going back home, they would tell you “2-0”, because they have to. But I think the most realistic outcome that would benefit Minnesota would be a 1-1 split. In my opinion, being tied and heading back to your home court would put Minnesota in the drivers seat of this series in which the winner goes to the NBA Finals, something the Timberwolves have never done before. Tip-off tonight is set for 7:30 PM on ESPN, the Timberwolves come in as 7.5 point underdogs.
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