Target Center figures to be bumping at 8:30 p.m. Friday, when the Timberwolves host the Lakers in Game 3 of the first-round series. 

Naz Reid still remembers the home roars from Minnesota’s last few playoff appearances. The building gets jarringly loud ahead of the opening tip. It’s an atmosphere well suited for such a stage.

The question is, will fans have something to cheer for when play begins? The answer was frequently “No” at the end of last year’s postseason run.

Minnesota spanked Phoenix in its two first-round home games. After that, the Wolves won just one of their final five home postseason contests. They went 1-2 against Denver in the conference semifinals, and went 0-3 against Dallas in the West Finals.

Luka Doncic, who will lead the Lakers into Minneapolis on Friday, won just as many playoff games at Target Center last season (3) as the Wolves did.

“I think we do have to establish a home court in these playoffs, especially against teams like the Lakers,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said.

Because while Target Center is usually packed with Wolves fans, and figures to largely be so again Friday, Los Angeles has a national fan base that is spread across the country. When the Lakers score a bucket during the regular season, there is a contingent of folks in the arena cheering them on, even in Minnesota.

That is sure to be the case again in Game 3.

“We have to use our fans as momentum and the atmosphere to push us forward and create an identity that gives them something to cheer for and get behind,” Conley said. “I think we’re going to do that. I think we’re going to have a lot of energy and be ready to go.”

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch thought complacency may have been a culprit for Minnesota’s home struggles against Denver in last year’s playoffs. The Wolves are at their best when they play with an edge. Sometimes they lose that in their own friendly confines.

The Wolves went 25-16 this season at Target Center, the second-worst home record among all Western Conference playoff teams.

“It’s kind of difficult because you are at home, so you are a little bit laxed,” Reid said. “But it’s the playoffs. Have that sense of urgency, being mindful and understanding of the time and situation we’re in right now. I think we’ll all be all right. The fans are great. They have been great, and I think playing in our home environment is definitely (helpful), especially when you’re in the playoffs.”

Conley noted when the Wolves are on the road, they have no distractions and are focused solely on silencing the crowd.

“At home, we need to find a way to pick up our crowd,” he said, “get our crowd involved and make it a very, very tough and hostile environment like teams can be on the road when we go on the road.”

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Mike Conley is confident Minnesota will open Game 3 on Friday at Target Center with the proper energy. What made the point guard so sure?

“If you’ve ever been in a film session, man, with Finchy after a loss, we’ll be motivated,” Conley said. “We’ll be motivated and ready to go. So, I have no doubt that our guys will be ready.”

Ready to play like which team, though? The one that plays with pace and execution on the offensive end? Or the one that holds that ball and settles for a bunch of contested shots?

The former could win this series. The latter will not.

Jekyll and Hyde have both already made appearances in this series for Minnesota. The results are unsurprising, one win and one loss.

If the Wolves’ star players willingly pass the rock, and everyone else moves without the ball and willingly takes open shots when they arise, Minnesota can effectively handle Los Angeles’ heavy gap-help defense aimed to cut off Anthony Edwards’ driving lanes.

For the approach to work, Minnesota has to be a quick-decision offense. In Game 2, Edwards held the ball for far too long. Afterward, he explained his point of view.

“It seemed like every time I caught the ball, (the defense) kind of went like in a zone, in a sense,” Edwards said. “So, it’s kind of confusing at times.”

After film review, Conley and Wolves coach Chris Finch noted the Lakers gave the same defensive look they have presented all season. The way Edwards played against it Tuesday mirrored the way he approached the challenge during the team’s four regular-season meetings — with little success.

With the week of practice ahead of Game 1, Minnesota was able to get itself prepared to properly expose the Lakers’ defensive scheme with a good offensive process. Yet just three days later, the Wolves fell into many of the bad habits they’ve previously displayed, most notably standing around and holding onto the ball.

“We’ve gotta make decisions that either are quicker or play away from the crowd — all things that we know,” Finch said. “We’ve seen it before all season. We just over-surveyed it and that really made us slow.”

That makes any team easy to guard, s a lesson Minnesota has learned many times in the past. Its offensive performance in Game 1 suggested it had learned, but old habits die hard. Finch was unimpressed with his team’s offensive game plan discipline in the face of a desperate defense.

“I thought we fell back into a lot of poor habits,” Finch said. “Offensive decision making, shot selection, complaining to the refs, all that led to poor transition defense. Ball holding, not playing with the pass early enough, not getting off of it in a crowd.

“Then when we got down, everybody tried to get themselves going. We finished with 14 assists. We had some decent individual performances from time to time, but there was no connectivity to what we were doing offensively.”

