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Chris Finch Reveals Source of Timberwolves Motivation This Season After Eliminating Warriors

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Dave Ettinger | Last updated May 15, 2025 3:20 AM ET

The Minnesota Timberwolves are legitimate contenders in the 2025 NBA playoffs. After eliminating the Golden State Warriors in five games on Wednesday night, the Timberwolves find themselves in back-to-back Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history.

Their 23-year-old phenom, Anthony Edwards, continues to thrive in the team's system, making NBA history nearly every night. The Timberwolves have also knocked out some of the league's elite talent during their past two playoff runs.

Last season, they eliminated the likes of Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokic. And this season, they've ousted LeBron James and Stephen Curry. Albeit, Curry wasn't much of a factor due to a debilitating, hamstring injury, the Timberwolves still did away with the Warriors in impressive fashion.

Many teams in NBA history make appearances in a Conference finals, never to return. The Timberwolves, who wanted to ensure they weren't a one-and-done team, proved they have staying power in this generation of the NBA.

Timberwolves head coach, Chris Finch, says he posed a challenge, in the form of a question, to this year's Timberwolves squad.

"Were you a Western Conference finals team, or were you a team that just happened to make the Western Conference finals?" Finch asked.

The Timberwolves then turned their coach's inquiry into motivation throughout the season.

Coach Finch says he asked his team one question throughout the season:

"Were you a Western Conference Finals team or were you a team that just happened to make the Western Conference Finals?

...and there's only one way to prove that. Go out and do it again." https://t.co/OCzz2KOGrh pic.twitter.com/fDnyt0blNz
— NBA (@NBA) May 15, 2025

"There's only one way to prove that, go out and do it again. And that was our mission all year. It took a lot of growing pains, but the team has come together at the right team and is playing its best basketball," Finch said.

While the Timberwolves find themselves in consecutive Western Conference finals, the 2024-25 Timberwolves look a lot different than the 2023-24 roster. The team parted ways with Karl Anthony-Towns after nine seasons, bringing in Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.

Despite their current success, this season wasn't all sunshine and butterflies for the Timberwolves. They started the season 8-10, and Randle and DiVincenzo missed a combined 33 games this season.

Coach Finch, however, kept them on track all season, finishing above .500 for the fourth consecutive season. Finch holds a 209-160 regular-season-record as head coach of the Timberwolves. Finch will look to lead the Timberwolves to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history against either the Oklahoma City Thunder or Denver Nuggets.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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