DENVER – After last season's first-round exit at the hands of the Nuggets, the Timberwolves were left wondering what the series could have looked like if they had two important players — Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid — available.
McDaniels had punched his ticket out of the playoffs when he broke his hand with a swing against a hard wall in the tunnel near the Wolves bench in the regular-season finale, while Reid had a broken wrist he suffered late in the season that kept him out of postseason action.
The Wolves finally got an answer to that question in their second-round victory over Denver that sent them to the Western Conference finals, which begin Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks at Target Center.