The Stein Line

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The Stein Line
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This Week In Basketball can only say that talking and writing so much about NBA playoff injuries is bumming us out

This Week In Basketball can only say that talking and writing so much about NBA playoff injuries is bumming us out

Cannot tell a lie. This weekly roundup, as I keep testing out a new format with one of my go-to column presentations, ain't gonna be very upbeat. How can it be with so many health setbacks to cover?

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Marc Stein
Apr 29, 2024
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The Stein Line
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This Week In Basketball can only say that talking and writing so much about NBA playoff injuries is bumming us out
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These depressingly injury-strewn NBA playoffs aren't even safe for the coaches anymore.

Poor Chris Finch.

Minnesota's first coach to taste the second round of the playoffs since Flip Saunders way back in 2004 didn't even make it to the final buzzer of the Timberwolves' sweep-clinching win Sunday night at Phoenix because Mike Conley — also pretty much known as the nicest Wolf in the world — careened into Finch on the sideline in what became literal crunch time. The accidental collision left Finch with a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch after taking a hit from Wolves guard Mike Conley late in Minnesota’s series-clinching Game 4 victory Sunday night at Phoenix. (📷: Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)

This, again, was the Wolves' first series victory in 20 years dating to 2004's second round against Sacramento and the first best-of-7 playoff sweep by any major league pro sports team based in Minnesota. Ever.

The 4-0 brooming also avenged Phoenix's 3-0 domination of the teams' regular-season series and doomed the Suns to be known as the first team to be knocked out of this season's playoffs, which will only ramp up the mounting pressure on first-year Suns coach Frank Vogel.

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