Last season, the Minnesota Timberwolves The Wolves swept the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs. Three of their four wins were by double digits, proving how much better the Wolves were than the Suns, despite their Big Three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. However, Game 4 of that series gave the Wolves a surprising upset when Mike Conley collided with coach Chris Finchcausing a knee injury. Karl Anthony Towns recalls his teammate Anthony Edwards” funny reaction to this unfortunate incident.
On a recent episode of Paul George’s P podcast, Towns mentioned Edwards’ reaction to the coach’s injury.
“I remember when [Chris] Finch got hurt, Ant said, ‘If this is what getting old is, I don’t want to get old.’ I said, ‘Ant, he banged his knee.’ He said, ‘I don’t care, I don’t want to be like that,'” Towns said with a laugh.
Chris Finch’s Timberwolves
Last season, the Timberwolves may have finally cracked the mystery, improving on their 42-40 record from the year before and winning 56 games. The last time the team won 50 games was in 2004, when Kevin Garnett also ended the team’s first-round elimination streak and led them to the conference finals, though they lost to the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers.
Like that 2004 team, the The 2024 Wolves also reached the conference finalsbut they lost to the Dallas Mavericks under Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. However, fans still have plenty of reasons to celebrate, despite the Disappointing end to season for Wolves.
They also dethroned the defending champions, the Denver Nuggets, despite Chris Finch’s injury.
For example, the team may have finally resolved its Towns-Rudy Gobert dilemma. Jazz trade Gobert to Timberwolves In 2022, fans and analysts alike thought the Wolves overpaid for a center who would provide formidable interior defense but hamper the offense by clogging the lane for Towns and Edwards. Likewise, fans thought Gobert had no post moves on offense and couldn’t shoot from 10 feet outside.
People also worried about ball handlers and sharpshooters making Gobert play off the court, but Finch ultimately figured out how to play to the respective strengths of his two seven-footers, creating a dynamic offense-defense combo that’s hard to stop and score on.
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The Twin Towers
In 60 games with Gobert, Karl Anthony Towns continued to scoreaveraging 21.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Meanwhile, the Frenchman continued to do what he does best, averaging 14.0 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks.
Aside from those two big men, the Wolves also have an asset in Anthony Edwards. In addition to his high-flying performances, the two-time All-Star can shoot from anywhere on the court, giving opposing teams nightmares on defense. He averaged 25.9 points in 79 games, with his durability being another asset for a team looking to solidify its playoff position.
Now it’s up to the team to not repeat the failures of Garnett’s teams after 2004 and go where No other Timberwolves team has been there before.
