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The Minnesota Timberwolves may be waving the white flag in their Western Conference Finals matchup with the Dallas Mavericks.
Obviously, the Timberwolves aren't literally giving up. The series isn't technically over yet, but Minnesota fell behind 3-0 on Sunday night, and no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in NBA playoff history.
So, basically, it's over, and apparently, the Timberwolves' staff is already resigned to the fact that the Mavericks are the superior ballclub.
“You know I was talking to some officials from the Timberwolves tonight and they're like, ‘This is a great learning experience for us they're just better,' and I agree,” ESPN's Brian Windhorst said on The Hoop Collective. “You know, you can break down the X's and O's and you can talk about individual performances, but the Mavericks have earned it and I think we may be headed for something special, unfortunately in June, which is still a ways away.”
Minnesota will battle the Dallas in Game 4 of the series on Tuesday evening.
The Timberwolves have exceeded expectations this season
Almost no one expected the Timberwolves to make it this far. I'm not even sure the most diehard Wolves fan would have anticipated that Minnesota would make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, upsetting the defending-champion Denver Nuggets along the way.
This is the furthest the Timberwolves have made it in the playoffs since 2004, when Kevin Garnett won the MVP award. It also marks the first time the franchise had even won a playoff series since then.
Minnesota missed the postseason 12 years in a row between the 2004-05 and 2016-17 campaigns, finally qualifying in 2017-18. However, the Timberwolves lost in the first round that year. They then made it again in 2021-22 and 2022-23, but were eliminated in the opening round both times.
But this year, thanks to the incredible play of Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Wolves proceeded to sweep the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the postseason last month and then shocked a whole lot of people by topping the Nuggets in seven games.
Edwards has morphed into one of the game's most exciting young players and seems to be trending toward becoming one of the best players in the league. Towns has been terrific for years, and Rudy Gobert has helped transform Minnesota into one of the NBA's best defensive squads.
All of that being said, it is clear that the Mavericks are the better team.
The Timberwolves haven't had much of an answer for the tandem of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and Edwards has struggled to get going in this series. Towns has not been very good, either. Minnesota dropped both games at home to open the series and then lost Game 3 in Dallas.
But even if they ultimately get swept, this was still an amazing season for a Timberwolves team that was certainly not expected to be a contender.
The future is absolutely bright in Minnesota. Edwards is a stud, and he has an outstanding supporting cast around him. We'll almost definitely see the Wolves back next year. The difference is that next time, they will be more experienced.
