The Minnesota Timberwolves joined the Indiana Pacers as teams returning to their respective Conference Finals with their 121-100 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.
The Wolves fell to the Dallas Mavericks in last season’s edition of the conference finals, and head coach Chris Finch challenged his group to climb its way back up the mountain from the onset of the season.
“The challenge we laid down to our guys from day one was quite simple,” Finch said after the Game 5 win that closed out the series, according to ESPN. “It was one question: ‘Were you a Western Conference finals team, or were you a team that just happened to make the Western Conference finals?’
“And there’s only one way to prove that: Go out and do it again. And that was our mission all year.”
Wolves Center Rudy Gobert feels the group has undergone enough maturing to advance to the Finals in this go-around.
“After a win like we had last year against Denver in Game 7, I felt like you get the whole world praising you,” Gobert said. “All the sudden, you went from being the underdog to being the favorite. The way we weren’t mature enough to handle that yet. We were aware of it. This year, we’re mature enough.”
However, face of the franchise Anthony Edwards is keeping his eyes on the prize, and knows that the Wolves still have a lot to accomplish.
“There is no satisfaction,” Edwards said. “We just got here. We haven’t [done] anything yet.”
