The Timberwolves Survive

Congratulations to the Minnesota Timberwolves for surviving the overtime battle to the death to earn the right to the final playoff spot. A 14 year playoff drought has come to an end, and boy did it happen in spectacular fashion. Monster nights from Karl Anthony-Towns who went for 26/14 on 12-19, Jimmy Butler who went for 31/5/5 on 10-21 and even Andrew Wiggins showed up with 18/5/3 on 5-9. With absolutely nothing coming from their bench, the Timberwolves needed their stars to carry them to the promise land and that’s exactly what happened. It wasn’t without tension though, as the Nuggets did not let a double digit deficit get in the way of making this a wild finish. Just when it seemed like MIN was giving the game away with just 15 fourth quarter points, Taj Gibson comes up huge with a steal of Jokic in the final moments to essentially save their season.

A game that didn’t give us the best late game execution gave us one of the best endings anyway. The Nuggets have lost games like this before so it’s a bit on brand for them, and being so close to the playoffs and coming up short I’m sure hurts. But MIN got it done. They now face HOU which they went 0-4 against during the regular season. I say worry about that tomorrow, tonight MIN fans should celebrate making the playoffs for the first time since 2003-04.