Minnesota’s sports teams are on a roll, the Timberwolves are on deck to keep it going
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle embraces Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry after Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals on May 14 at Target Center in Minneapolis.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
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Across the world of sports, Minnesota has been winning lately. The Twins just ended a 13-game winning streak. The Minnesota Frost cruised into the PWHL championships, which begin Tuesday night. The Lynx are also off to a strong start after winning their first two games of the season. And the Timberwolves have made it to the NBA Western Conference Finals.
With all this victory in the air, it's hard not to wonder how long it will last. The stakes feel especially high for Timberwolves. If they win their seven-game series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, they will go to the finals for the first time ever.
Minnesota Now sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about everything they know about the matchup.
Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. Eric Nelson is the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS' Eye on Football and Sirius XM.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: Well, across the world of sports, Minnesota has been winning lately, not to jinx it. The Twins just ended a 13-game winning streak. The Minnesota Frost cruised into the Professional Women's Hockey League championships, which begin tonight.
The Lynx are off to a strong start, winning their first two games of the season, and the Timberwolves have made it to the NBA Western Conference Finals. So with all this victory in the air, it's hard not to wonder, again, how long is this going to last? The stakes feel especially high for the Wolves. If they win their seven-game series against the Oklahoma City thunder, they'll go to the finals for the first time ever.
Our sports contributors, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, join me now with everything else you need to about this matchup. Thanks for being here, guys.
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, happy soggy Tuesday.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: No problem, Nina. How are you?
NINA MOINI: I'm doing well. It is kind of soggy. I don't know if certain things are being canceled or what's going on there, but, Wally, with the Wolves, can you talk a little bit about the strengths and the weaknesses they're going to be bringing into this series against the Oklahoma City Thunder?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, I think, right off the bat, the Wolves are well rested, so that's an advantage. They haven't played since eliminating Golden State last Wednesday at [AUDIO OUT] whereas Oklahoma City had to play seven games in their conference semi, and they beat Denver on Sunday. Now, of course, they played at home. And Oklahoma City doesn't have to travel. So that works in their favor, and the Wolves, obviously, traveling to OKC.
But I think that rest is going to be-- although, that didn't work out so well for the Wolves when they were well rested going into the series against Golden State because they sat around and waited for, after beating the Lakers, they sat around and waited for Golden State, and then they ended up losing the first game at Target Center.
NINA MOINI: Too rested. They were too rested.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, rusty maybe. You could even use that. A couple other factors, I think experience. OKC entered the season as the youngest team in the NBA.
Wolves were in the Conference Finals last year. Of course, we know they lost to Dallas in five games. Minnesota has made the playoffs four straight seasons. So I think that experience in the west finals works in the Wolves' favor.
And I think that that the Wolves are on a roll. I think that that is definitely in their favor. They won 17 of the last 21 regular season games, and they have now won eight of their 10 postseason games. So that's 25 and 6 in their last 31 games. So I think all those things work in their favor.
NINA MOINI: Eric, can you tell us a little bit about the Oklahoma City Thunder? What's that team all about?
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, well, they had the best record in the NBA in the regular season. OKC was 68 and 14. And they won their games by an average of almost 13 points a night-- that's an NBA record. They're 35 and 6 at home. So they're very tough to beat down there in Oklahoma City.
Now, in the playoffs, they swept Memphis, four games to none in round one. And then, as Wally mentioned, they had to go seven to knock out Denver in round two, 4 games to 3. This is a name that if you don't know it now, you're going to it as the series goes on, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He's the Thunder's-- I call him a supernova. I mean, he is that good.
He's 26 years old. He's from Toronto. The nickname is SGA, and he's a legitimate MVP candidate. He's averaging almost 30 points a game and 6.4 assists per game in the playoffs.
And his cousin is Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the Timberwolves. And according to the Daily Oklahoman, they were born just 52 days apart. And they're more like brothers than cousins. They are very close. So this is going to be a family affair in some ways.
Another key player for Oklahoma City is Chet Holmgren, who played at Minnehaha Academy High School in Minneapolis. And he went to Gonzaga out in Spokane, Washington, for a year.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
ERIC NELSON: Now, the Thunder have been to the NBA Finals just once since they moved to Oklahoma. That was 2012. They went down to OKC in 2008. They used to be the Seattle SuperSonics, and then they relocated.
