The Minnesota Timberwolves lost another nail-biter on Sunday night, and now find themselves down 3-0 to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals. In order to get to the Finals, they'll have to become the first team in NBA history to overcome such a deficit.
Anthony Edwards, their uber-confident young star, still has faith.
"Time to make history, fellas," Edwards told his teammates in the locker room after Game 3, according to The Athletic. "I still don't feel like they can beat us, bro. We haven't all been clicking at one time. One game. One game.
"Well, we're here now, fellas. What are we gonna do?"
Saying you don't feel like a team can beat you immediately after losing to them for the third time in five days is pretty funny, but in Edwards' defense, what was he supposed to say? That he thinks their season is over?
Plus, Edwards does have something of a point. The Timberwolves have lost the first three games by a combined 13 points, and had the lead in the last five minutes of all of them. And that's despite the fact that both he and Karl-Anthony Towns have not been anywhere near their best. Together they're averaging just 37 points on 33.2% shooting from the field, down from 47.7 points on 50.9% from the field in the first two rounds.
The Timberwolves have almost certainly dug themselves too deep of a hole at this point, but it's easy to understand why Edwards feels like they're right there, because they are. There isn't much to separate these teams, and this is a series that the Timberwolves certainly could have won if their best players were performing at their usual level.
Alas, they were not, and the Timberwolves' Finals drought is likely to continue. This was just their second conference finals appearance since their inception in 1989, and they are one of five active franchises, along with the Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans, that have never made the Finals.
