Timberwolves were an ultimate tease

So that's over. 

Less than 2 weeks ago, the Wolves improbably pulled off the greatest and most unlikely single win in the history of the franchise, with that huge comeback to win game 7 in Denver. 

At that moment it was only natural to have dreams of a championship. I mean, if we can take down the defending champs on their home court, why can't we follow that up by taking down an inferior Dallas team when we have home court this time? 

Well I'll tell you why. Because Minnesota sports. Because Minnesota Timberwolves.

I think deep down we all knew what it meant when they choked away game 1, and then we really knew what it meant when they choked away game 2 even worse. They were heading to Dallas down 0-2, a situation no team had ever come back from to win a series.

Game 3, also winnable, and also featuring a late meltdown. And then down 0-3 it was just a matter of finishing the series. 

The Wolves managed to not implode in game 4, and at least avoided a fully embarrassing sweep. You could at least theoretically hang your hat on "well we played em close a bunch and just came up short."

But then even that tiny morsel of satisfaction got obliterated in game 5, where the Wolves came out with a chance to win at home and get to a game 6, where Dallas would actually have a lot of pressure on them....and got blown off the court in a 124-103 loss that wasn't even as close as that would indicate.

Because of course.

That's how it is. We get but so close and then fail. 

And this was a failure. Yeah, the Wolves hadn't gone this far for 20 years, but the path was right there for them to actually win a title. And instead they made Luka Doncic look like Jordan Curry James, like he is completely unstoppable.

But he is. Boston may stop him. Dallas was only the 5 seed. Even the Clippers got 2 wins on them. The Wolves failed. Period. 

Their supposedly great defense went AWOL a lot in the last 2 series, and was really never present against Dallas. Karl-Anthony Towns took most of the heat for his dew bad games, but where was Anthony Edwards? What a humbling series for "the next Michael Jordan"

Weirdly, a market that loves to absolutely savage the Vikings for playoff defeats is coddling the Wolves. I guess it's under the guise of this being the beginning of a title window. But is it? Back in 2004 nobody was thinking that the Wolves were going to have no more chances with Garnett. Nobody would have believed it if you said they would go nearly 2 decades before even reaching the playoffs again.

Now, I certainly don't think THAT is in the future. The key difference is that the central star this time is much younger, and much of the supporting cast is younger.

But it's not going to be as simple as this team gradually taking steps up every year. It doesn't really work that way anymore. 

They probably aren't bringing this roster back. Many are hellbent on getting Towns out of here, as he repeatedly is given singular blame for the team losing. We learned that this defense cannot get you through. They need more dangerous offensive weapons, but how you find them or afford them?

This was an opportunity squandered. There is zero guarantee they will just get back here next year. The next step they need is the hardest.