SI:AM | The T-Wolves Blew Another Late Lead

Plus, the stupidest ending to a baseball game you’ll ever see.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I still can’t stop thinking about Ja Morant’s dunk.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏀 The Timberwolves latest failure in the clutch

⚾ The goofy way the Twins won

🏈 Our latest NFL mock draft

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The T-Wolves Could Have Already Won This Series

First things first: I was wrong when I wrote that the Timberwolves were toast after their historic collapse in Game 3. But now they’re staring down a do-or-die Game 6 after another fourth-quarter choke job.

Karl-Anthony Towns hit a three-pointer with 9:38 left in the fourth quarter last night that pushed the Minnesota lead to 92–79. Then he made a “shush” gesture toward the Memphis crowd. But it was the Timberwolves who were quiet from there on out. The Grizzlies outscored them 32–17 the rest of the way and won by two.

The last two minutes were thrilling, especially each team’s final possession. First, Anthony Edwards hit a three from the corner to tie the game with 3.7 seconds left. But then Ja Morant answered with a game-winning layup down on the other end.

Minnesota will have to win Game 6 at home on Friday to force a Game 7 back in Memphis. Usually, you’d think that it would be tough to bounce back from a demoralizing defeat like this one, but that’s exactly what the Timberwolves did in Game 4 after blowing a 26-point lead.

If there’s one thing that this series has shown it’s that the NBA’s next generation of stars has already arrived. Edwards and Morant have put on a show through the first five games, especially last night. The Timberwolves trusting the 20-year-old Edwards with the biggest shot of the game was a testament to his growth in his second year in the league. And Morant showed why he’s the most entertaining player in the NBA, between his taunting of Patrick Beverley and his thunderous dunk over Malik Beasley.

That dunk is as impressive as any you’ll ever see in game action, but Morant wasn’t too impressed with himself.

“I really wasn’t excited about the dunk,” Morant said. “It was over a little guard. That’s pretty easy.”

A win is a win

Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis, the Twins picked a win thanks to one of the stupidest final plays you’ll ever see in a baseball game.

Minnesota had runners on first and second, trailing the Tigers by one run in the bottom of the ninth, when Miguel Sanó hit a hard liner to right field. The ball bounced off the glove of Detroit’s Robbie Grossman, but he did a good job of getting it back in quickly to hold Trevor Larnach at third.

That’s when things got weird. Sanó, apparently assuming that Larnach had gone home, attempted to advance to second. But that’s where Gio Urshela was standing, so he started for third, which was still occupied by Larnach. Third base coach Tommy Watkins frantically told Urshela to retreat to second as Tigers catcher Eric Haase threw to third baseman Jeimer Candelario in an attempt to get Urshela stuck in a rundown. But Haase’s throw sailed over the head of Candelario and into left field, allowing Larnach and Urshela to score.

“Once in a while, you walk away and you just kind of throw your hands in the air, and you smile, and you take the win,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And you go to bed at night and you wake up the next day and you go and grind it out again. This is one of those days where it’s probably not worth breaking it all down.”

The best of Sports Illustrated

In today’s Daily Cover, Chris Mannix takes you inside the massive fight that will be the first women’s boxing match to headline Madison Square Garden:

“When Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano step into the ring on April 30 it will be a watershed moment. Officially, Taylor’s four 135-pound titles, collected over the course of a brilliant, unblemished, six-year professional career, will be at stake. Unofficially, it will signal that women’s boxing has arrived.”

Here is Albert Breer’s latest NFL mock draft, with quarterbacks slipping and the top of the first round ruled by defenders. … On the latest episode of SI Weekly, ESPN’s Mina Kimes joins John Gonzalez to preview the NFL draft. … Chris Herring argues that it’s time for James Harden to step up as the Sixers fight off a challenge from the Raptors. … Pat Forde checks in from South Bend, where new football coach Marcus Freeman is already making a big impact.

