Facing insurmountable odds, the Timberwolves finally crumbled vs. Dallas

That’s the record of NBA teams who led a best-of-seven series 3-0.

Still nobody all these years has come back to win the series.

The Wolves are just the latest on a long list after they trailed Dallas by as many as 36 points in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals at Target Center and ultimately lost 124-103.

In last season’s Eastern Conference finals, eighth-seeded Miami won the first three games against second-seeded Boston, lost the next three and then the series in the seventh game by 19 points.

The Wolves never got nearly that far. They avoided elimination for the third time in these playoffs with Tuesday’s Game 4 victory in Dallas.

This time, no such luck.

Now they go home for the summer just two days shy of playing in June.

The Wolves’ exit extended the longest championship drought of any North American pro sports market with at least one team in Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL and NHL. (There were 13 such markets until just recently, with the Arizona Coyotes moving to Utah.)

The last men’s Minnesota team to win a championship was the 1991 Twins.

Phoenix is (was) next on the list, with the Arizona Diamondbacks winning the World Series in 2001.

The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup for Detroit in 2008 and the football Giants won for New York in 2011.

The Miami Heat won the 2013 NBA championship and the Cubs won the World Series for Chicago in 2016.

(The Minnesota Lynx, of course, have won four WNBA titles.)

Mavericks First Team All-NBA Luka Doncic outscored the Wolves by himself 20-19 in the first quarter alone on a night he finished with 36 points on 14-for-22 shooting, including 6-for-10 on threes.

“It sends a message to everyone,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd to TNT during a timeout on Doncic’s powerhouse performance after Tuesday’s Game 4 home loss. “He’s our leader.”

The Mavericks advance to play Boston in the NBA Finals starting June 6.

Doncic and backcourt mate Kyrie Irving outscored the Wolves’ two star scorers Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards 72-56. That’s one point shy of a Dallas franchise record. Doncic and Irving each scored 36 points. Doncic will play in his first NBA Finals, Irving in his fourth. He won a NBA title with Cleveland in 2016.

Wolves coach Chris Finch is feeling better on the road back to recover following knee surgery. He has ditched the crutches at times and has been up and more active on the team’s bench the last two games.

He felt good enough to get called for a technical foul in Game 4 in Dallas and didn’t need long before Thursday’s night to needle the officiating.

When asked about putting Edwards on Doncic and Jaden McDaniels on Kyrie Irving, he said, “(Edwards) does a better job getting through all the illegal screens they set for Luka. Jaden was getting cracked a lot. Jaden traditionally is good on Luka because of his length, but he’s gotten cracked by a lot of screens.”

Finch said Dallas players move at the last second and hit with their shoulders. “They’re hard to get through,” Finch said.

He was already working the refs almost two hours before opening tip.

“They heard me the other day,” Finch said. “I got a technical so they definitely heard me. I just didn’t feel like we were getting enough respect. I just didn’t feel we’ve gotten enough respect in all series. You’ve got to let them know you are there. I wanted to sure we were heard.”

Finch said the team has sent video clips to the NBA office.

“But it never seems to go anywhere,” Finch said. “It’s kind of a waste of time for us. We’ve got other things to focus on.”

Wolves veteran point guard Mike Conley started the game despite being a game-time decision because of that ankle/Achilles soreness that bothered him earlier in the playoffs. Anderson would have started in his place if he hadn’t.

He played just 21 after the game got out of hand so soon.

Meanwhile, Mavericks backup center Dereck Lively II returned to action after he missed Game 4 because of a neck sprain. Dallas coach Jason Kidd waited just three minutes into the game and Lively immediately made his bouncy presence felt.

When asked what the Mavs missed without him, Kidd said before the game, “His spirit, his energy, his ability to protect the rim. He has a vertical game. Also, his offensive rebounds are something we missed. We didn’t pay well (without him), but we gave ourselves a chance to win. Hopefully with him back, it’ll help.”

Game 5 bought some celebrity power Thursday: Rapper Snoop Dogg and music mogul/ Minneapolis’ own Jimmy Jam Harris made a fashionably late entrance near first quarter’s end. They sat together in the front row under one basket.

Dogg obliged fans as he departed with fewer than five minutes remaining, stopping along the last row of seats courtside to stoop and pose for selfies as he walked out. Jimmy Jam stayed until the bitter end.

Timberwolf legend Kevin Garnett was rumored to attend, but there was no such sightings publicly. Until you count the nightly video on the big scoreboard that shows a very young KG imploring Target Center fans to “let’s go, baby” because it’s fourth-quarter time.

Basketball Hall of Famer Garnett on a recent podcast had this theory on why his former team might not be ready to go deep, deep into the playoffs: Their bodies aren’t build for it, yet.

He credits Michael Jordan for teaching the rest of the league how to play until nearly July by working out well into summer. He notes how Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James all prepared their bodies to play until late June. He credits his 2004 Western Conference finals run with the Wolves for programming his body for his 2008 championship won with Boston.

“You want to condition your body,” he said on All the Smoke podcast with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. “I bet my young Timberwolves are not conditioned to go past May. They’re usually on vacation right now.

Everybody wanted to know where Barkley went to eat when the TNT crew was in town for the series’ first two games.

In Thursday’s pregame show, host Ernie Johnson gave a restaurant shoutout after a Wednesday night dinner in the North Loop: Dario.

He recommends the spicy rigatoni.

Johnson awarded the Western Conference championship trophy to Mavericks ownership and the Western final MVP to Doncic during a post-game, on-court ceremony in which he praised the Wolves and their long-faithful fans.

The series first four games were determined by a combined 18 points — 108-105, 109-108, 116-107, 105-100.

The fifth one by 23.

A woman who borrowed ear plugs returned them to the borrower at night’s end with the game so long ago, saying “I didn’t need them, it never got loud enough.”