It was always viewed as a sort of wide open conference, especially in the playoffs, and the first 2 rounds of Western Conference Playoffs reflected that thought perfectly. The 3 seeded Minnesota Timberwolves and 5 seeded Dallas Mavericks find themselves facing eachother in the Conference final after a messy second round, which had 1 6 game series (DAL-OKC) and 1 7 game series (MIN-DEN). In this article we will breakdown the WCF matchup, talk about key players, and make predictions for who will win in how many games.
Western conference finals: (5) Mavericks vs. (3) Timberwolves
The Mavericks have reached the WCF in large part because of their stars, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Although, arguably the bigger piece has been the key contributions they have received from supporting players such as Derrick Jones Jr. and Derrick Lively among others. If they want to win and reach the NBA finals, they will need those same contributions and more, as well as keeping Anthony Edwards in check on the other side of the ball. The most important thing in my eyes, though, is winning (or only narrowly losing) the battle of the boards, something that is very tough to do against the tandem of Karl Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert down low. They will need to limit mistakes and capitalize on their oppurtunities, exactly what they have done in rounds 1 and 2.
Minnesota has had an interesting path to the Western Conference Finals. In round 1, they breezed path the Suns' "superteam." Keeping KD, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal in check on their way to a sweep. However, in round 2, they were met with a much tougher battle against the defending champion Nuggets. After winning games 1 and 2, they promptly dropped two straight at home, but recovered in the next game. With a 3-2 advantage at home, they dropped yet another one in Minnesota. They showed their grit, though, and bested the MVP-led Denver team whilst winning every single game on Denver's floor. It's a bad sign though, that they were unable to capitalize on multiple oppurtunities to run away with it, so T-Wolves fans shouldn't be too confident at home.
X Factor Players: Derrick jones jr. (DAL) and Rudy gobert (MIN)
Prediction: Wolves in 6. I'm not very confident in the Mavericks, which sounds crazy to say considering the history of Kyrie Irving. I just believe the Timberwolves will continue their stompede, as they head into the NBA Finals to face the Celtics. And while I have the Cletics besting them their, this would be a huge step to build on, and I'm sure KAT and Anthony Edwards will find their way back together sometime down the road, even if it is without some of the guys on their team right now.
Eli Knight
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