MINNEAPOLIS - After a Game Four road win in Dallas that saved their season two nights before, the Minnesota Timberwolves returned to their lair for Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.
It was the perfect set-up. The Target Center was full, the bright lights seared, and with a roaring crowd of 19,333 on hand, the building shook.
And then.....A big, inglorious thud.
Despite all the advantages of home court, it took the usually volatile Timberwolves offense three business days to get going. And it proved fatal.
After just one quarter of play, the bullish Dallas Mavericks stampeded to a 16-point lead as Luka Doncic alone outscored Minnesota, 20-19.
What was expected to be a nail-biter, turned out to be anti-climactic, even boring.
ONE-SIDED GAME 5
The Mavs led by as many as 38 points, 82-46, in the third quarter. There was just one lead change and two ties, both occurring early in the opening quarter.
Luka and Kyrie Irving each finished with 38 points, their inter-galactic star power eclipsing the hopes and dreams of a young Minnesota team that was led by a budding 22-year old superstar.
That man, Anthony Edwards, did show up with 28 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. But at this stage in the NBA playoffs, a transcendent, career-defining moment was required.
Karl Anthony-Towns, the other alpha Timberwolf, growled with 28 points and 12 rebounds but the rest of the pack did not bite.
Minnesota shot just 42.7 percent from the field (38 of 89) and 31.2 percent from 3-point distance (10-of-32). Outrebounded, 48-41, the Wolves also had a terrible 17-11 assists-to-turnovers ratio.
az Reid, the freakishly athletic 6-foot-9 spark plug that fires up the Minnesota bench, clogged with 5 points on 2-for-10 shooting. The endearingly slow moving but fundamentally sound Kyle Anderson was similarly docile with 7 points with six missed shots on 9 attempts.
HEIR TO THE THRONE.
The sting of this defeat, however, does not take away the success of the Timberwolves' season.
Seeded third in the West, they swept Kevin Durant and the Suns in the first round before knocking out the defending champions Denver Nuggets in round two to reach the conference finals for the first time since 2004.
You just wished it had a better ending.
After the final horn sounded, Edwards trudged from the court to the locker room for the last time this season. He looked crushed, defeated. And the fact that he didn't have shoes on was a vivid metaphor of how Game 5 played out for the Timberwolves.
The wheels fell off.
It was sad to see Ant in that moment of grief, but this uncomfortable ritual of failure is exactly what superstardom demands from the great ones.
Someday, Edwards will be on top, the NBA kingdom will be his to reign.
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