MINNEAPOLIS — After a Game 7 comeback win over the Denver Nuggets to go to the Western Conference finals, the vibes emanating from the Minnesota Timberwolves are stellar.
Nowhere was that more apparent than in the joint postgame news conference with Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns. Edwards and Towns, the big two hoping to lead Minnesota to the promised land, were jubilant and carefree as they answered questions from the media.
You can watch the full news conference in the video above, or read a selection of the best quotes and moments below.
On the Timberwolves’ team chemistry
Towns: “This is Timberwolves basketball. I think this was a real showing of Timberwolves basketball at its finest, where it’s a team effort. We got hype for players that we have, me, [Edwards] included on this table, but like, I said, we don’t got a big three, we got a big 15. Every single person on this team means a lot to this team and they help in so many different ways. This game just shows that the Timberwolves — not Anthony Edwards, not Karl-Anthony Towns, not Rudy Gobert — the Timberwolves are a special team.”
On what this win means for Towns
Towns: “I been here nine years, I’ve talked about wanting to win and do something special here with this organization. For all the failures and all the things that didn’t materialize, that happened, the disappointment that comes with it. To be having this moment where, even just for this moment, we get to celebrate the wins. For me, being here nine years, I’ve seen everything and seen it all.”
Edwards: “Man, f–k them nine years.”
Towns: “Man, f–k, right?”
Edwards: “This year.”
On when the tide turned in Game 7
Edwards: “I think when Rudy hit the turnaround I was like, ‘Yeah, we probably got them,’ because I know that’d kill you, that’d kill your whole — that’d kill everything. Big shoutout to big Ru, man, big Ru hit the turnaround on they a–.”
On facing the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals
Towns: “Honestly, I think for us we’re just so happy about this moment, we can’t even think about the next moment.”
Edwards: “I’m thinking about it.”
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On a reporter’s assertion that NBA teams typically “have to lose and lose big before you win”
Towns: “We lost last year.”
Reporter: “Yeah, but that’s different, you have to lose at a bigger stage, usually.”
Towns: “It’s the playoffs! We lost last year.”
Edwards: “We lost the last two years, s–t.”
Towns: “Godd–n, how much more we gotta lose?”
Edwards: “How much you want us to lose?”
Towns: “We been losing for 20 years.”
Edwards: “I mean, that’s just the truth, dog.”
On the comeback to beat the Nuggets
Edwards: “Today was crazy. We was down 20.”
Towns: “That wasn’t Timberwolves basketball. That was park basketball.”
Edwards: “That was Wolves basketball.”
Towns: “That was Wolves, now we playing Timberwolves.”
On head coach Chris Finch
Edwards: “He’s just a great coach, and he don’t sugarcoat anything with anybody. If KAT f—ing up, he gonna get on KAT. If I’m f—ing up, he gonna get on me. If Rudy f—ing up, he gonna get on anybody that’s messing up throughout the game, and I think that’s what makes him the best coach in the NBA to me, because no matter who it is, no matter how high the player is on the pole, he’s gonna get on you from start to finish.”
Meanwhile, in the opposing locker room, the mood was understandably more dour. In his postgame presser, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone bristled at a question about how much this particular loss hurts.
“Next question, man. The season’s over. That’s what’s hard,” Malone said. “F–k being up 20. The season’s over. You don’t understand that. The season’s over. It’s hard. Stupid a– questions.”
The season is not over, however, for the Wolves, who now have homecourt advantage for a Western Conference finals matchup with the Dallas Mavericks.