Target Center is where undefeated records go to die.

Five days after handing Denver its first loss, the Timberwolves did the same to Boston, downing the Celtics 114-109 in an overtime thriller that very much had a playoff feel.

The game was billed as a matchup featuring the league’s top offense — Boston — against Minnesota’s top-ranked defense. It’s difficult to chalk that mini-duel up as anything other than a win for the Wolves’ defense. The Celtics struggled to generate anything that could be classified as a good look in the half-court set.

Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum traded blows in the second half, with the two top-tier offensive wings each demonstrating their abilities to hit tough shots on command. Tatum finished with 32 points, while Edwards had 38 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. But, importantly for Edwards, even on a night where he had his offense rolling, he made a number of wise decisions with the ball down the stretch.

The guard repeatedly used his gravity to generate open looks for opponents, with Jaden McDaniels serving as the beneficiary on a couple open triples and Rudy Gobert getting an easy bucket down low in the fourth quarter.

Then, in overtime, Edwards smelled blood. He scored on three straight possessions — two mid-range jumpers and a turnaround 8-footer — to put Minnesota up seven and essentially seal the contest.

Those are the moments Edwards seemingly always rises to, but just as important were the smart passes. That’s the mix the 22-year-old has to consistently achieve if he’s to lift Minnesota to championship contention.

For the second straight year, an Orioles season that exceeded almost all expectations resulted in the club having finalists for both American League Rookie of the Year and AL Manager of the Year.

On Monday night, Baltimore infielder Gunnar Henderson and manager Brandon Hyde were named finalists for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s yearly honors, which also include the Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Awards. Hyde placed second in voting for last year’s AL Manager of the Year recognition, while catcher Adley Rutschman also finished as the runner-up for AL Rookie of the Year.

After the Orioles’ 101-win campaign, it’s hard to envision neither Hyde nor Henderson taking home their respective awards when winners are announced next week. Texas’ Bruce Bochy and Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash join Hyde as the managers who finished in the top three of voting, which was completed before the postseason, while Boston first baseman Triston Casas and Cleveland right-hander Tanner Bibee are Henderson’s top competitors.

Henderson, 22, could become the Orioles’ first Rookie of the Year since reliever Gregg Olson in 1989 when the voting results are revealed next Monday Drafted with the first pick of the second round in 2019 after Baltimore took Rutschman with the No. 1 overall pick, Henderson also followed him as the game’s top prospect. He entered this season with that status while also being viewed as the favorite to be AL Rookie of the Year, then had to overcome a slow start to still be seen as such at the end of the year.

Henderson held his own in a brief major league stint in 2022, one the Orioles kept short enough for him to retain rookie eligibility into the offseason. By doing so, they would receive an extra draft pick after the first round if Henderson wins Rookie of the Year, part of an incentive in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement to encourage teams to have top prospects on their opening day rosters.

After batting .201 with five home runs and a .702 OPS over the season’s first two months, Henderson posted a .276 average, 23 home runs and an .856 OPS across the final four. His 28 home runs on the year tied for the team lead, matched Cal Ripken Jr. for the second most by a rookie in Orioles history and led all AL rookies, a group he also paced in RBIs, triples and wins above replacement while ranking second in hits and doubles.

That performance, paired with his strong defensive work at shortstop and third base, made Henderson the Major League Baseball Players Association’s AL Outstanding Rookie and Sporting News’ AL Rookie of the Year. Both of those honors are voted on by fellow players. He’s also a finalist for a Silver Slugger Award.

“Everything that he does at his age and the way he does it, it’s a treat to watch,” executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said after the season. “For me, as somebody who’s been watching baseball my whole life, it’s a treat for me to watch Gunnar Henderson play baseball. I’m so happy that we have him. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Hyde, 50, knows what it’s like to have success after initially struggling. After the first-time manager took over in Baltimore ahead of the 2019 campaign, the Orioles played at a 55-win pace across the next three seasons, finishing with one of the majors’ five worst records each year. Similar struggles were expected in 2022, but Baltimore instead finished as the best AL team to miss the playoffs with an 83-79 record.

Despite that breakout season, most projection systems and sportsbooks forecast regression from Hyde’s club. Instead, the Orioles went the entire regular season without being swept and posted a winning record every full month to win the AL East, generally regarded as baseball’s top division.

