For the second season in a row, the Minnesota Timberwolves have fallen short just one round and three wins short of going to the NBA Finals. In 2024, it was the Dallas Mavericks that bounced Anthony Edwards and company out of the playoffs. This season, the Oklahoma City Thunder will represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals after a five-game victory over Minnesota.

In truth, the Timberwolves were levels below the Thunder in this series. Games 1 and 2 were both blowout losses for Minnesota, and after a gut-wrenching Game 4 loss at home, the Wolves got crushed 124-94 back in Oklahoma City in Game 5.

Overall, it was a disappointing series for Edwards, who also struggled at the same stage against the Mavericks a year ago. After the loss on Wednesday night, he had an interesting comparison for the Thunder, via Timberwolves reporter Dane Moore.

“Anthony Edwards described Oklahoma City as '15 puppets, one string,'” Moore wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

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Whatever the Thunder reminded Edwards of, they clearly had the answers for him in this series. The Thunder, who have one of the best defenses in the modern era of NBA basketball, held Edwards under 20 points in three of the five games in this series, as the Minnesota superstar was never able to leave his imprint on the series.

Edwards was especially quiet in Games 4 and 5, notching just 35 points over the two games while shooting 12-for-31 from the field and 2-for-14 from the 3-point line. Edwards even struggled at the foul line in those two games, sinking just nine of his 13 attempts at the charity stripe.

The Timberwolves as a whole were overmatched by a Thunder team that came at them in waves with depth and talent on both ends of the floor. All season long, Oklahoma City has shown why it is the best team in the NBA, and it continued to do that throughout this series.

Now, it is back to the drawing board for Edwards and the Wolves after another conference finals loss. However, this was the first time in Timberwolves history that they went to the Western Conference Finals in consecutive seasons.