The San Antonio Spurs outclassed the Minnesota Timberwolves, 139-109, in a Sport 6 win on Friday, securing a spot within the Western Convention finals.
The win propelled the Spurs to a matchup towards the defending NBA champion Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. It additionally denied the Timberwolves a 3rd consecutive look within the West finals.
San Antonio is within the West finals for the primary time since 2017.
The Timberwolves by no means led and watched the Spurs’ lead attain 37 factors. The Spurs received Sport 5 on Tuesday by 29 factors and Sport 2 by 38.
Second-year Spurs guard Stephon Fortress scored 32 factors, one level off his profession playoff excessive (set in Sport 3 of the first-round sequence towards the Portland Path Blazers) and was 5-of-7 on 3-pointers. Fortress additionally had 11 rebounds.
De’Aaron Fox added 21 factors on 8-of-10 taking pictures and recorded 9 assists, whereas Victor Wembanyama scored 19 factors for the Spurs. Anthony Edwards (9-of-26) led the Timberwolves with 24 factors. Terrence Shannon Jr. had 21 factors off the bench.
Listed here are key takeaways from Sport 6:
Spurs’ basketball id on full show
Ultimately, the Spurs’ sequence ended the best way it wanted to. Their guards torched the Wolves, whereas Wembanyama was a defensive drive that Minnesota couldn’t overcome.
This was the Spurs’ id at its very best, overwhelming the opponent with pace and contact on the rim.
Stephon Fortress turned the primary Spurs participant with at the least 30 factors, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 3-pointers in a playoff recreation. This was borderline perfection from the “Slash Brothers,” Fortress and Dylan Harper, with their mentor De’Aaron Fox. This was a vital coda to the sequence for Fox, who was unstoppable offensively to complete off a principally tough sequence for him.
His scoring shall be sorely wanted towards the Thunder, who’ve the trickiest protection within the league and can push the Spurs’ younger guys to their limits. His composure and savvy was instrumental in carving up the Wolves protection in Sport 6, and the Spurs will want his finest if they’ll get previous the Thunder.
The Spurs proved on this sequence that their strategy works. In opposition to a ravaging protection that pushed everybody to their emotional and bodily limits, the workforce all the time discovered a matchup to take advantage of, a ballhandler to develop some movement or simply used Wemby’s gravity to open issues up. They guarded their yard pretty effectively and funneled issues into Wembanyama successfully, even when the Wolves acquired artistic.
The Spurs all the time had solutions and slammed the door laborious as soon as they appeared human after Sport 4. They’ve carried out no matter they will up till this level to show they’re worthy of being NBA champions. Now they need to undergo the throne sitters to search out out if what seems to be actual is the truth is the reality. — Jared Weiss, Spurs author
Fox delivers when Spurs want it most
For someday, at the least, the imaginative and prescient couldn’t probably have labored higher.
Fox, a max-contract man, was price each cent because the Spurs closed out Minnesota in dominant style. By means of three quarters — at which level the aggressive a part of Sport 6 was over — Fox was each dynamic and environment friendly. He completed with 21 factors on 10 pictures, had 9 assists towards 1 turnover and was a game-high plus-26.
Fox made all three of his 3-pointers, stood his floor towards larger Minnesota wings on protection and shook off an harm to his proper leg late within the first half to steer a series-clinching Spurs surge within the third quarter. When it was carried out, San Antonio had amassed 110 factors in simply 36 minutes and was effectively on its solution to its first conference-finals look since 2017.
It hasn’t all the time been that straightforward for Fox, who has been up-and-down on this postseason and has, at occasions, had Spurs followers questioning if phenom Dylan Harper was the higher on-court match. Additionally, with a four-year, $222 million extension for Fox as a result of kick in subsequent season, the expectations bar is excessive no matter what Harper does. On Friday, Fox cleared it with miles to spare. — John Hollinger, NBA Senior author
Wolves with one other disappointing end
That is the third straight season the Timberwolves have seen a powerful run within the playoffs finish with a whimper.
They had been down by as many as 29 factors within the first half, solely exhibiting a heartbeat throughout just a little run within the second quarter that trimmed the deficit right down to 12, however they by no means acquired any nearer than that.
It continues an unpleasant pattern. They misplaced Sport 5 of the 2024 Western Convention finals to the Dallas Mavericks by 21 factors in a recreation that was over after the primary quarter. Final season, they misplaced Sport 5 in Oklahoma Metropolis by 30 factors.
After they let go of the rope, they actually let go of it.
It was a really disappointing finish to what had been an inspiring run for the shorthanded Wolves. They beat the Denver Nuggets within the first spherical even after dropping Donte DiVincenzo to an Achilles harm and Anthony Edwards to a knee harm. They took Sport 1 in San Antonio even with out Ayo Dosunmu.
However with Anthony Edwards’ knees aching and his frontcourt failing him miserably, the Wolves had been by no means in Friday’s recreation. Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert mixed to go 5-of-25 from the sphere for 16 factors. It was the worst recreation the trio has performed collectively all season, and it got here on the worst attainable time. Randle missed seven of eight pictures and scoring simply three factors. Gobert went scoreless and solely had three rebounds.
It should increase questions in regards to the viability of that frontcourt as they go into the summer season needing a a severe change to compete with San Antonio and Oklahoma Metropolis within the West.
It’s clear the Wolves don’t measure as much as these groups. Now, the strain shall be on president of basketball operations Tim Connelly to search out some solutions round Edwards. — Jon Krawczynski, Wolves author