NBA Conference finals: two teams known with two places to fill: fixtures, times, match-ups

Wednesday’s NBA Conference semi-final games saw the Minnesota Timberwolves advance to a Conference final for only the second time ever in franchise history.

Julius Randle was the hero at a packed Target Centre as he bagged 29 points which helped Minnesota to edge out 121-110 a Golden State Warriors who were missing Steph Curry, to clinch their Western Conference semifinal series on Wednesday night.

Anthony Edwards finished with 22 points and 12 assists for Minnesota and the Timberwolves advance where they will await the winner of the semifinal series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets.

“It’s great,” Randle said of reaching the conference finals. “We’ve had a season full of adversity. Coach (Chris Finch) said at the end of the regular season that we didn’t do anything as far as trades or firing coaches. We just stuck together, and we got through it together.

“I’m super proud of our team, everybody that stepped up in some type of way this year. We got win No. 8 (in the playoffs). We’ve got to keep going.”

Minnesota’s only other conference finals appearance came in the 2003-04 season, which was a 4-2 series loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Detroit Pistons went on to beat the Lakers in the NBA finals that season.

Celtics hold on

Having to contend with the adversity of losing star player Jayson Tatum to a long-term injury, Boston Celtics kept their semi-final series alive with a Game 5 win against the Knicks at TD Garden.

Derrick White was the hero for the home side as he bagged a game-high 34 points and the Celtics take the series back to the Big Apple.

“We made winning plays on both ends of the floor,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “They made enough plays to win. Gave us another chance to play.”

It was Boston’s second playoff game without Jayson Tatum, who had surgery Tuesday to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon and missed his teams first home win of the series.

Indiana Pacers await the victors in the Eastern Conference final.

NBA Conference semi-final fixtures

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

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