{"id":35068,"date":"2025-05-15T16:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/35068\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T16:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:49:07","slug":"northwest-notes-wolves-dort-blazers-jazz-uzan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/35068\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwest Notes: Wolves, Dort, Blazers, Jazz, Uzan"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being eliminated in the Western Conference Finals in the spring of 2024, Anthony Edwards<\/a> vowed the Timberwolves would be \u201cback next year,\u201d writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That looked like a long shot for much of the season as Minnesota spent most of 2024\/25 hovering around the seventh or eighth spot in the West. But the Wolves moved up to sixth on the last day of the regular season, dispatched the Lakers in round one, and \u2013 with Wednesday\u2019s win over Golden State \u2013 made good on Edwards\u2019 declaration, as well as responding to a challenge issued by head coach Chris Finch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge we laid down to our guys from day one was quite simple,\u201d Finch said after the Wolves\u2019 Game 5 victory, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN<\/a>. \u201cIt was one question: \u2018Were you a Western Conference Finals team, or were you a team that just happened to make the Western Conference Finals?\u2019 And there\u2019s only one way to prove that: Go out and do it again. And that was our mission all year.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Wolves have achieved one of their goals, they\u2019re still two series wins away from their ultimate objective, which is why Edwards told reporters on Wednesday that there\u2019s \u201cno satisfaction\u201d in the locker room yet, according to McMenamin. Minnesota would enter the 2025 Western Finals as a significant underdog if the 68-win Thunder get past Denver in the other conference semifinal, but the Wolves players say they\u2019re not fazed by that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mentality going in was nobody expected us to beat the Lakers, no one expected us to beat the Warriors,\u201d Donte DiVincenzo<\/a> said. \u201cSo our expectation going in was just stick together and we know that no one is going to pick us, and we\u2019re fine with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Northwest:<\/p>\n

After not playing in the fourth quarter of the Thunder\u2018s Game 4 win and scoring just three points in the first three quarters of Game 5, veteran wing Luguentz Dort<\/a> keyed Oklahoma City\u2019s Tuesday comeback with a trio of consecutive three-pointers in the fourth quarter, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman<\/a>. Head coach Mark Daigneault had reaffirmed his faith in Dort after Game 4, referring to him<\/a> as \u201cthe last guy I\u2019m worried about,\u201d and wasn\u2019t surprised by his Game 5 heroics. \u201cI don\u2019t bet against Lu,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cIt\u2019s that simple.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s business as usual for the Trail Blazers\u2018 front office with the franchise up for sale<\/a>, reports Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian<\/a>. A source tells Fentress that general manager Joe Cronin is operating with no additional restrictions during the sale process. As Fentress writes, while it\u2019s not uncommon for a new ownership group to make managerial and coaching changes, both Cronin and head coach Chauncey Billups recently signed contract<\/a> extensions<\/a>, so they at least have some financial security going forward.
\nMilos Uzan<\/a> worked out for the Jazz last week and said he got some \u201cpretty good feedback\u201d from the team, according to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune<\/a>, who notes that Carlos Boozer \u2013 rumored<\/a> to be joining Utah as a scout \u2013 referred to Uzan as \u201cone of the better players in the workout.\u201d The Houston guard is the 41st overall prospect on ESPN\u2019s big board, while the Jazz control three picks (Nos. 21, 43, and 53) in addition to their lottery selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being eliminated in the Western Conference Finals in the spring of 2024, Anthony Edwards vowed the Timberwolves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[375,7,601,7175,183,3542,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-35068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-blazers","11":"tag-joe-cronin","12":"tag-luguentz-dort","13":"tag-milos-uzan","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-portland","16":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","17":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","18":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114512878863780651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}