[外電] Timberwolves roll into WCF hungrier and healthier

看板Timberwolves (明尼蘇達灰狼)作者jinshenn (Don't panic)時間5天前 (2025/05/16 00:34)推噓17(17推 0噓 1→)

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https://tinyurl.com/24cuhmve After the Timberwolves defeated the Warriors 121-110 Wednesday to advance to the Western Conference finals, the locker room was a much different scene than it was a year ago in Denver, when the Wolves advanced past the second round in a seven-game slugfest. 在灰狼隊以121-110擊敗勇士隊晉級西區冠軍賽後，休息室的景象與一年前在丹佛時截然不同，當時灰狼隊經過七場鏖戰，艱苦地闖過第二輪。 Media was everywhere in the locker room that night in Denver, as were ice packs on the shoulders and knees of multiple Wolves players. Those that didn’t need the ice had buckets of water to soak their feet as the Wolves celebrated what was perhaps the greatest win in franchise history. The Wolves were elated, but they were also worn down, a fact that became evident as they lost in the Western Conference finals to the Mavericks in five games. 在丹佛的那個夜晚，休息室裡到處都是媒體記者，多名灰狼隊球員的肩膀和膝蓋上敷著冰袋。那些不需要冰敷的球員則用桶裝水泡腳，同時慶祝著可能是隊史中最偉大的勝利。球員們欣喜若狂，但也筋疲力盡，這一點在西區冠軍賽中，經歷五場比賽敗給獨行俠隊時變得顯而易見。 Contrast that with Wednesday night, which felt more like a regular-season victory than one of the most momentous nights in franchise history as the Wolves advanced to the conference finals for just the third time. 相較之下，週三晚上更像是一場例行賽的勝利，而不是隊史最重要的一個夜晚，在灰狼隊僅僅是第三次晉級分區冠軍賽的時刻。 There wasn’t evidence of an extended celebration. Nobody lingered in the locker room. Players got their postgame work and treatment in, and they got out of there in a relatively short time. There wasn’t much savoring of the moment. After getting this far a season ago, there was a sense the Wolves know they can’t be satisfied again with just making it this far. 沒有大肆慶祝的跡象，沒有人逗留在休息室，球員們完成賽後訓練和治療後，短暫駐足後便離開，沒有細細品味這一刻。在去年同期攀上同樣位置後，球員們有一種感覺，不能只滿足於再走到這一步。 “It feels good, but there’s really nothing to celebrate yet,” Jaden McDaniels said. 「感覺很好，但真的還沒什麼值得慶祝的。」Jaden McDaniels說。 Said Anthony Edwards: “There is no satisfaction. We just got here. We haven’t did anything yet.” Anthony Edwards說：「沒有什麼滿足感。我們才剛到這裡，什麼都還沒達成。」 Then Rudy Gobert followed Edwards’ words. 然後 Rudy Gobert 接著 Edwards 的話說。 “It feels good to get to that step, but the stomach is not full. Not at all,” Gobert said. “It’s just one step.” 「能走到這一步感覺很好，但肚子還沒飽。一點都沒有，」Gobert 說。「這只是一小步。」 But that step was still a significant one, no matter how the players downplayed it after. The Wolves beat the Warriors 4-1, all four wins coming after future Hall of Famer Stephen Curry strained his left hamstring in Game 1. That injury opened the door for the Wolves to win the series before Curry could get back, and indications were leaning toward that being a possibility if the series went to a Game 6 on Sunday. But the Wolves, a team that suffered from a lack of focus and intensity throughout the season, kept the Warriors down for the count. They also gave themselves some time to rest after keeping this a short series. 無論球員們事後如何輕描淡寫，這一步仍然意義重大。灰狼隊以4-1擊退勇士隊，所有四場勝利都發生在 Stephen Curry 於第一戰拉傷左腿筋之後。這個傷勢為灰狼隊打開了贏得系列賽大門，而如果系列賽進入週日的第六戰，種種跡象也傾向於 Curry 回歸可能。但這支賽季不時面對缺乏專注和拼勁的球隊，讓勇士隊一直處於劣勢。提早結束系列賽，也為自己爭取一些休息時間。 Julius Randle was a major reason why. While Edwards has his awe-inspiring bursts of brilliance, Randle has been the steady hand all postseason. Julius Randle 是主要原因。