Tonight (Sunday), the Timberwolves have a chance to do something no major pro sports team from Minnesota has ever done. Win a best-of-seven series in four straight games.
The third-seeded Wolves have a 3-0 lead over sixth-seeded Phoenix in their NBA Western Conference first-round series and have won each of those games convincingly.
It’s also the first time ever the Wolves have won three straight playoff games. More info on tonight’s game appears later in this newsletter.
Best-of-five sweeps
There have been three instances where a Minnesota team (in each case the NHL’s North Stars) has won a best-of-five series 3-0, with the last being in 1985.
Here are the best-of-five series the North Stars won 3-0.
1980: vs. Toronto Maple Leafs in the preliminary round.
1981: vs. Boston Bruins, preliminary round.
1985: vs. St. Louis Blues, Norris Division semifinals.
Surprising win
The Blues were the favorites over the North Stars in that 1985 series.
St. Louis didn’t have a dominant regular season but did win the Norris Division with a 37-31-12 record for 86 points, 24 points ahead of Minnesota. The North Stars finished well under .500, 25-43-12 for 62 points.
Also, Minnesota had a 1-6-1 record vs. St. Louis that season.
But in the best-of-five opening round, the North Stars started the season with a pair of one-goal wins on the Blues’ home ice at St. Louis Arena, winning 3-2 and 4-3. Back home at Met Center Minnesota wrapped up the series with a 2-0 win in Game 3.
The North Stars had used four goalies during the regular season, and each had a losing record.
Gilles Meloche played in 32 games (10-13-6), Don Beaupre 31 (10-17-3) and Roland Melanson 20 (5-10-3). Also, Mike Sands was 0-3.
Meloche was in goal for Game 1 vs. the Blues and stayed there the whole series. He made 106 saves on the 111 shots he faced, a .955 percentage and recorded a shutout in the clincher.
Willi Plett led the team in scoring with four points on two goals and two assists. Keith Acton was the top goal scorer with three. Ron Wilson and Dennis Maruk each had three assists.
The North Stars faced the Blackhawks in the Norris Division Finals and lost in a six-game series in which the final three games went to overtime and the visiting team won four of the games.
Minnesota won Game One 8-5 at Chicago Stadium, with the Blackhawks pulling even with a 6-2 victory in Game Two. Chicago won twice at Met Center, 5-3 and 7-6 in double overtime.
The North Stars stayed alive with a 5-4 win in OT in Chicago in Game Five, but the Blackhawks closed out the series 6-5 in overtime in Bloomington in Game Six.
It’s been a minute
Minnesota teams have been involved in 52 series that were best-of-five or more since 1985 and Wolves-Suns is the first to go to 3-0 in favor of the local team:
Wild: 17
Timberwolves: 13
Twins: 13
North Stars: 9
Wayback machine
Climbing into the Wayback Machine, the Minneapolis Lakers had a 3-0 lead in a series only one time and it preceded its days in the NBA.
In the final season of the Basketball Association of America in 1949, the Lakers built a 3-0 lead over the Washington Capitols in the championship series.
The Lakers won the first two games by scores of 88-84 and 76-62 at the Minneapolis Auditorium and then won Game Three 94-74 in the nation’s capital.
Washington, coached by Red Auerbach, won 83-71 in Game 4 and 74-65 in Game 5 to send the series back to Minnesota.
With the Minneapolis Auditorium booked, Game 6 was played at the St. Paul Auditorium, with the Lakers putting the series away with a 77-56 win.
The Capitols never reached the Finals again, but Auerbach certainly would. He won nine times in 11 appearances in the NBA Finals with the Boston Celtics.
Game notes
Some additional information heading into tonight’s Game Four. Tipoff is at 8:30 p.m. on Bally Sports North and TNT.
With six players scoring in double figures in Game 3 (Anthony Edwards 36, Rudy Gobert 19, Karl-Anthony Towns 18, Nickeil Alexander 16, Mike Conley 15, Naz Reid 13), it marked the eighth time the Wolves have accomplished that feat and the second straight.
With Gobert (19-14) and Towns (18-13) each recording a points-rebound double-double, it marked the fifth time in franchise playoff history two players had such a double-double in the same game.
The Wolves never trailed in Game 3, marking the third wire-to-wire playoff win in franchise history. The others were April 30, 2004 vs. Denver (102-91) and April 22, 2003 vs. the Los Angeles Lakers (119-91).
Minnesota forced 20 turnovers in Game 2, resulting in 31 points for the Wolves to set franchise records for forced turnovers and points off turnovers.
With the Wolves outscoring Phoenix in points off turnovers 31-2, the +29 differential tied the largest margin by an NBA team in a playoff game since 1997-98. Denver was +29 (41-12) at New Orleans on April 27, 2009.
The Wolves-Suns winner meets the Nuggets-Lakers winner in the next round. Denver leads that series 3-1 and hosts Game 5 Monday.
The Suns’ Kevin Durant scored 25 points in Game 3. It’s the 155th of his career, moving him into sole possession of fifth for the most 20+ point games in NBA postseason history. LeBron James (256) is first, followed by Michael Jordan (173), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (169), Kobe Bryant (167) and Durant.