The Timberwolves Can’t Stop Tempting Fate

Jaden McDaniels’ facial expression rarely changes, so it’s hard to decipher whether he’s being serious or not. Still, his heart rate didn’t seem to climb when he said he believes the Minnesota Timberwolves will advance to the NBA Finals.

“We knew that after Game 1 [and Game 2] we could win,” he said. “I'll say the only game [the Dallas Mavericks] really beat us was the last game. The rest of them were close. It was our mistakes that let us lose.

“We could probably run off three more now.”

McDaniels said that matter-of-factly, as though everyone should assume that Minnesota will become the first team in 155 tries to go down 3-0 in a playoff series and advance. There’s no circumstance in which that should be a given, but these Timberwolves are different. They’ve advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years, and they did so with moxie and poise.

“If it’s a team that can do it, I think it’s us,” Naz Reid said after Game 3. “We’re built to do that. Everybody still got their heads up. You don’t want to go down 0-3, but it’s part of life. We’re not going to hang our heads about it. We’re going to go out there and fix it.”

Minnesota has been fixing things throughout the playoffs.

The Phoenix Suns beat them 125-106 in Game 82, but Minnesota swept them in the first round. The Wolves won the first two games in Denver but lost the next three. Still, they beat the defending champs on the road in Game 7. Can they pick up a win at home, return to Dallas, and then finish off the series in front of their home fans?

“What am I supposed to say?” Edwards said after Game 4. “I’m supposed to say we gonna lose Game 5? I’d never say that. Micah Parsons, he was rocking the AE1s, and I told him, he wear a Size 14, I’ll bring him back some nice shoes for Game 6. That’s what I told him.”

Edwards will probably hand the Dallas Cowboys star a pair of his signature sneakers if the Wolves return to the Lone Star State for Game 6. He echoed that sentiment in Denver when he told a locker room staffer that the Timberwolves would be back for Game 7. Minnesota had lost their third game in a row and hadn’t won at home. Still, they beat the Denver Nuggets 115-70 at home and won the deciding game at Ball Arena.

“Hell yeah. They know. They was in there,” Edwards said after winning the series in Denver. “Yeah, I told them. I said, ‘I’ll see y’all motherf—ers for Game 7.’”

Edwards had that confidence before the playoffs started. The Suns were the only team that swept Minnesota, and the Wolves had to play them in the first round. Phoenix got up 44-22 in the first quarter, putting Game 82 out of reach almost immediately. The Suns had also beaten the Wolves 97-87 a week earlier.

After Game 82, a reporter asked Edwards if landing the 3-seed despite the loss was critical.

“It didn't look like it tonight, huh?” Edwards asked rhetorically with a knowing grin. “They won three games in the regular season; regular season over with now. We got the postseason, so we'll be ready to go.”

Edwards isn’t hard to read. His megawatt smile and movie-star charisma give away his thoughts and intentions, and he always says what’s on his mind. Reid has an endearing everyman quality to him. He almost shrugged when he said that the Wolves could come back from down 0-3 as if it was something everyone should know.

McDaniels is harder to read, though. He’s reticent and nonchalant. Funny in his own way, but often dead serious. Still, you don’t need to read his body language to know he’s being honest when he thinks the Timberwolves can win three straight. They hung around in Games 1 and 2, won Game 4, and they’re tired of beating themselves.