Three times the Timberwolves had double-digit, fourth-quarter leads over the Memphis Grizzlies in their NBA first-round playoff series.
All three times, Memphis rallied to win.
And after Friday night's 114-106 win at Target Center, it was enough to allow the Grizzlies to advance to the second round and send the Wolves to yet another early postseason departure.
"This is a really, really good team down the hallway," said Timberwolves coach Chris Finch. "They don't beat themselves. We don't have that in us yet. But that's okay, in a sense that we're still learning. Playing in these high-leverage situations is huge for us.
Desmond Bane and Dillon Brooks each scored 23 points to lead the Grizzlies.
"Disappointed," said Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns, who had 18 points and ten rebounds. "Definately feel like we shot all our bullets for sure, we didn't leave anything to chance."
By winning the series four games to two, the Grizzlies advanced in the playoffs for the first time in seven years, this time to meet Golden State.
They’ll host Game 1 in Memphis.
Anthony Edwards had 16 of his 30 points in the first quarter for Minnesota. Jaden McDaniels had 24 points off the bench.
It was another somewhat quiet night for Memphis all-star Ja Morant, went 4 for 14 from the field and had 17 points and 11 assists.
With the Grizzlies already the first team in NBA history to win multiple games in the same playoff series by erasing a double-digit-point fourth-quarter deficit, the here-we-go-again feeling was palpable in the building as an 84-74 lead for the Wolves at the third-quarter break quickly vanished.
Bane and Brooks each hit tying 3-pointers midway through the fourth, and Brooks fouled out just 26 seconds after his evened the score at 97.
Bane then swished another one from deep at 3:03 for a 101-99 lead, the first for the Grizzlies since they were up 39-38.
The kill shot came soon after for a Wolves team that, like so many others against the Grizzlies this season, was consistently a step and a jump behind on the glass.
Tyus Jones missed a pair of 3-pointers from the wing on the same possession, but the Grizzlies rebounded both — and Morant used the second one for a layup and a four-point lead.
After McDaniels, who had the game of his two-year career, hit a 3 with 1:34 left to bring the Wolves back within one, Jones — the former Timberwolves player and Minnesota Mr. Basketball from Apple Valley High School — answered with a 3-pointer to bump the lead back to two possessions with 1:09 left.
This was the first Game 6 the Timberwolves hosted in their modest postseason history, though they had Game 7 at Target Center in 2004 when they beat Sacramento to close that second round series.
In the Western Conference finals that year, the Wolves also beat the Lakers here in Game 5 before losing in Los Angeles in Game 6. Those are the only two elimination games they’ve ever won at home, having lost in those situations in the first round in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Despite the devastation of the two squandered leads in defeat earlier in the series and the untrustworthy history of a franchise in a market that has not enjoyed a major professional league championship in a men’s sport since 1991, the fans turned out once again and gave the Wolves a clear advantage.
Former Timberwolves star Latrell Sprewell sat courtside, a few seats down from Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen, who grew up in Detroit Lakes. Local head coaches P.J. Fleck (Gophers football), Ben Johnson (Gophers basketball) and Cheryl Reeve (Lynx) were in the house, too, as fans clutched neon-blue glow sticks for the duration of the night in the packed downtown arena.
The Associated Press contributed content to this story