雖然 Edwards 有著令人驚嘆的爆發性表現，但 Randle 在季後賽至今始終保持穩定。 “Julius Randle was incredible,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “What a series. He’s always been a really good player in this league. I think he has taken a leap.” 「Julius Randle 太不可思議了。」勇士隊教練 Steve Kerr 說。「多麼精彩的一個系列賽。他一直是聯盟裡非常出色的球員，我認為他已經更上一層樓。」 Randle had 29 points on 13-for-18 shooting to go with five assists. He’s averaging 23.9 points per game in the postseason. He had five turnovers, but the Wolves had 21 as a team against a pesky Warriors defense, and when they didn’t turn the ball over, their ball movement was in peak form. They had 36 assists on 49 field goals while shooting 63% in a close-out game. Randle 投18中13得到29分，外加5次助攻，季後賽至今場均23.9分。雖然發生5次失誤，但灰狼隊面對頑強的勇士防守，全隊有21次失誤，而當他們沒有失誤發生時，球的流動達到巔峰狀態。這場晉級戰中，49次進球有36次助攻得分，命中率高達63%。 The veterans set the tone for the Wolves. There was Rudy Gobert with 17 points and eight rebounds, and Mike Conley, who had 16 points and eight assists. After last season, Edwards told the 37-year-old Conley he would be back in the conference finals. Edwards kept his word. 老將們為球隊奠定了基調。Rudy Gobert 貢獻17分和8個籃板，而 Mike Conley 則有16分和8次助攻。上賽季結束時，Edwards 告訴37歲的 Conley，他會再回到分區決賽的舞台，Edwards 兌現了他的承諾。 “What you learn about him, he believes everything he says, no matter what it is. And at that moment last year, I believed him, I believed that we’d have another opportunity together and this wasn’t the end of the road,” Conley said. 「你從他身上學到的是，他相信自己說的一切，不論是什麼。而去年那個時間點，我相信了他，我相信我們會有另一個機會，這條路還沒有到盡頭。」 Conley 說。 Even if that road felt like it had a lot of dead ends during the course of the season. The Wolves started the season with the controversial move of trading Karl-Anthony Towns for Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, who had 13 points on Wednesday. The fit, to say the least, was clunky, and halfway through the season, the Wolves were underwhelming. The fan base and the team could feel it. But Randle and coach Chris Finch figured out his fit, the team played its best basketball after he returned from a groin injury (17-4) and they’ve kept rolling ever since. They are now 25-6 since Randle came back from that injury. 即使在賽季中，那條路感覺充滿了死胡同。灰狼隊以備受爭議的 Karl-Anthony Towns 換來 Randle 和 Donte DiVincenzo 交易案開啟了這個賽季，Donte DiVincenzo 在周三貢獻了13分。坦白說，磨合過程非常不流暢，賽季過半時，灰狼隊表現平平。球迷和球隊都能感受到。但 Randle 和教練 Chris Finch 找到了定位，球隊在他從腹股溝傷勢中復出後打出了最好的狀態（17勝4敗），從那以後他們一直保持強勢。Randle 回歸後，他們現在的戰績是25勝6敗。 “I was talking to my agent, Aaron Mintz, and he was always telling me, ‘Just be engaged with your teammates, even though you ’re on the sidelines. I think that was another moment of growth for me in a way,” Randle said of sitting out. “Because even though I wasn’t playing, just being engaged, cheering for the guys, encouraging them, being able to use my voice in a way that maybe I haven’t been comfortable in the past with. … After I came back, my mindset was just how can I help this team win, and it’s as simple as that.” 「我當時在和我的經紀人 Aaron Mintz 對話，他總是告訴我，『即使你坐在場邊，也要融入團隊中。』我認為某種程度上是我另一個成長的時刻。」 Randle 談到缺席時說道。「因為即使我沒有上場打球，但只是參與其中，為隊友們加油，鼓勵他們，能夠以一種過去我可能不習慣的方式傳達我的想法。……回歸之後，我的心態就是如何能幫助這支球隊贏球，就這麼簡單。」 Randle helped put the Warriors away after they cut a 25-point lead to nine in the fourth quarter; he had eight points in the quarter. Edwards finished with 22 points but had 12 assists, his best total in a playoff game. 