Dave McMenamin
Oklahoma City – With MinnesotaThe season of the season that stops screaming just unless its first NBA final for the second consecutive year, Timberwolves Guard Anthony Edwards makes a promise to improve.
“I’m going to work on my buttocks this summer,” said Edwards after Minnesota 124-94 Loss of match 5 At Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday. “No one is going to work tough than me this summer. I’m going to tell you the same.”
The declaration came after the Thunder, the seeded n ° 1 of the league led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-AlexanderHas work the 23 -year -old budding superstar for everything he obtained in the Western Conference final. After finishing the regular season with an average of 27.6 points – fourth best in the NBA – he was detained below 20 in three of the five games against Oklahoma City.
He collected 19 points in the closing match and went 7 for 18 (1 for 7 out of 3) with three reversals. Minnesota was preceded by 29 points within 39 minutes that Edwards was on the ground.
“They were the best team, they went out and beat us, hit us in the face,” said Edwards, “and we lost the match, we lost the series.”
He was hardly the only guilty of the disappearance of Minnesota in match 5. In fact, when the Wolves dragged 26-9 after the first quarter, Edwards collected six points while the rest of the list had only gathered three on shot 1 for 15.
“We have lost our connectivity,” said Wolves coach Chris Finch. “But everything deserves the Thunder. They certainly deserved it. They played in suspense. We lacked many ways.”
Minnesota committed 21 reversals, leading 18 points for the Thunder and ignited the crowd that celebrated the first trip of its team to the final since 2012. Naz Reid (11 points, 5 rebounds) had five reversals and Julius Randle (24 points, 5 rebounds) was responsible for four, because the wolves seemed disjointed overnight, dragging up to 39 points – their biggest deficit in any match this season, overshadowing 36 points New York Knicks built on them in December.
“I have the impression that we are a better team than we have shown,” said Randle. “So a lot of motivation in summer, that’s for sure.”
Meanwhile, players’ role players Nickeil Alexander-Walker (0 points on shot 0 for 8), Jaden McDaniels (5 points on shot 2 for 13) and Donte Divincenzo (6 points on shot 2 for 4) was not likely to be the trio which combined 66 points in match 4, a defeat of 128-126 at home which turned out to be the last hacking of Minnesota.
Not to mention the departure center Rudy Gobert (2 points on a 1 for 1 shot) and the starting leader Mike Conley (0 points on 0 for 3) barely provided nothing to follow the rhythm of the Thunder, which had five two-digit players, led by Gilgeous-Alexander (34 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds).
Wolf rookie Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 35 points in the last three games after having barely played the rest of the playoffs to this point.
“I think we must certainly extend the rotation,” admitted Finch, forward. “We are looking forward to playing and I know we can help each other.”
As disappointing of a result as for Edwards, he admitted that he was just starting his trip, after having finished his fifth season. Conley, 37, having finished his 18th, no longer has the same amount of sand in the hourglass.
“I don’t know why people would think it would hurt, it’s exciting for me,” said Edwards. “I am 23 years old. I can do it several times.
As unbalanced as the conference finals were for the Wolves – they lost the three games on the road to the Paycc Center by 71 points combined – there was a lot of good that preceded it.
From March to the conference semi-final, the Wolves went 25-6, surprising the heads of series n ° 3 Los Angeles Lakers Like seeded n ° 6 in five games in the first round, then beating the Golden State Warriors In five games too.
It was a last final chapter, if not a last pages, for a team whose story included a successful business to acquire Randle and Divincenzo de la New York Knicks For Cities of Karl-Anthony Only two days before the training camp and a record that oscillated around .500 after the stars break.
“I remember having a conversation with Anthony, like mid-season,” said Finch. “I said,” What do you think we think that a good season looks like? What do you think this looks like us right now? “And he said,” Let’s go into the playoffs, let’s win a trick and see where we are going. It was exactly my thought at the time too. “
Edwards recalled conversation and difficult times.
“We thought it was going downhill,” he said. “We thought it was over for us at some point. It seemed really bad to us. … (and) we returned it.
“We have done fairly well this year, guy. We still succeeded. Try to start again next year.”
