MINNEKeynote USAOLIS — There was certainly a lot to celebrate for the Minnesota Timberwolves after coming back from 20 points down to win Game 7 in Denver and advance to their first Western Conference finals in 20 years.
But head coach Chris Finch reminded his team Tuesday that there are still eight more wins left to capture the NBA championship. And with the defending champions away, Finch repeated a message from the start of the season to the Wolves.
“It’s been a great season,” Finch said of his talk with his team. “We have achieved a lot. But we said from the beginning and as the season developed: why not us?
“The league is very open. We are not in a dynastic period. As demonstrated, there will be a new champion this year. So there is still everything to play for, but there is a long, long way to go.”
After topping the defending champion Nuggets in seven games, the Wolves are focusing on the Dallas Mavericks and how their top-rated defense must adapt, from trying to slow down MVP Nikola Jokic to containing this season’s scoring champion in Luka Doncic and the incredibly skilled Kyrie Irving. .
“It’s going to be a different style of play,” Minnesota point guard Mike Conley said. “A lot more pick-and-rolls. The ball handler is the Jokic of the series, where they do a lot of things for Luka and Kyrie and the guys have to be able to get in and out of help situations. They play fast with the throw ahead to their athletic wings, so we’re going to have multiple challenges in this series and we’re going to have to figure out how to do it right away.”
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Minnesota went 3-1 against Dallas in the regular season. However, Doncic, who averaged 33.9 points per game, did not play in two of the losses.
This is the sixth time since the NBA-ABA merger (1976-77) that the reigning scoring champion faces the best opposing team in points per game allowed in a series, according to research by Keynote USA Stats & Information.
But the Wolves have more to figure out than Doncic and Irving. The two teams haven’t played since Jan. 31, before the Mavericks transformed their team with trades for PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford on Feb. 8.
“We haven’t played this iteration,” Finch said. “We played them four times before the (All-Star) break and trade deadline, so they’re a much more complete and complementary unit. Their defense has taken a big step forward with rim protection.
“You could see their kind of connectivity on defense and the overall effort is at an all-time high there and they have a lot of really good pieces around Luka and Kyrie that can really make shots, get out in transition, do everything they can.” things they had to do to support those guys.
Finch said Conley’s Achilles injury, which kept him out of Game 5 against Denver, is a pain management issue, but that it “didn’t seem as bad” in Game 7.
“Honestly it depends on whether you can get through the game without having any little setbacks,” said Conley, who played 38 minutes in Game 7 against Denver on Sunday. “You have some moves that really shake you up or make the pain go up very quickly and it stays there for a while. Some games I get through them the whole game and you don’t have any setbacks, so it’s just like keep building up and forward, so I’m trying to accumulate as many days as I can.”
Conley returns to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2013, when he was with the Memphis Grizzlies. Veterans like him and Rudy Gobert don’t take this journey for granted.
“It’s my dream,” Gobert said. “I have always dreamed of being a champion. It has always been my goal, to win a championship, since I entered the league. And when they traded me here, the first thing I said is that I believe, I believe in this organization, I believe in the group.
“And for me and for this organization, we’re now in territory we haven’t been in before for this group. Enjoy the moment. There’s nothing I want more right now, the championship, so I’ll do whatever.” he agree. “
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