在第四節勇士隊將25分的落後縮小到9分後，Randle 幫助灰狼隊甩開對手。他在該節得到8分。Edwards 最終得到22分，但送出12次助攻，是他在季後賽中的最佳數字。 “The most together team and the most mature team is the team that wins around this time,” Edwards said. “It’s not about who gets 30 points, who gets the most shots, who gets all the blame for winning the game. It’s not about none of that. It’s about coming together as a team. Can we defend at a high level? Can we limit the other team to one shot? It doesn’t really matter about offense.” 「最有凝聚力和最成熟的球隊，才能在這個階段贏球。」Edwards 說。「這不是關乎誰得到30分，誰出手最多次，誰承擔贏球的所有責任，這都不是。這是關乎球隊的團結，我們能否打出高水準防守？我們能否將對手限制只出手一次？重點不在於進攻。」 Those kinds of words from Edwards reflect the culture Finch has tried to build since he became the coach in Edwards’ rookie year. Earlier this season, Finch spoke about wanting to build a culture that could make consistent deep playoff runs, while keeping in mind something his boss, Wolves President Tim Connelly, often says: “The path to success is not always linear.” Edwards 這番話反映了 Finch 自 Edwards 新秀賽季接任教練以來，一直努力建立的文化。本賽季早些時候，Finch 談到希望建立能夠穩定在季後賽走遠的文化，同時銘記他的老闆，灰狼隊總裁 Tim Connelly 經常說的一句話：「通往成功道路不總是線性的。」 “It doesn’t mean just because you went so far in the playoffs, you’re going to go one step further,” Finch said. “You might not always do that, but come back the next year and put in place the lessons that you learned. I think I can see some of that.” 「你能在季後賽走到這個階段，並不保證會再更往前一步。」Finch 說。「你可能沒辦法一直辦到，但下一年回來，把學到的教訓付諸實踐，我想我看到球員們做到了。」 But Finch challenged the group not to take a step back anyway. From Day 1, he said he framed it this way to the team: Did they want to be a Western Conference finals team, or a team that happened to make the Western Conference finals? 但 Finch 仍然要求球隊不要退縮。從第一天起，他就這樣對球隊說：「他們想成為一支有西區冠軍賽實力的球隊，還是一支偶然闖入西區冠軍賽的球隊？」 “There’s only one way to prove that: Go out and do it again, and that was our mission all year,” Finch said. “We went through a lot of growing pains, but the team has come together at the right time and playing its best basketball.” 「證明這一點的唯一方法就是再做一次，這也是我們一整年的使命。」 Finch 說。「我們經歷了很多成長的痛苦，但球隊在正確的時機凝聚在一起，打出了最佳狀態。」 The Timberwolves wandered the basketball wilderness in the post-Kevin Garnett years. The franchise passed twice on Curry and saw Warriors forward Jimmy Butler tear through the organization in 2018. It vanquished Butler (17 points Wednesday), along with, perhaps, excising some of the angst from passing on Curry. 灰狼隊在後 Kevin Garnett 時代，一直迷失在籃球荒野中。球隊選秀錯過 Curry 兩次，並在2018年看到勇士隊前鋒 Jimmy Butler 在球團內大搞破壞。他們擊敗了 Butler ，同時，或許也消除了某些因錯過 Curry 而產生的焦慮。 In the process, the 2024-25 Wolves became what Finch challenged them to be: a Western Conference finals team. But this time, that’ s not a good enough goal. 在這個過程中，2024-25賽季的灰狼隊接受了 Finch 的挑戰：成為一支西區決賽球隊。但這一次，這個目標還不夠好。 “[Last year] we weren’t mature enough to handle that yet,” Gobert said. “We were aware of it. This year, we’re mature enough.” 「（去年）我們還不夠成熟，還無法應付挑戰。」Gobert 說。「我們當時有意識到。今年，我們夠成熟了。」 --- Jaden不想慶祝，AE表示不滿足，狗貝表示還很饑餓。挑戰還沒結束，把握機會，不留遺憾。 -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 1.164.237.163 (臺灣) ※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Timberwolves/M.1747326897.A.53F.html ※ 編輯: jinshenn (1.164.237.163 臺灣), 05/16/2025 00:35:58

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