Subscribe
Follow Us
On Tuesday evening, Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves got their first win of the Western Conference Finals with a Game 4 road victory vs the Dallas Mavericks. While it wasn't the prettiest game, Edwards and co-star Karl-Anthony Towns both had huge nights to help the Timberwolves avoid what would have been an embarrassing sweep to cap off what has otherwise been a wildly successful season for the franchise.
Of course, the Timberwolves still face an uphill battle in this series, to say the very least, as no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. However, one person who is optimistic that the Timberwolves can be the first to do so is former NBA big man and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, who recently broke down the key ingredients to a potential historic comeback for Minnesota.
“Luka is not 100% right. Now, you go 1,1,1. One in Minnesota, one in Dallas, one back in Minnesota if it goes to Game 7,” said Perkins, via the Road Trippin' podcast with Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye on YouTube. That’s a plane ride, how long is that plane ride, probably about 2.5 – 3 hours. Okay so now I’m thinking about swelling in the knee, the recovery time, I’m just saying, I’m just saying. I got Minnesota winning Game 5, they’re still young now, you know that crowd is going to be fired up, you know the message on the plane is, look we got to protect home. We already dropped two, we gotta protect home.”
Can the Timberwolves do the impossible?
Probably not. But that doesn't mean they should stop trying. After all, when most teams go down 0-3, they are the road team in the series, meaning that if they are able to salvage Game 4, they are still looking at having to win two out of the next three on the road.
The Timberwolves, on the other hand, have the luxury of playing Game 5, and a potential Game 7, back in the friendly confines of Minnesota, where of course they already lost two games in this series (and two games last series vs the Denver Nuggets), but would still probably rather play than out on the road.
It was only a year ago that we saw the Boston Celtics in a similar situation, dropping the first two games at home vs the Miami Heat, and then Game 3 as well, before rattling off three straight wins to force a Game 7 back at their home arena. Of course, the Celtics would end up losing that game in blowout fashion, but it's worth considering if the team would have looked different had star forward Jayson Tatum not come up hobbled with an ankle injury on the very first play of the game.
The main reason for the Timberwolves' win on Tuesday was the fact that Towns and Edwards were able to outplay Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, which may not be a sustainable formula three more times in a row. However, there's going to be a team that comes back from down 0-3 at some point, and right now, Minnesota has to be thinking, “Why not us?”
