Rudy Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves, winners of the Golden State Warriors, return to the NBA conference finals

Rudy Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves are quietly returning to the conference finals. A year after being eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks at this stage of the competition – on the verge of the NBA Finals – the Wolves got the better of the Golden State Warriors, eliminated in five games (4-1), after their home victory on Wednesday, May 14, against the players from the San Francisco Bay Area (121-110).

With Warriors star Stephen Curry out for several games due to injury, the French center's teammates have hardly let the opportunity to get closer to their goal, a first title in the history of the franchise from the state of 10,000 lakes, slip by. "Injuries are part of the playoffs. I don't want to take anything away from Minnesota, there's not much point in talking about Steph," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, tipping his hat, like his troops, to the Timberwolves, led by young star Anthony Edwards (26.5 points average during these playoffs) and veteran center Julius Randle (23.9 points), the Wolves' reinforcement in the offseason.

"Since he came back from injury, he's been on fire," Warriors player Draymond Green said of the latter after his team's elimination, estimating that Minnesota has "a real opportunity" to win the title. For the colorful center, who has made Rudy Gobert his target for years, the Timberwolves not only have "two dynamic scorers... but also the pieces around (...) It's not just one or two guys. They have a real team."

In this fifth game of the series, Rudy Gobert shone more on offense – as he did in the final game of the first round against the Los Angeles Lakers – and was often found by his teammates under the rim (for 17 points and 8 rebounds). But the French team's pivot, who has won four NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards, is above all the Minnesota team's defensive pillar.

The Wolves return to the conference finals after an up-and-down regular season, but a strong finish to the season – 17 wins in their last 21 games, after Julius Randle's return from injury. And Anthony Edwards' teammates are hungry. "Every team goes through more or less difficult periods. The question was simple: are we a conference finals team, or a team that played a conference finals by chance?" summarized coach Chris Finch, emphasizing that "the team knew how to play its best basketball when it mattered."

In the next round, Rudy Gobert and his teammates will face the winner of the matchup between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Oklahoma City Thunder and Nikola Jokic's Denver Nuggets, the two candidates for the MVP ( Most Valuable Player ) title. The Thunder lead (three wins to two) and have the opportunity to conclude the series, Thursday night in Colorado.

In the Eastern Conference, while the Indiana Pacers qualified for the conference finals on Tuesday—like the Wolves, for the second time in a row and in relative anonymity—the defending champions pushed back the deadline for elimination on Wednesday. Despite being without their leading scorer, Jayson Tatum, who ruptured his Achilles tendon in the previous game, the Boston Celtics comfortably defeated the New York Knicks (127-102) at home, and returned to within two wins of three in the series. But the New York team will be able to wrap up the series in front of its home crowd on Friday at Madison Square Garden.