{"id":75079,"date":"2024-04-27T13:10:57","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T17:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=75079"},"modified":"2024-04-27T13:10:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-27T17:10:57","slug":"when-was-the-last-time-the-timberwolves-won-a-playoff-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/27\/when-was-the-last-time-the-timberwolves-won-a-playoff-series\/","title":{"rendered":"When Was the Last Time the Timberwolves Won a Playoff Series?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/25\/timberwolves-chris-finch-explains-rudy-goberts-ultimate-value\/\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> franchise has been far from the most successful. This season was their 35th in the NBA as their inaugural season was in 1989-90.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota has yet to experience an NBA Finals appearance. In 23 of their 35 years in the league, the Timberwolves did not taste playoff basketball.<\/p>\n<p>As a matter of fact, in seven of their first eight seasons in the 2000s they reached the playoffs. However, Minnesota didn\u2019t get past the first round the only year they advanced was in 2004 when they made the Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n<p>Now the Timberwolves are one win away from reaching the second round of the postseason for just the second time in franchise history.<\/p>\n<h2>When Was the Last Time the Timberwolves Won a Playoff Series?<\/h2>\n<h3>One Win Away From Sweeping the Suns<\/h3>\n<p>Minnesota is the third seed in the Western Conference. Despite this, the sixth-seeded <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/15\/phoenix-suns-re-signing-sharpshooter-to-multi-year-contract-grayson-allen\/\" target=\"_self\">Phoenix Suns<\/a> were betting favorites over them to advance out of the first round prior to the series beginning. Phoenix features plenty of star power in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Durant<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bookede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Devin Booker<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bealbr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bradley Beal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While their work is not yet finished, the Timberwolves need just one more win to advance past Phoenix. On Friday, they defeated the Suns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/game\/_\/gameId\/401655089\/timberwolves-suns\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by the score of 126-109<\/a>. Minnesota is now up 3-0 in the series and has outscored Phoenix by 54 points in the three outings. They will attempt to go for the sweep on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edwaran01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Edwards<\/a> has continued his ascent to superstardom. The first overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft has averaged 28.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.3 steals over the first three playoff outings.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Most 30-point playoff games, Minnesota history:<\/p>\n<p>7 \u2014 Anthony Edwards<br \/>\n7 \u2014 Kevin Garnett<\/p>\n<p>Ant has played in 33 fewer games. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/X0HEPA7WFf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/X0HEPA7WFf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 StatMuse (@statmuse) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/statmuse\/status\/1784091739663269955?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Twenty Years Since the Last Timberwolves Series Win<\/h3>\n<p>The last time that the Timberwolves won a playoff series in 2004, Edwards was just two years old. Starting forward\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcdanja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaden McDaniels<\/a> wasn\u2019t much older as he was three.<\/p>\n<p>That 2003-04 Timberwolves team finished the regular season 58-24, still the best mark in franchise history. They dispatched the Denver Nuggets in five games during the opening round of the playoffs before defeating the Sacramento Kings in seven games in the Western Conference Semifinals. The Los Angeles Lakers eliminated Minnesota in six games in the Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota was led by franchise icon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garneke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Garnett<\/a>. He was named the <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">league\u2019s<\/span> MVP that season with averages of 24.2 points, a league-leading 13.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.5 steals, and 2.2 blocks.<\/p>\n<p>They also had well-known veterans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sprewla01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Latrell Sprewell<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cassesa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sam Cassell<\/a> on their club who were 33 and 34 years old respectively at the time. The two former All-Stars combined to average 36.6 points and 10.8 assists over the course of the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>Shooting guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hassetr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trenton Hassell<\/a> and center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnser02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ervin Johnson<\/a> were the remaining two in their starting five. Minnesota utilized <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/szczewa02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wally Szczerbiak<\/a>, a long-time starter, in a reserve role. Other key bench pieces in that playoff run were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hoibefr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fred Hoiberg<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/olowomi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Olowokandi<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/madsema01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Madsen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The head coach was Flip Saunders. With one more win, Chris Finch will join Saunders as the only head coach to win a playoff series for the Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Timberwolves franchise has been far from the most successful. This season was their 35th in the NBA as their inaugural season was in 1989-90. Minnesota has yet to experience an NBA Finals appearance. In 23 of their 35 years in the league, the Timberwolves did not taste playoff basketball. As a matter of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":75117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1608,62,3],"tags":[2109,338],"class_list":["post-75079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-timberwolves","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-kevin-garnett"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}