Naz Reid didn’t feel as though any of the ball holding was intentional selfishness but added the Wolves have “a lot of guys” who can create for themselves and others, and Minnesota needs to use that to its advantage.

The Wolves spent all of last week drilling their offense against the Lakers defensive scheme. The work paid dividends in Game 1. The discouraging thing for Minnesota was seeing the payoff last all of one game.

“As far as the consistency has come, doing the easy thing can sometimes be the hard thing for us,” Conley said. “We just need to continue to do the easy reads, continue to make the quick decisions and communicating on defense. The stuff that we ask ourselves to do every single night, every single game, those are the things we sometimes slip up on; we try to do too much or try to overthink certain things and make it a little more difficult than it needs to be. I think we can just get back to basics and make those easy reads.”

Finch noted Rudy Gobert is open more often than Minnesota is finding him. The Wolves got Gobert the ball twice in positions to score in the first quarter of Game 2. He didn’t convert, and wasn’t really sought out again.

“Do we pivot and shoot our own shot or find our iso, whatever it is?” Conley asked. “At this moment of the season, you have to continue to just do the right thing, try to make the right read. We’ve got to trust each other, trust big fella, trust us on the perimeter to make shots, because that’s the only way it’s going to make the game easier on the high-usage guys on our team that are going to get a lot of looks and touches.”

If they don’t, then they’re going to hear about it, and not just during a Finch film session.

“We communicate it immediately,” Conley said. “If I need Ant to do something, I tell him right away, like, ‘You said we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it.’ If I’m getting back on defense and guarding a big, I need our bigs to run back and help. We need to all be on the same page. We’re tied to the hip right now. Our communication is at an all-time high. So, we’ve just got to continue to do that.”

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E’Shaun Maurice Funches said during his presentence investigation that his killing of 30-year-old Alfonzo Avery Armstead in St. Paul was “about two men’s egos and pride,” his attorney told the court Thursday.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Ryan Flynn said it is more than an “ego-based decision.”

“It is an impulsive ego decision that was empowered with the abilities of a gun,” Flynn said. “A few seconds and the defendant stole away a life. And he also stole from the victim’s family and his loved ones.”

Judge Laura Nelson went on to sentence Funches to 19½ years in prison, a term that was agreed upon as part of a plea agreement he reached with the prosecution in the daytime shooting of Armstead outside Sunrise Grocery and Tobacco on University Avenue on Dec. 13, 2023.

Funches, 24, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty in February to second-degree unintentional murder and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person. A charge of second-degree murder with intent was dismissed at sentencing.

Funches was arrested shortly after running away from the shooting and denied being the shooter. However, his friend and his friend’s girlfriend who had picked him up for a ride — as well as video surveillance footage — told a different story, according to the criminal complaint, which didn’t offer a motive in the case.

Funches got out of a Nissan Rogue around 2:45 p.m. and quickly walked toward Armstead, who was standing outside the store. His back was turned to Funches, who opened fire on him.

Armstead, who had gunshot wounds to his back, left leg and abdomen, died at Regions Hospital.

“What possesses a man to play God and take a life that he didn’t give is beyond us,” Armstead’s sister and brother said in a victim impact statement read in court by the prosecutor. “The hurt and pain will never go away. We will never get over this ordeal.”

Less than a month before the killing, Funches completed a three-year probation term in a 2019 aggravated robbery case out of Minneapolis.

He asked his friend for a ride

The complaint says a police officer in an unmarked squad heard the call about the shooting and saw Funches walking off a path wearing black pants and carrying black clothes draped over his arm. The officer watched Funches try to discard items in a dumpster in a church parking lot on Central Avenue. Funches was unable to open the dumpster, so he walked away carrying the items.

The officer stopped Funches, who dropped the clothes. He tried to walk away, but was arrested when more officers arrived.

E’Shaun Maurice Funches (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Funches was trying to discard a black pair of pants and a black jacket that matched the one worn by the shooter. His shoes also matched those worn by the shooter.

A canine tracked from the shooting area south in the direction the shooter ran. Officers found a Taurus handgun in a plastic bag hidden beneath a pile of leaves on the side of a path near Central and Western avenues. Funches was arrested coming from the direction where the gun was found.

Some of the headstamps on the bullets in the magazine matched the headstamps on the three 9mm casings found at the murder scene.

Armstead’s girlfriend went to the shooting scene and told police that he recently was jumped by three men in front of the business, according to the complaint, which offers no further details on the incident.

Funches agreed to speak to investigators. He said he found the clothes he was arrested carrying and that he was trying to throw away candy wrappers. He denied he had anything to do with the killing before eventually asking for an attorney.