And one thing I think that you need to maybe at least look at this as a sidebar. Oklahoma City is a one-horse town when it comes to pro sports. The Thunder are the only show in town. They don't have Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, or MLS, like we have here in the Twin Cities.
It's predominantly a college state, with the Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys getting most of the attention. But believe me, they love their Thunder down there in OKC. And if Minnesota hears the Queen song "Don't Stop Me Now" tonight, that's bad news because they play that song after every Oklahoma City win at the Paycom Center. So you don't want to hear Queen playing when you're facing OKC.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, it's a bad sign. Well, I do want to try to get to the Minnesota Frost here, Wally. So they're playing their first game in their Championship Series tonight. So what's going on? Will you catch us up on that?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, they go to Ottawa tonight for game one. Game two will be on Thursday. They come back to the Xcel Energy Center.
That would be on Saturday afternoon, by the way. That's a 4:00 PM start on Saturday afternoon. And then, potentially, a game 4 would be Monday, also at the Xcel Energy Center.
This is an Ottawa team that finished in third place in the regular season. Minnesota finished in fourth with a regular season mark of 10 wins, 5 losses, and 4 ties. So this is a pretty even match.
Both teams winning in four games in their previous series. Minnesota eliminated Toronto, and Ottawa beat Montreal to get to this championship series. And of course, we all Minnesota, the defending champions of the PWHL in year two. So Of the original six, Minnesota hoping to win the first two championships in this league, which, by the way, expands to eight teams next year.
So as we've been saying all along, win them while you can, especially when there's only six teams in the league. It would be good to get the first two. And that way, you've got two in the bank going forward. But it should be an interesting series. These two teams very evenly matched.
NINA MOINI: All right, Eric and Wally always appreciate you guys stopping by. Thank you.
ERIC NELSON: All right, thanks.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Have a great day.
NINA MOINI: You too. Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and cohost of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. Eric Nelson is the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS's Eye on Football and SiriusXM.
Thanks for listening to Minnesota Now today. Tomorrow, we're going to continue looking at the intersection now known as George Floyd Square, where George Floyd was murdered five years ago. We're going to hear from a business owner on that block. And of course, as always, we'll have the latest news and weather.
We're also going out to lunch. We're getting sushi with Billy Tserenbat, the Minneapolis restaurateur behind the popular Billy Sushi. Join us tomorrow at noon, and have a great rest of your day.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The Lynx are off to a strong start, winning their first two games of the season, and the Timberwolves have made it to the NBA Western Conference Finals. So with all this victory in the air, it's hard not to wonder, again, how long is this going to last? The stakes feel especially high for the Wolves. If they win their seven-game series against the Oklahoma City thunder, they'll go to the finals for the first time ever.
Our sports contributors, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, join me now with everything else you need to about this matchup. Thanks for being here, guys.
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, happy soggy Tuesday.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: No problem, Nina. How are you?
NINA MOINI: I'm doing well. It is kind of soggy. I don't know if certain things are being canceled or what's going on there, but, Wally, with the Wolves, can you talk a little bit about the strengths and the weaknesses they're going to be bringing into this series against the Oklahoma City Thunder?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, I think, right off the bat, the Wolves are well rested, so that's an advantage. They haven't played since eliminating Golden State last Wednesday at [AUDIO OUT] whereas Oklahoma City had to play seven games in their conference semi, and they beat Denver on Sunday. Now, of course, they played at home. And Oklahoma City doesn't have to travel. So that works in their favor, and the Wolves, obviously, traveling to OKC.
But I think that rest is going to be-- although, that didn't work out so well for the Wolves when they were well rested going into the series against Golden State because they sat around and waited for, after beating the Lakers, they sat around and waited for Golden State, and then they ended up losing the first game at Target Center.
NINA MOINI: Too rested. They were too rested.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, rusty maybe. You could even use that. A couple other factors, I think experience. OKC entered the season as the youngest team in the NBA.
