And with that, the Warriors' season has ended. Simply put, Golden State could not recover after losing superstar Stephen Curry to a left hamstring strain in Game 1 of this series. Golden State finished Game 1 without Curry with a 99-88 win but proceeded to lose four straight by a combined 47 points.

Julius Randle scored 29 points on 13-for-18 shooting, and the Minnesota Timberwolves held on for a 121-110 win over the Golden State Warriors to clinch their Western Conference semifinals series on Wednesday night in Minneapolis.

Fast forward a few months, and Minnesota is headed back to the conference finals in no small part because of Randle, who continued the best stretch of basketball of his postseason -- and probably professional -- life with 27 points on 12-of-17 shooting on Wednesday as the Wolves eliminated the Warriors in five games.

Timberwolves' power forward has finally emerged as a playoff force to complement superstar Anthony Edwards. 'I had a great mentor in Kobe Bryant,' he says.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have made it far this season, and that continues to be because of Anthony Edwards and his growth as a player and leader.

Aaron Gordon might be the gold standard of the "struggling leading man to role player" transformation right now. After never finding his place in Orlando, he has become Mr. Nugget in Denver by giving up the on-ball portion of his offensive game,

Anthony Edwards had 22 points and 12 assists for the sixth-seeded Wolves, who will face the Denver-Oklahoma City winner next. They could get five days off, if the Nuggets beat the Thunder on Thursday to force a Game 7 in the other West semifinal series.