When I volunteered to do this overview, I did so with one condition:
“I can accept it, but I can’t promise optimism or positive vibes.”
This is the sad state of this team, a campaign which has surpassed all but one other season, which has filled us all with joy and pride, seems to be coming to an end before the team can make the very first appearance of the franchise in the final. .
Teams down 3-0 have never won the series in a gigantic sample size of nearly 160.
But you know what?
In the infamous words of Randall Marsh, I heard no bells.
Facing a debilitating and demoralizing sweep that would result in an NBA Twitter era so dark and evil when it comes to this roster and its players, the Minnesota Timberwolves will face the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 in an attempt to stave off the more bitter tastes during just a moment. A few days.
Let’s see how they can achieve this.
Game information
- WHO: #3 Minnesota Timberwolves (0-3) vs. #5 Dallas Mavericks (3-0)
- When: Tuesday, May 28 at 7:30 p.m. CT
- Or: American Airlines Center — Dallas, Texas
- National television: TNT, truTV (Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Stan Van Gundy, Allie LaForce)
- Radio: KFAN FM 100.3, Wolves app, iHeart Radio
- Double: Wolves +2 | Total: 210 (courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)
Injury report
Updated Tuesday, May 28 at 9:30 a.m. CT
Minnesota
QUESTIONABLE:
- Mike Conley (right soleus strain)
Dallas
AVAILABLE:
- Maxi Kleber (right shoulder AC separation)
QUESTIONABLE:
- Luka Dončić (right knee sprain; left ankle pain)
OUT
- Derek Lively II (neck sprain)
- Olivier-Maxence Prosper (sprained left ankle)
What to watch out for
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Offense? Buhler? Buhler?
The Wolves lost the fourth quarter by 21 points in three games in this series. While it’s worth noting that the Mavs are one of the best clutch time teams in the NBA, it’s hard to watch this series through a lens outside of the Wolves regularly and constantly shooting themselves in the face. foot.
There have been long stretches of not just bad infractions, but rather a complete transformation of the territory of the Little Tikes Planet Fitness pickup experience: the rim is too small and no one is working together.
Certainly, I would love to see Anthony Edwards dunk on a Little Tikes hoop.
Speaking of Edwards, though, the conversation about offensive failures should probably start with him. It’s easy to point to the turnover at the end of Game 2 that gave the Mavs a 2-0 series lead they’ve since expanded, but even in a comparably better Game 3, Ant played a good quarter among three which were mediocre at best.
In fact, is it hyperbolic to say that Q3’s Q3 blowout is the only good quarter we’ve gotten from Ant so far in this series?
Beyond that, the other offensive anchor that should support the Wolves has also been terrible. Karl-Anthony Towns, after a truly incredible series against the Denver Nuggets, just hasn’t played well. As it stands, Towns has the lowest 3-point percentage in a single Conference Finals series of any player in NBA history.
So, I obviously disagree with the TNT guys: I think KAT should take more than 3 – in this series, the last series, the series before that and the entire regular season. And let’s really go back to four years ago, when the volume started to really drop off (for whatever reason).
This Wolves team was…
– Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) May 27, 2024
There is a lot to say about KAT right now. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these comments have been devoted to mockery or hyper-analyzed quotes. It seems so unfair that Towns had two great performances in the first and second rounds, as well as a recent(ish) positional jump that led the team to go further than ever and is still the butt of jokes really disgusting. not only anonymous members of social networks, but also professional hosts of huge sports networks.
The obvious hope is that the two number one picks at the center of this race can bounce back. The gulf between the play of the Mavs’ best players and that of the Wolves’ top two is big. Even putting that comparison aside, it seems like many of us overestimated this team’s ability to maintain its defensive work rate without the short breaks that a moment of offensive ascension might bring.
Look, I said it would be hard to be optimistic. Beyond logic, beyond strategy, there is only hope. That’s all I have to suggest here.
Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images
Wait what? NAW Review
Nickeil Alexander-Walker has an offensive rating of 119 and a defensive rating of 106 in this series. That seems crazy considering he’s shooting 4/14 and has only made one of his 10 3-point attempts, but NAW is one of only three Wolves with a positive plus minus total and the only one of these three to be in double digits. . Honestly, if we want to jump straight to the numbers, Nickeil’s +11 over three games is monstrous in comparison to Gobert’s +3 or Kyle Anderson’s +1.
NAW will enter next year on an expiring contract, but has slowly worked his way into the young core conversation alongside Jaden McDaniels (23), Naz Reid (24) and Anthony Edwards (22). The 25-year-old has the perfect complementary style of play alongside the aforementioned three and could be the long-term answer alongside them.
Back to the present, Nickeil’s return to regular season shooting numbers would be huge for a team that can’t afford to lose one of its very few capable shooters.
The expectation of regression to the mean is the only thing Wolves fans can hold on to right now. Unfortunately, the Wolves are shooting over 35% from deep in this series. They averaged about 38% from beyond the arc this year. Surprisingly, that extra three percent could have influenced at least one of those games.
Again, there aren’t many positive moments that I can give you as an analyst. The only optimism I can offer you is a fan’s hope.
I became a Wolves fan in 2011. There have been very, very few positive moments since. Even the 2018 season that broke the streak of abject failure and returned Minnesota to the playoffs, even the thrilling joy of Game 82, was met with basketball bordering on the unwatchable as the Wolves took on the circular saw that was the 2018 Houston Rockets.
No, the story of being a Wolves fan, or at least my story of being one, is constructed from a few positive memories and many more of making the best of a bad situation.
So now is the time to do the same. It’s time to embrace the joys of this season, not to overcome the pain of this ending, but to weather the storm of what will surely be a borderline apocalyptic offseason for Timberwolves narratives.
Don’t cry because it’s over, cry because Mike Conley deserves a ring.
And especially…
Change that face. Be happy. Enjoy it,
