Game 5 Preview: Timberwolves vs. Warriors

The Timberwolves have the Warriors on the ropes and can close out the series with a win at Target Center. Can Minnesota finish the job in Game 5 and punch their ticket to the Western Conference Finals?

Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Golden State Warriors – Game 5
Date: May 14th, 2025
Time: 8:30 PM CDT
Location: Target Center
Television Coverage: TNT/TruTV/MAX
Radio Coverage: KFAN FM/Wolves App/iHeart Radio

It’s Time to End Them: Game 5 Is the Wolves’ Moment of Truth

If you’re a Timberwolves fan, I don’t need to tell you what’s at stake Wednesday night. You already know. You’ve been living it. Breathing it. Tensing up at every Buddy Hield pump fake. Yelling at every Draymond cheap shot. Cursing that Game 1 brickfest like it personally wronged your family. Because this right here—Game 5, at home, with a chance to send the Golden State Warriors packing—isn’t just a basketball game. It’s a moment 21 years in the making.

The last time the Wolves clinched a playoff series at Target Center, Kevin Garnett was leaping onto the scorer’s table like a madman with a towel in one hand and the whole state of Minnesota in the other. That was 2004. George W. Bush was president. The iPod Mini was a thing. And nobody—nobody—had ever heard of streaming a game unless they were talking about fishing. In the two decades since? Just a never-ending montage of heartbreak, collapse, dysfunction, and just enough glimmers of hope to keep the pain fresh. Until now.

Because now, it finally feels like the Wolves aren’t just crashing someone else’s party. They are the party. And Game 5 is their chance to send a message that echoes all the way from Hennepin Avenue to the league office in Manhattan: The Timberwolves are not going away. They are not a fluke. And they are not afraid of the moment.

This Is the Moment to Finish the Job

Let’s be honest—after that Game 1 performance where the Wolves couldn’t throw a basketball into Lake Minnetonka if you spotted them a dock and a breeze, we all had flashbacks to every Minnesota sports trauma of the last 30 years. But since then? Three straight wins. Three straight reminders that this team is bigger, deeper, and simply better than a Curry-less Golden State squad clinging to the final wisps of its dynasty.

Game 2 was a wire-to-wire beatdown. Game 3 was a grind-it-out road win where they withstood a vintage Jimmy Butler haymaker. Game 4? That was the statement. A 17-0 third-quarter run that broke the Warriors’ spirit.

This series has been ugly at times—flops, fouls, flailing limbs, and officiating straight out of a mid-2000s WWE storyline—but the Wolves have found their identity. Defense first. Relentless effort. And stars who know exactly when to shine.

Now they have to slam the door.

Because while it’s fun to imagine Golden State limping into Game 5 with nothing left in the tank, we’ve all watched enough playoff basketball to know what happens when you give an old champion a reason to believe. You don’t want to go back to San Francisco. You don’t want to let Steph Curry sniff the court again. You don’t want Draymond Green rolling into Game 6 like it’s a cage match with nothing to lose.

You want to end this now.

The Keys to Game 5:

1. Fast Start, No Letup

This isn’t the time for the “feel it out” offense. No more waiting until the second quarter for Ant to wake up, no more standing around while Julius Randle slowly dribbles through every shade of midrange purgatory. Come out firing. Take a page from Game 2 and punch first. Golden State doesn’t have the firepower to chase you down without Steph. So don’t give them a reason to try.

Let Julius cook early. Let Ant attack off the dribble. Let McDaniels throw his limbs around like he’s auditioning for The Matrix: Timberwolves Edition. Build the lead. Crush their hope.

2. Lockdown Defense

It’s been the constant. The calling card. The secret sauce. Rudy Gobert might not be putting up massive stat lines, but his presence has changed everything. The Warriors aren’t even trying to finish at the rim anymore. They’re settling. Second-guessing. Running Buddy Hield in circles just to get a glimmer of daylight—and even then, it’s fleeting.

When Rudy’s patrolling the paint, when McDaniels is in someone’s jersey, this team becomes an immovable object. Keep that energy. Smother them for 48 minutes. Make the Warriors miss the 2018 version of themselves.

3. Julius Randle, the MVP of the Series?

Look, I love Anthony Edwards. You love Anthony Edwards. We all love Anthony Edwards. He’s the present and the future. But if you’re giving out the MVP of this series right now? It might be Julius.

He’s been rock-solid. Reliable. Early-season Julius could bulldoze his way to 20 points while also torching three possessions per quarter and getting cooked on defense. This version? He’s playing smart, making the extra pass, digging in defensively, and—when needed—putting his shoulder into someone’s chest and reminding them that grown man strength still matters.

4. Keep Hitting Threes

After a stretch of bricklaying that made you wonder if the team had been cursed by the ghost of Sam Cassell’s groin injury, the Wolves have finally remembered how to shoot. Naz, NAW, Donte—when those guys are connecting, it changes everything. Suddenly the paint opens up. Suddenly the pressure on Ant evaporates. Suddenly the Warriors are asking Jonathan Kuminga to play 30 minutes and make decisions, which is never ideal.

Keep spacing the floor. Keep taking good shots. You don’t need to go 20-for-35. You just need to hit enough to keep the pressure on.

5. It’s Ant’s Time to Close

This is what stars do. The game’s close? You bury them. The crowd’s waiting to explode? You give them the spark. The opponent’s clinging to life? You drop the anvil. Game 5 is Anthony Edwards’ chance to channel his inner Jordan—or at least his inner 2008 Paul Pierce—and put his stamp on this series.

He doesn’t need to score 40. He just needs to let Golden State know—physically, emotionally, spiritually—that it’s over. That this is Minnesota’s time.

The Moment

If you’re a Wolves fan, this isn’t just about this year. It’s not just about beating a Steph-less Golden State team. It’s about proving that everything you’ve believed—through the heartbreak, the coaching changes, the blown draft picks, the time Jonny Flynn was taken before Steph Curry (yep, that happened)—was leading to something real.

You don’t get many of these nights. A home closeout game. A rising team. A hungry fan base. An opponent on the ropes.

Don’t play with your food.

Finish the job.

Send the Warriors to Cancun.

And let Target Center explode like it’s 2004 all over again.