Towns treasures Timberwolves’ trip to West finals as Doncic-Irving duo hits stride for Mavericks

MINNEAPOLIS — The road Karl-Anthony Towns has taken with the Minnesota Timberwolves to reach the Western Conference finals has been far more lonely and rocky than smooth and straight. He’s been on many teams where he’s had to do a lot, and he’s got incredible skill to do so, but he’s really bought in to doing all the other things we need him to do.” The Wolves host the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday night. “When you talk about great teammates, they play together at a high level.” The Wolves are not only in rare position as the series favorite — albeit slight, at minus-185 to win according to BetMGM odds — but they’ve only made it this far once before. Towns, the first overall pick in the 2015 draft, was a gangly 8-year-old growing up in New Jersey when NBA MVP Kevin Garnett guided the Wolves to the Western Conference finals in 2004. Since the Wolves made their only other Western Conference finals appearance in 2004, Minnesota has had only three final-four teams over a possible 79 combined seasons in the NBA, NHL, NFL and Major League Baseball.