The Rogue’s owner, who was in the front passenger seat during the shooting, said her boyfriend was driving and that they had picked Funches up at a White Castle near Rice Street. Funches had asked for a ride. She said they drove over to Arundel Street near University Avenue. Funches got out of her car and shot the man.

Officers spoke to her boyfriend, who confirmed her story. “The man was distraught that Funches would put him and his girlfriend in that situation,” the complaint says.

He said Funches has pulled a gun on him in the past, so he kept Funches at a distance.

In his previous case, Funches was charged with robbing a man of his cellphone, showing a handgun in his waistband, as the man left a downtown Minneapolis bar. He was sentenced to two months in the Hennepin County workhouse and three years’ probation, which he completed in November 2023.

He didn’t address the court

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When Funches was led into the courtroom by deputies for sentencing, he smiled and waved to his mother, his toddler daughter and girlfriend. He made a shape of a heart with his hands.

He declined to address the court.

Earlier, his attorney, assistant public defender Lauri Traub, noted how he apologized to his victim’s family in his presentence investigation.

Traub read from the investigation: “The defendant stated, ‘I apologize, although I know no apology can mend or make up for the damage I caused you. Our emotions, egos and pride got the best of both of us, and ended up in a situation that neither of us planned to be in.’ ”

The Senate Subcommittee on Ethics on Thursday advised Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion to disclose potential conflicts of interest in future bills he sponsors.

Though in that same motion, the panel made no finding on whether Champion had a conflict of interest when he carried a 2023 bill that gave state money to a nonprofit whose founder he had done free legal work for in the past.

Further, they found no financial conflict in a bill he sponsored this year to bring that organization another $1 million.

The decision was unanimous, though the Ethics Subcommittee has two Democratic-Farmer-Labor and two Republican members and often deadlocks or rules inconclusively.

On May 5, it’s expected to hear a Senate GOP complaint against Champion regarding his relationships with nonprofits he helped fund.

Violence prevention nonprofit

Sen. Bobby Joe Champion.

Champion, a Minneapolis DFLer, has been under scrutiny in recent weeks after reports that he helped the violence prevention nonprofit 21 Days of Peace obtain $3 million in funding, and that he had done pro bono work for its founder, Jerry McAfee.

The senator temporarily stepped down as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct and asked for an advisory opinion on April 7, and has maintained that his pro bono work did not coincide with his sponsorship of the bills.

‘“I appreciate the conclusion the members of the Ethics Subcommittee, which as expected found that I had not violated Senate rules,” Champion said in a statement. “I sought the advisory opinion from the in full confidence that I have followed the rules of the Senate with regards to conflict of interest, and conducted myself with integrity.”

Minnesota’s ethics rules for legislators are not particularly expansive. Current law bans members from voting on matters that result in a direct financial gain for themselves or their business disproportionate to others in the same field.

Political observers and lawmakers of both parties have noted that Minnesota’s part-time “citizen legislature” naturally lends itself to members voting on issues directly related to their work and communities. Teachers, nurses and business owners often back or carry bills directly related to their lines of work.

Connections may effect work as lawmakers

As the Senate Ethics Subcommittee prepared to pass a motion Thursday, Chair Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, who joined the committee after Champion stepped down, reflected on that challenge for Minnesota lawmakers.

“I think that we have to be very careful with this advisory opinion and what we issue, because if we’re doing our job as legislators, as I said, we have a lot of relationships and a lot of people we know in the community, and that informs our work as legislators,” she said. “That should be considered a good thing.”

Pappas said the advisory opinion from the Ethics Subcommittee telling Champion to disclose potential conflicts in the future was a reminder for all members to weigh how their connections might affect their work.

Champion’s connection to nonprofits he helped fund has raised questions in the Legislature about changing state ethics rules.

Senate Republicans have said that regardless of whether Champion violated rules, state lawmakers should hold themselves to a higher standard of conduct.

Privilege rules

Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine, who brought the complaint against Champion, has said a big part of his concern is that Champion had interactions with McAfee, which would be private under attorney-client privilege rules.

“The choice to carry legislation that provided funding to an entity with which Champion has a privileged relationship without disclosing the relationship fails to meet those standards,” he said in a Thursday statement. “This opinion from the Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct acknowledges that fact by saying he should make disclosures in the future.”

The Ethics Subcommittee will hear Kreun’s complaint at a meeting where they’ll officially adopt Thursday’s advisory opinion. Kreun’s complaint requests that the subcommittee look into whether Champion violated rules prohibiting actions that discredit the Senate or undermine public trust in government.

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