Nearly half of the Orioles’ 101 regular-season victories came in games decided by two or fewer runs, and Baltimore’s .662 winning percentage in such games was 100 points better than the next-best AL club. Often in those contents, Hyde excelled in his deployment of the Orioles’ depth through his bullpen and bench moves.

“I’m just trying to get better every day, honestly, and I’m just trying to put our team in a position to win as much as I possibly can,” Hyde said after the season. “Whatever people say, they say, and if it’s nice things, that’s great.”

Hyde, who fellow managers voted Sporting News’ AL Manager of the Year the past two years, would be Baltimore’s first league-official recipient since his predecessor, Buck Showalter, won the award in 2014. Results will be announced Nov. 14.

Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish was not among the top-three finishers in AL Cy Young Award voting, with New York’s Gerrit Cole, Minnesota’s Sonny Gray and Toronto’s Kevin Gausman — a former Oriole — named finalists. Bradish, 27, was a finalist for the MLBPA’s AL Outstanding Pitcher honor but lost to Cole.

In his second major league season, Bradish finished third among the AL’s qualified pitchers with a 2.83 ERA, second with a .215 average against and 14 home runs surrendered, and fourth with a 1.043 WHIP. Bradish’s 17 starts of at least six innings with no more than two runs allowed tied for the league’s second most. He’s expected to receive some down-ballot votes, as is Baltimore closer Félix Bautista.

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Craig Counsell, baseball’s most coveted free-agent manager since Joe Maddon, was hired by the Chicago Cubs on Monday in a cold-blooded move that harked back to the time former Cubs President Theo Epstein brought Maddon to the North Side nine years ago.

With a five-year deal for Counsell that’s reportedly worth a record $40 million, Cubs President Jed Hoyer signaled the missing piece in Year 3 of the team’s rebuild was a well-respected manager who could get the most out of his players and get them to a championship level.

David Ross, the favorite son of Epstein and a hero of the Cubs’ 2016 World Series champions, was hired by Epstein to replace Maddon in October 2019. But he apparently failed to show Hoyer he was still the right man for the job after a season-ending collapse cost the Cubs a National League wild-card spot.

In a press release Monday, Hoyer said Ross “continually showcased his ability to lead,” adding that his “legacy will be felt in Chicago for generations.” The statement added an “oh, by the way” that Counsell will be the manager “going forward” and will be welcomed at Wrigley Field next week.

There was no explanation of Ross’ dismissal or any mention of Counsell’s career.

Plenty of time for that at the introductory news conference. Maybe Counsell will follow Maddon’s lead and buy a round of drinks for the media.

Counsell, 53, enjoyed great success managing a small-market team in Milwaukee, where he won the NL Central three times in the last six seasons and compiled a .531 winning percentage over nine seasons.

He’s 7-12 in five postseason appearances, including a two-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks this year in an NL wild-card series. His Brewers teams typically overachieved until the postseason rolled around.

Still, this move is sure to be welcomed by Cubs fans who followed Counsell’s career and weren’t enamored with Ross’ four seasons on the North Side, which included a division title — and quick playoff exit — in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Counsell bet on himself last winter when he opted against extension talks with the Brewers, and it paid off handsomely. Brewers owner Mark Attanasio probably took him for granted, knowing Counsell’s love of Wisconsin. Milwaukee wasn’t just the only place Counsell had managed, but he also grew up in Whitefish Bay and still makes his home there.

Counsell interviewed with several teams, including the New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians. No one had any inkling of the Cubs’ interest in him or that he was intrigued by the Cubs, an organization he liked to poke fun at — such as the day in 2017 when he criticized a postponement at Wrigley Field by saying “it’s the first time for us that we’ve had players treated for sunburn after a rainout.”

Ross not only had another year remaining on his contract but was a favorite of Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts.

Hoyer went to great lengths to defend Ross from fan criticism this past season, making the move even more stunning than the Cubs’ dismissal of Rick Renteria to hire Maddon after the 2014 season. That hiring involved a recruiting trip to Florida by Epstein and Hoyer and a leak of their interest in Maddon well before making the move.

Monday’s news leak, first reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, was like an explosion at Clark and Addison. The reverberations will be felt for months.

