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. 在灰狼队以121-110击败勇士队晋级西区冠军赛後，休息室的景象与一年 前在丹佛时截然不同，当时灰狼队经过七场鏖战，艰苦地闯过第二轮。 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. 在丹佛的那个夜晚，休息室里到处都是媒体记者，多名灰狼队球员的肩膀 和膝盖上敷着冰袋。那些不需要冰敷的球员则用桶装水泡脚，同时庆祝着 可能是队史中最伟大的胜利。球员们欣喜若狂，但也筋疲力尽，这一点在 西区冠军赛中，经历五场比赛败给独行侠队时变得显而易见。 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. 相较之下，周三晚上更像是一场例行赛的胜利，而不是队史最重要的一个 夜晚，在灰狼队仅仅是第三次晋级分区冠军赛的时刻。 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. 没有大肆庆祝的迹象，没有人逗留在休息室，球员们完成赛後训练和治疗 後，短暂驻足後便离开，没有细细品味这一刻。在去年同期攀上同样位置 後，球员们有一种感觉，不能只满足於再走到这一步。 “It feels good, but there’s really nothing to celebrate yet,” Jaden McDaniels said. 「感觉很好，但真的还没什麽值得庆祝的。」Jaden McDaniels说。 Said Anthony Edwards: “There is no satisfaction. We just got here. We haven’t did anything yet.” Anthony Edwards说：「没有什麽满足感。我们才刚到这里，什麽都还没达 成。」 Then Rudy Gobert followed Edwards’ words. 然後 Rudy Gobert 接着 Edwards 的话说。 “It feels good to get to that step, but the stomach is not full. Not at all,” Gobert said. “It’s just one step.” 「能走到这一步感觉很好，但肚子还没饱。一点都没有，」Gobert 说。 「这只是一小步。」 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. 无论球员们事後如何轻描淡写，这一步仍然意义重大。灰狼队以4-1击退勇士 队，所有四场胜利都发生在 Stephen Curry 於第一战拉伤左腿筋之後。这个 伤势为灰狼队打开了赢得系列赛大门，而如果系列赛进入周日的第六战，种 种迹象也倾向於 Curry 回归可能。但这支赛季不时面对缺乏专注和拼劲的球 队，让勇士队一直处於劣势。提早结束系列赛，也为自己争取一些休息时间。 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。虽然 Edwards 有着令人惊叹的爆发性表现，但 Randle 在季後赛至今始终保持稳定。 “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 太不可思议了。」勇士队教练 Steve Kerr 说。「多麽精 彩的一个系列赛。他一直是联盟里非常出色的球员，我认为他已经更上一层 楼。」 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，季後赛至今场均23.9分。虽然发 生5次失误，但灰狼队面对顽强的勇士防守，全队有21次失误，而当他们没有 失误发生时，球的流动达到巅峰状态。这场晋级战中，49次进球有36次助攻 得分，命中率高达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. 老将们为球队奠定了基调。Rudy Gobert 贡献17分和8个篮板，而 Mike Conley 则有16分和8次助攻。上赛季结束时，Edwards 告诉37岁的 Conley， 他会再回到分区决赛的舞台，Edwards 兑现了他的承诺。 “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. 「你从他身上学到的是，他相信自己说的一切，不论是什麽。而去年那个时 间点，我相信了他，我相信我们会有另一个机会，这条路还没有到尽头。」 Conley 说。 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. 即使在赛季中，那条路感觉充满了死胡同。灰狼队以备受争议的 Karl-Anthony Towns 换来 Randle 和 Donte DiVincenzo 交易案开启了这个 赛季，Donte DiVincenzo 在周三贡献了13分。坦白说，磨合过程非常不流畅 ，赛季过半时，灰狼队表现平平。球迷和球队都能感受到。但 Randle 和教 练 Chris Finch 找到了定位，球队在他从腹股沟伤势中复出後打出了最好的 状态（17胜4败），从那以後他们一直保持强势。Randle 回归後，他们现在 的战绩是25胜6败。 “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.” 「我当时在和我的经纪人 Aaron Mintz 对话，他总是告诉我，『即使你坐在 场边，也要融入团队中。』我认为某种程度上是我另一个成长的时刻。」 Randle 谈到缺席时说道。「因为即使我没有上场打球，但只是参与其中，为 队友们加油，鼓励他们，能够以一种过去我可能不习惯的方式传达我的想法 。……回归之後，我的心态就是如何能帮助这支球队赢球，就这麽简单。」 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. 在第四节勇士队将25分的落後缩小到9分後，Randle 帮助灰狼队甩开对手。 他在该节得到8分。Edwards 最终得到22分，但送出12次助攻，是他在季後赛 中的最佳数字。 “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队，才能在这个阶段赢球。」Edwards 说。「这 不是关乎谁得到30分，谁出手最多次，谁承担赢球的所有责任，这都不是。 这是关乎球队的团结，我们能否打出高水准防守？我们能否将对手限制只出 手一次？重点不在於进攻。」 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 这番话反映了 Finch 自 Edwards 新秀赛季接任教练以来，一直努 力建立的文化。本赛季早些时候，Finch 谈到希望建立能够稳定在季後赛走 远的文化，同时铭记他的老板，灰狼队总裁 Tim Connelly 经常说的一句话 ：「通往成功道路不总是线性的。」 “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.” 「你能在季後赛走到这个阶段，并不保证会再更往前一步。」Finch 说。「 你可能没办法一直办到，但下一年回来，把学到的教训付诸实践，我想我看 到球员们做到了。」 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 仍然要求球队不要退缩。从第一天起，他就这样对球队说：「他们 想成为一支有西区冠军赛实力的球队，还是一支偶然闯入西区冠军赛的球队 ？」 “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.” 「证明这一点的唯一方法就是再做一次，这也是我们一整年的使命。」 Finch 说。「我们经历了很多成长的痛苦，但球队在正确的时机凝聚在一起 ，打出了最佳状态。」 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. 灰狼队在後 Kevin Garnett 时代，一直迷失在篮球荒野中。球队选秀错过 Curry 两次，并在2018年看到勇士队前锋 Jimmy Butler 在球团内大搞破坏 。他们击败了 Butler ，同时，或许也消除了某些因错过 Curry 而产生的 焦虑。 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. 在这个过程中，2024-25赛季的灰狼队接受了 Finch 的挑战：成为一支西区 决赛球队。但这一次，这个目标还不够好。 “[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）我们还不够成熟，还无法应付挑战。」Gobert 说。「我们当时有 意识到。今年，我们够成熟了。」 --- Jaden不想庆祝，AE表示不满足，狗贝表示还很饥饿。 挑战还没结束，把握机会，不留遗憾。 --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc), 来自: 1.164.237.163 (台湾) ※ 文章网址: https://webptt.com/cn.aspx?n=bbs/Timberwolves/M.1747326897.A.53F.html ※ 编辑: jinshenn (1.164.237.163 台湾), 05/16/2025 00:35:58