Wolves were in the Conference Finals last year. Of course, we know they lost to Dallas in five games. Minnesota has made the playoffs four straight seasons. So I think that experience in the west finals works in the Wolves' favor.
And I think that that the Wolves are on a roll. I think that that is definitely in their favor. They won 17 of the last 21 regular season games, and they have now won eight of their 10 postseason games. So that's 25 and 6 in their last 31 games. So I think all those things work in their favor.
NINA MOINI: Eric, can you tell us a little bit about the Oklahoma City Thunder? What's that team all about?
ERIC NELSON: Yeah, well, they had the best record in the NBA in the regular season. OKC was 68 and 14. And they won their games by an average of almost 13 points a night-- that's an NBA record. They're 35 and 6 at home. So they're very tough to beat down there in Oklahoma City.
Now, in the playoffs, they swept Memphis, four games to none in round one. And then, as Wally mentioned, they had to go seven to knock out Denver in round two, 4 games to 3. This is a name that if you don't know it now, you're going to it as the series goes on, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He's the Thunder's-- I call him a supernova. I mean, he is that good.
He's 26 years old. He's from Toronto. The nickname is SGA, and he's a legitimate MVP candidate. He's averaging almost 30 points a game and 6.4 assists per game in the playoffs.
And his cousin is Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the Timberwolves. And according to the Daily Oklahoman, they were born just 52 days apart. And they're more like brothers than cousins. They are very close. So this is going to be a family affair in some ways.
Another key player for Oklahoma City is Chet Holmgren, who played at Minnehaha Academy High School in Minneapolis. And he went to Gonzaga out in Spokane, Washington, for a year.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
ERIC NELSON: Now, the Thunder have been to the NBA Finals just once since they moved to Oklahoma. That was 2012. They went down to OKC in 2008. They used to be the Seattle SuperSonics, and then they relocated.
And one thing I think that you need to maybe at least look at this as a sidebar. Oklahoma City is a one-horse town when it comes to pro sports. The Thunder are the only show in town. They don't have Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, or MLS, like we have here in the Twin Cities.
It's predominantly a college state, with the Oklahoma Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowboys getting most of the attention. But believe me, they love their Thunder down there in OKC. And if Minnesota hears the Queen song "Don't Stop Me Now" tonight, that's bad news because they play that song after every Oklahoma City win at the Paycom Center. So you don't want to hear Queen playing when you're facing OKC.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, it's a bad sign. Well, I do want to try to get to the Minnesota Frost here, Wally. So they're playing their first game in their Championship Series tonight. So what's going on? Will you catch us up on that?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, they go to Ottawa tonight for game one. Game two will be on Thursday. They come back to the Xcel Energy Center.
That would be on Saturday afternoon, by the way. That's a 4:00 PM start on Saturday afternoon. And then, potentially, a game 4 would be Monday, also at the Xcel Energy Center.
This is an Ottawa team that finished in third place in the regular season. Minnesota finished in fourth with a regular season mark of 10 wins, 5 losses, and 4 ties. So this is a pretty even match.
Both teams winning in four games in their previous series. Minnesota eliminated Toronto, and Ottawa beat Montreal to get to this championship series. And of course, we all Minnesota, the defending champions of the PWHL in year two. So Of the original six, Minnesota hoping to win the first two championships in this league, which, by the way, expands to eight teams next year.
So as we've been saying all along, win them while you can, especially when there's only six teams in the league. It would be good to get the first two. And that way, you've got two in the bank going forward. But it should be an interesting series. These two teams very evenly matched.
NINA MOINI: All right, Eric and Wally always appreciate you guys stopping by. Thank you.
ERIC NELSON: All right, thanks.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Have a great day.
NINA MOINI: You too. Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and cohost of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. Eric Nelson is the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS's Eye on Football and SiriusXM.
Thanks for listening to Minnesota Now today. Tomorrow, we're going to continue looking at the intersection now known as George Floyd Square, where George Floyd was murdered five years ago. We're going to hear from a business owner on that block. And of course, as always, we'll have the latest news and weather.
We're also going out to lunch. We're getting sushi with Billy Tserenbat, the Minneapolis restaurateur behind the popular Billy Sushi. Join us tomorrow at noon, and have a great rest of your day.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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