Around the Sports World

The Bulls will likely be without Zach LaVine in Game 5 against the Bucks tonight after he was placed in the NBA’s COVID-19 protocol. … Mets pitcher Chris Bassitt blamed MLB for the recent rash of hit-by-pitches New York’s batters have suffered, saying the league “doesn’t give a damn” about pitchers’ struggles with gripping the ball. … Steve Nash believes he will return as coach of the Nets next season. … The letter from MLB detailing sign-stealing accusations that the Yankees had fought to keep private has finally been unsealed. … The NWSL’s Orlando Pride and Racing Louisville will play a game at Daytona International Speedway. … A Massachusetts family was awarded $5 million in a lawsuit over golf balls being hit into their property. … Vince Wilfork’s son pleaded guilty to stealing his father’s Super Bowl rings.

SIQ

Who did Nolan Ryan pass on this day in 1983 to become baseball’s all-time leader in strikeouts?

Yesterday’s SIQ: Which team drafted John Elway with the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft on this day in 1983?

Answer: The Baltimore Colts. Elway refused to sign with the team and was traded to the Broncos in exchange for Chris Hinton (the No. 4 pick in 1983), backup quarterback Mark Herrmann and Denver’s first-round pick in ’84.

Elway had been engaged in a months-long standoff with Baltimore, using his promising future in baseball as leverage. He had been picked by the Yankees in the second round of the 1982 MLB draft and impressed the team with a strong season at Low A Oneonta before his final year of football at Stanford. Ahead of the NFL draft, the Yankees pitched Elway on leaving football behind to focus on baseball, with owner George Steinbrenner comparing him to Mickey Mantle.

But NFL evaluators saw his talent as a quarterback and knew whichever team landed him would open up its checkbook and give him one of the biggest contracts in the league. Even in a quarterback-heavy draft (Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Ken O’Brien and Dan Marino were also selected in the first round), Elway was the clear top prize—that is, if a team could find a way to sign him.

Elway, a California native, had said he preferred to play for a team on the West Coast, but the stalemate with the Colts probably had more to do with the sorry state of the franchise. They had gone winless (0-8-1) in the strike-shortened 1982 season and 2–14 in ’81. After the ’83 season, they would famously pack up and move to Indianapolis in the middle of the night.

Despite Elway’s clear refusal to go to Baltimore, the Colts picked him, anyway.

“Right now it looks like I'll be playing baseball with the Yankees,” Elway said after the draft. “It will be a couple of days, or maybe even two weeks, before I make the final decision. We haven’t ruled out football, but it doesn’t look good right now.”

Elway’s attitude toward football changed when the Broncos swooped in to pluck him from the Colts on May 2, 1983. He took Denver by storm, so much so that his NFL debut in his first preseason game landed him on the cover of the Aug. 15, 1983, edition of SI.

From the Vault: April 27, 1992

Ronald C. Modra/Sports Illustrated

Like Elway, Deion Sanders excelled in football and baseball. He was drafted in the sixth round by the Royals out of high school and in the 30th round by the Yankees in 1988 after his junior season at Florida State. The Falcons picked him fifth in the ’89 NFL draft and Sanders began playing both sports simultaneously.

Sanders made his MLB debut for the Yankees on May 31, 1989, a month after he was drafted by the Falcons. (In September of that year, he became the only player to score an NFL touchdown and hit an MLB home run in the same week.) But he struggled at the plate and after batting .158 in 57 games for the Yankees in ’90, he was released. Gene Michael, the team’s general manager, said Sanders’s simultaneous football career and the media attention he commanded were hampering his ability to develop as a baseball player.

The release cleared the way for Sanders to sign with the Braves and play both sports in one city. He was a black hole at the plate again in 1991 (with a .191 batting average and .270 on-base percentage) but he got off to a hot start in ’92 that earned him a spot on the cover of SI. Through his first 13 games, he was batting .426 and six of his 23 hits were triples. His season-opening hitting streak would stretch to 14 games.

It was in the middle of this hot start that Sanders told reporters, “I’m a full-time baseball player. This is what is best for Deion.”

There was no better time for SI’s Ed Hinton to go to Atlanta to catch up with Deion. The 1992 season was by far Sanders’s best in the majors. He played 97 games, batting .304 with a major league-leading 14 triples as the Braves won the NL West. After going hitless in the NLCS against the Pirates, Sanders picked up eight hits in 15 at-bats in the World Series, though Atlanta lost to the Blue Jays.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.