AUSTIN, TEXAS – Timberwolves guard Mike Conley wasn't aware he was about to hit a nice round career number in Saturday's 151-131 Wolves victory over the Spurs, but about halfway through the game he mentioned a little "birdie" told him he was closing in on 15,000 career points.
Conley needed 18, and he got there with 20 points total in Saturday's victory.
"It's just a testament of longevity and being able to play this game for as long as I have been. It's a blessing," he said. "I wouldn't never thought as a kid I'd even be close to that. Just truthfully grateful and humble to continue to be playing."
Conley is in his 16th season between Memphis, Utah and Minnesota and he became the 157th player in NBA history to reach that mark. As he was giving a postgame interview on Bally Sports North, guard Anthony Edwards doused him in water. Conley said he was grateful to be in the company of those who have scored 15,000 points.
"Guys I've looked up to for so long," said Conley, 35. "Guys I've competed against for so long and to be just a part of that group to get that threshold, that's a legacy. It's going to be there forever. Nobody can take that away from me. It's truthfully a grateful situation for me. I'm happy. I don't know how I did it because I like to pass and be unselfish, but apparently I shot and made a couple along the way."
The bench is back
After Taurean Prince drew a charge in the third quarter Saturday, he had a wide smile on his face and shared a quick laugh with teammate Kyle Anderson. It was a typical Prince play — he's one of the few players on the Wolves who regularly draws offensive fouls — in a game that felt more like what Prince brings off the bench than what he had been producing lately.
After struggling to come back from an illness the ran through the team, Prince had his best game in weeks with a 15-point performance. Prince mentioned he lost 11 pounds and could not eat while battling the illness, which coach Chris Finch said was an "intestinal flu."
"I'm trying to get back right, Prince said. "Staying on top of my vitamins, get my work in and still try to heal myself to the point where I can replenish some of that weight and get playoff ready as quickly as possible."
Guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker also had a bounce-back game on offense with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting. He had been just 3-for-13 in his previous five games. He said the confidence in his shot never fluctuated.
"I do get hard on myself because if anything I have so much confidence in my shot that me not performing to what I see is my standard, that's when I get on myself," Alexander-Walker said. "I wouldn't say I waver in confidence with my shot. I think it's probably me being so confident in my shot."
A different venue
The Wolves' final road game of the regular season came in Austin after the Spurs moved some of their home games at the end of the season to the Moody Center on campus at the University of Texas. The venue opened in 2022 and the Spurs were calling their games against the Wolves and Portland here an Austin as the "I-35 Series."
The change of venue was a fortunate turn of events for Finch, who said he has several family members in the area despite growing up in eastern Pennsylvania. It also was the first place Finch coached a game in the D-League (now known as the G-League) when he was a coach in the Rockets organization. He said his couple of days here were filled with "a lot of dinners and lunches."
"It's kind of a little bit of a homecoming for me," Finch said. "Great city. This whole area of Texas is really nice. … Every time you come here, the city feels bigger and bigger. I've been coming here for 25 years, the skyline is pretty impressive. It wasn't always that way."
