San Antonio pushed Minnesota to the brink with a 126-97 rout in Game 5, taking a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series and setting up a must-answer Game 6 on Friday at 9:30 ET on Prime Video.
The Spurs did it behind a deep, aggressive attack led by Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 Frenchman who kept forcing Minnesota into uncomfortable possessions. If San Antonio closes out the series in Game 6, it will avoid a Game 7 and send the West Finals to Monday. If the Timberwolves force another game, Oklahoma City will have had a full week off before the Wednesday opener in the conference finals.
For Minnesota, the problem has been there from the start. The Timberwolves have trailed by seven, seven, 15, six and 15 points in the first quarter across the five games, and they have lost the games in which they dropped the opening 12 minutes three times. That has left them chasing, and at times drifting from the game plan, instead of controlling tempo the way they did two years ago when they turned a 3-2 deficit against Denver into a 115-70 Game 6 win and then took Game 7 to reach the West Finals.
Anthony Edwards has not been able to carry the load at full strength. He is averaging 21.3 points and 2.8 assists while shooting 44.2% from the field, and he has been dealing in part with knee issues. Minnesota has also had the memory of last year’s trip back to the conference finals hanging over this series, but that experience has not kept the Timberwolves from running into the same early holes.
The contrast has been sharp. San Antonio has looked like the deeper and more aggressive team, and Minnesota has spent too much of the series trying to recover after the first quarter has already gone sideways. The Spurs do not need to be perfect to make that dangerous; Wembanyama makes every game plan into a stress test.
Friday gives Minnesota one more chance to steady itself and push the series back home for a Game 7. If it cannot get a better start, this matchup will end the same way the previous five have largely gone — with the Spurs in control and the Timberwolves left to wonder how quickly a series can slip away.
