Spurs Brace For Fight Against Depleted but Dangerous Timberwolves

SAN ANTONIO -- The easy narrative is sitting there, ready to be believed by many in the national media and around the NBA world.

No Anthony Edwards. No Donte DiVincenzo. A Western Conference Semifinal opponent missing firepower, missing depth, and missing two names that usually tilt a game. It would be simple for the San Antonio Spurs to exhale as they prepare for Monday's Game 1 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

But they aren't.

Instead, inside a quiet practice facility ahead on Friday, there was a different tone. It was one shaped less by who the Timberwolves don’t have, and more by who they still are.

“They guard, they're physical, they try to impose their will and their competitiveness on you,” Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said, his voice steady, almost cautionary. “And they got a lot of individuals that take pride in that.”

That pride has been evident all season, even when the odds tilted the other way. Minnesota didn’t just survive stretches of adversity in their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets; they found confidence to defeat a championship contender and shut down one of, if not the, best player in the world in Nikola Jokic. A kind of identity that doesn’t disappear when the lineup changes.

Johnson sees that clearly.

“There’s a lot that goes into that before last night to make last night possible,” he said of Minnesota's series-clinching win over Denver. “And that's a testament to the program.”

Victor Wembanyama understands the feeling. The numbers say San Antonio should have the edge, but the memory says otherwise. Minnesota took two of three meetings in the regular season, not by accident, but by leaning into the exact traits Johnson described.

“Great individual players. Tough team,” Wembanyama said. “It's just a team that forces you to be on for 48 minutes every time.”

That’s the part that lingers.

Because playoff basketball has a way of stripping things down to essentials. Shot-making matters. Talent matters. But presence, every possession, every rotation, every rebound, matters more.

And Minnesota, even shorthanded, demands all of it. There are no pauses against a team like that. No possessions to drift. No moments to assume control without earning it. For the Spurs, this series isn’t about who’s missing off the court. It’s more about what’s waiting for them on the court.

A team that defends every inch. A team that leans into contact. A team that doesn’t need stars on the floor to believe it belongs. So San Antonio moves forward carefully, deliberately, not out of fear, but out of respect for their opponent.

Because in the playoffs, overlooking an opponent is the quickest way to become the story.

And the Spurs have no intention of letting that happen.

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