Ross and Renteria, meanwhile, will forever be linked in Cubs history for the dismissals by Epstein and Hoyer, who both appeared satisfied with the status quo. When asked at his end-of-season news conference how important 2024 would be for Ross to continue as Cubs manager, Hoyer gave a long-winded answer that indicated Ross would return.

“He’s not a new manager anymore,” Hoyer said. “He’s going into his fifth season. I think he’s really matured in the job and developed. Like all of us, I think he wants to get better every year.

“One of his greatest skills is he’s self-critical. He wants to continue to get better. And I know he’s going to spend the winter thinking about how he could have done things differently. … It is a very important year next year for him and for all of us.”

How Hoyer went from 2024 being a “very important” year for Ross’ future to relieving him of his duties a month later is a question only the Cubs president can answer. The general managers meetings, which begin Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz., will afford Hoyer an opportunity to explain.

Among the criticisms of Ross this past season was his decision to play his regulars to the last drop down the stretch despite fatigue setting in. On the final road trip, the Cubs hit .236 with a .306 on-base percentage while going 1-5 in Atlanta and Milwaukee to blow the wild-card spot. Dansby Swanson was 1-for-17 (.059) on the trip and looked mentally exhausted. The Cubs made several uncharacteristic mistakes as they collapsed.

Will Counsell change things? He never got the Brewers to the World Series despite their winning ways. The closest they came was in 2018, when they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games in the NL Championship Series.

But he’ll be expected to get the Cubs to the promised land on the North Side, no matter who is on the team. Now it’s up to Hoyer to improve a roster that could lose its most valuable player, Cody Bellinger.

After the Cubs’ trade-deadline sell-off in July 2021 started the mini-rebuild, I asked Counsell if he thought the Cubs were headed in the right direction.

“Do I look like Jed Hoyer?” Counsell said with a grin. “I don’t know. I’m sure their farm system is greatly improved, and I’m sure there are young players I really don’t know much about or if they’re close to making an impact.

“I don’t think you can ever know. … We all think we know what’s going to happen, but there are teams that surprise every year. I don’t think you can make a statement right now about what can happen next year.”

Now Counsell and Hoyer are linked at the hip with a team that should be expected to contend in 2024 and beyond.

Hoyer made a statement without actually saying it:

Missing out on the postseason is no longer an option.

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Sonny Gray was honored as one of the top three pitchers in the American League this season, named a Cy Young Award finalist on Monday for the second time in his career.

Thirty members of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted on the award — two from each AL market — before the postseason began, and the winner will be announced on MLB Network during a show that begins at 5 p.m. CST on Nov. 15.

Toronto starter Kevin Gausman and New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, the front-runner for the award, were also named finalists.

Gray, whom the Twins extended a qualifying offer to on Monday, was recognized for a season in which he did not miss a start, posting a 2.79 earned-run average across 184 innings. The starter was remarkably consistent, limiting opponents to three or fewer runs in all but three games.

He finished with a 5.3 bWAR (Wins Above Replacement per Baseball Reference) and was named the Twins’ Most Valuable Player. Gray is the first Twins pitcher since Kenta Maeda was the Cy Young runner up in 2020 to be named a finalist. The last Twin to win the award was Johan Santana in 2006.

The starter now looks ticketed for free agency, though the Twins have extended him the qualifying offer — a one-year deal worth $20.325 million for the 2024 season. Gray has until Nov. 14 to decide whether to accept or reject the deal. He is widely expected to decline the offer to seek a multi-year deal and test the waters of free agency, something that he has not yet done in his career.

Should Gray reject the qualifying offer, the Twins would be entitled to compensation in the form of a draft pick. If Gray’s new deal is worth more than $50 million, as expected, the Twins would receive an extra pick after the first round. If he inked a contract for less than $50 million, the Twins would receive a pick after the competitive balance round B (before the third round).

While Gray has expressed a desire to test free agency, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said last month they would continue to have dialogue about a potential return.

“We have a ton of respect for him, for his agent and ultimately we’ll stay in contact with him. That process needs to play out to some degree. I’m really proud of what he accomplished over the last couple of years for us,” Falvey said last month. “I’m sure he’s going to be respected through this process by a whole host of clubs.”