Tuesday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves officially moved on to the 2022 NBA Playoffs thanks to a fourth-quarter comeback against the Los Angeles Clippers. With the 109-104 victory, they’ll be the seventh seed in the Western Conference, taking on the Memphis Grizzlies.
After the hard-fought victory, the Timberwolves celebrated in style, with Patrick Beverly jumping on the scorers’ table and throwing his jersey into the crowd, who were going wild in appreciation of the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2018 and only their second since 2004.
CHILLS pic.twitter.com/eJpxkZHjbU
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 13, 2022
While all of that excitement was understandable from that perspective, for many watching at home, they found themselves thinking, “Hey guys, it’s a play-in game. Calm down.”
That was certainly the sentiment in the Inside The NBA studio when TNT’s broadcast cut back to Shaq, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson who couldn’t help but have some fun at Minnesota’s expense over their exuberant celebration.
The 'Inside the NBA' crew reacts to the Minnesota Timberwolves' playoff-clinching celebration. pic.twitter.com/cvizc3eB0u
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 13, 2022
“We need One Shining Moment up in this thing,” said Barkley, while the other hosts sang “We Are The Champions.” The crew event as far as to create a “One Shining Moment” retrospective for the victory.
'Inside the NBA' gave the T-Wolves celebration the 'One Shining Moment' treatment. 😂 pic.twitter.com/TaEZbsskod
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 13, 2022
It’s one of those moments where both aspects of this can be true. Timberwolves players and fans should absolutely feel excited about making the playoffs given the franchise’s track record and recent history. It’s a special moment for them that, hopefully, means that making the playoffs becomes commonplace.
On the flip side, from the outside, yeah it certainly does a feel a little bit silly to see this kind of celebration just for making the playoffs as a 7-seed.
Now if the Timberwolves can knock off the heavily favored Grizzlies in the first round, then it will be hard for anyone to mock their celebration over that accomplishment.
