Finch Had 'Nightmares' About Playoff Path, but Wolves Embrace Gauntlet Ahead

Chris Finch has admitted to having "nightmares" during the final stretch of the season about the Wolves' playoff path. Meanwhile, Jaden McDaniels says Minnesota's gauntlet of potential Western Conference opponents is the exact path the team wants to travel.

"This is the route we want to go," McDaniels said Thursday on FanDuel TV's Run it Back. "I feel like this is when we play our best, when we play the best teams and when nobody thinks we're going to win, and everyone's against us. I think it's where we all come together and brings the best out of all of us. There's only time to play the right way and it's time to win. So, we all got to make sure we're doing the right stuff. But I feel this is the path we want."

Up first for the Wolves is yet another postseason showdown with the Nuggets. If they can pull off that notable upset, then a likely second-round encounter with Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs is next. Should Minnesota pull off a second straight upset, then a matchup with the Thunder could be on the table in the Western Conference Finals.

It's not an ideal path at all, but one the Wolves, who went 5-5 over the final 10 games of the season, have set up for themselves by not winning more down the stretch.

"It's extremely hard," Finch said Thursday on SiriusXM NBA Radio. "I mean, to your point, it's extremely hard. Just to get to the postseason coming down the stretch here, to get into the top six was such a huge thing for us. Just so we would be able to have this break to get healthy. I had a doomsday scenario running in the background on my mind the whole time that we would slip into the play-in, get the Clippers, who had our number the last two times we'd play them. Then you gotta play an unbelievable Steph Curry for the last playoff spot. That's just not a life you wanna live."

Finch said the difficulty of playing in the West, where "every game" is meaningful, is an "emotionally draining" experience.

"When you lose a game, and it's a bad loss in like November, December, maybe January, the normal player mindset is, 'Hey, shake it off and let's move on.' Nowadays in the West as a coach, you never forget those losses," he said. "Because you know, everything's gonna come down to one game. One game's gonna separate home court. One game's gonna separate the play-in. One game's gonna separate maybe one from two; even that at the top of the table is tightening up."

For the Timberwolves, this has been a common theme of their postseason runs the past couple of years. On their way to back-to-back runs to the Western Conference finals, Minnesota has gone up against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets, Steph Curry and the Warriors, LeBron James and Luka Doncic and the Lakers, and Kevin Durant and the Suns. They've knocked them all out before, and now they'll have to do it again against the best of the best.

"Yeah, we're conscious of it, but in the moment, I don't think we really care about the names of who we're playing," McDaniels said. "Like, at the end of the day, we treat it like it's all hoop, and we were just really playing for ourselves. But if I look at it from a fan perspective, I'm like, 'Dang, I can't believe we played all these great players and knocked them out.' It's just a testimony to the work we've put in and how good we've been as a team over the years."

Part of the difficulty for Minnesota down the stretch was a rash of injuries that saw key players miss games. None of those was bigger than Anthony Edwards, who missed 11 of the final 14 games. Minnesota went 6-5 without Ant down the stretch.

Finch said the team's offense "cratered" in Ant's absence, as the Wolves missed his scoring and the remaining players' shooting fell off. Edwards' injury status has loomed large in the build up to Saturday's opening game. McDaniels, when asked about Edwards' health, said he looks "solid" and that he'll be "ready when the game starts."

"We've been trying to work him back into the mix here," said Finch. "We surely did miss him. ... He's had a good week. He looks really good."

Finch admitted the team needed the certainty of knowing they were in the playoffs in order to rest guys and get ready for the postseason. Once Minnesota locked up the six seed, they were able to get key players rest down the stretch and had around a 10-day window to get as healthy as possible.

"We're not afraid to play anybody anywhere, but we just, we needed to get healthy, get some guys back, get some guys some rest," continued Finch. "Everybody looks good. We've had a good week of practice so far and, you know, keep ramping up."

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