As the sun set over the Bay Area on Monday night, the Sacramento Kings stepped onto their home floor with a chance to clinch both a playoff spot and home-court advantage for the first round, and exorcise playoff demons that have owned them for 16 years. Instead, the Minnesota Timberwolves played spoiler, and earned a crucial 119-115 victory to assume the Western Conference’s No. 6 seed after holding a séance to deal with haunting spirits of their own.
Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch served as a medium between his team’s late-game offense, aftereffects of D’Angelo Russell waxing and waning, as well as the lingering presence of ghosts of Memphis past, and conjured up a closing time blueprint that Minnesota executed to perfection en route to a fourth straight win.