This is why Tom Thibodeau went out last summer and traded for All-Star Jimmy Butler and signed veterans Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson, Jamal Crawford and most recently Derrick Rose.
For a night like tonight, for a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2004.
"It's a game," Butler said after this morning's shoot at Target Center. "We've done this all our lives. This is a game you should want to play in, the so-called big ones."
The Wolves and Denver will play one game for the right to advance the playoffs, the third time since the current playoff format arrived in 1983-84 that the winning team of a game on the regular season's final day advances and the loser is eliminated.
It last happened April 20, 1997 when Washington beat Cleveland and on April 23, 1995 when the Nuggets beat Sacramento.
"Ain't too much to say, everybody knows," Butler said. "Nobody's stupid around here. Everybody knows we have to win this game. You have to do everything perfect. You want to play a 48-minute game. If there are more minutes than that, we're prepared to play those, too. But ain't too much to say. It's all about going out and doing what you're supposed to do."
The Wolves practiced yesterday and shot this morning. Thibodeau said Gibson -- the Wolves' glue guy whom teammate Jamal Crawford calls its "rock" -- participated in shootaround after he played eight minutes Monday because of a sore neck.
"He went through the whole practice, I think he'll be good," Thibodeau said. "We'll see before the game. Let him warm up."
