Jaden McDaniels was asked how it felt to dispatch the Warriors in five games in the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday.

Straight faced, the wing replied, “it felt like the rest of them.”

That was the Timberwolves’ fourth playoff series victory over the last 13 months. They have become old hat, by now. Plus, there was nothing remarkable about the series win over the Warriors. Minnesota caught an unwanted break with Steph Curry going down with a hamstring injury in Game 1, and took full advantage by winning the next four games in dominant fashion.

“Just a business-like approach. Really liked that,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “We were the better team. We felt we were the better team. We just had to go out and play like it every night. I thought we’d accomplish that. Those are things that we’ve drawn upon from our previous experiences, for sure.”

Now, onward.

This stage — the Western Conference finals, which will open with Game 1 on Tuesday in Oklahoma City or Denver — is the one on which Minnesota saw its season end at the hands of Dallas a year ago. Finch and the coaching staff have challenged players to recount their feelings after that defeat, being denied on the doorstep of the NBA Finals, and recall what they need to do differently.

“Try to tap into that now, individually, to put themselves in the right frame of mind for what it’s going to take to keep taking these steps,” Finch said.

While getting back to the conference finals in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history is a feat, it was never Minnesota’s goal.

“It’s to make it to the finals,” McDaniels said. “I feel like it’ll feel different if we advance to the finals. … I think we’re super confident. We’re all together, being a good team, and we just ready for whoever we play next already. We just got to stay the course.”

Anthony Edwards said “there is no satisfaction” in where Minnesota is at the moment, noting the Wolves “haven’t did anything yet.” Minnesota seemed to feel a sense of relief and accomplishment after its wild Game 7 win over Denver a year ago. Perhaps that made it difficult to reset for the West finals just a couple days later.

Now, Minnesota is armed with time — there are six days between Game 5 against the Warriors and Game 1 of the conference finals — and experience. Plus, the result against Golden State was so expected after Curry went down, that there was no real emotional high from which to come down.

“It feels good to get to that step, but the stomach is not full. Not at all. It’s just one step,” Rudy Gobert said. “Last year, it felt different because it was a Game 7, and we were down I don’t know how many at half, and we came back and won. Obviously, the adrenaline was different but this year it’s kind of like, we say it, we sat down early in the season, we say we’re going to get back right where we left last year. We want to achieve our goal. Now, we are halfway there. We know it’s not going to get easier at all. We focus on that.”

Gobert noted that, in his mind, last year’s West finals came down to approach.

“It’s not about talent. It’s not about us wanting to win or not. We want to win. But, it’s about staying level-headed,” he said. “After a win like we had last year against Denver in Game 7, I felt like you get the whole world praising you. All the sudden, you went from being the underdog to being the favorite. We weren’t mature enough to handle that yet. We were aware of it. This year, we’re mature enough. I feel like we understand where we’re at. That’s the lesson. It’s about us and our approach. It’s not about who we face. It’s about mindset, our work our attention to details. When our level of urgency is right, we know we can play with anyone.”

Keep the focus on the task at hand, until there’s truly a reason to party.

There’s really nothing to celebrate yet,” McDaniels said. “We still got two more rounds, winning eight more games, I want to say, so you just got to stay confident, keep being humble and just be ready to play.”

Related Articles

Frederick: Can the 2025 Lynx be the 2014 Spurs? If so, look out

Mizutani: All aboard the Julius Randle bandwagon

From ‘Are we even going to have a chance to make the playoffs?’ to another West Finals for Timberwolves

Frederick: Timberwolves bypassed lottery balls in 2021, are better for it

Timberwolves aim to maintain urgency with chance to close out Curry-less Warriors

An abandoned 54-foot cruiser boat beached on Beer Can Island in the St. Croix River in Hudson has been towed away after the owner racked up more than $40,000 in fines from the city.

Calling it an “eyesore,” Dave Jarvis, of St. Croix River Cruises in Hudson, worked with three other men to get the boat, the Sweet Destiny, towed off the island on Friday.

“We were all kind of sick of looking at it,” he said. “If we didn’t do it, who would’ve done it?”

The city, Jarvis said, had been looking into possible funding to have the boat removed, but it might have been an even longer wait. So Jarvis called the city and asked permission to tow the boat.

“They didn’t hire us,” Jarvis said of the city. “We just did it.”

As of December, the owner of the boat had racked up more than $44,000 in fines, according to Police Chief Geoff Willems. It is unclear how much the owner, Grayson McNew, owes now.

He did not return emails for comment on Friday night.

A crew of four spent all day Friday removing the beached boat.

Jarvis and his father, Gordy, worked with Wayne Prokosch and Josh Stokes from River City Welding in Red Wing, beginning at 8 a.m. and finishing up with the boat settled in for the night at Jarvis’s dock at 5 p.m.

Getting the boat off the island was the “right thing to do,” Jarvis said. “Let me put it this way, it’s been a sour topic in our community for quite some time and honestly, an eyesore. Everybody has been wanting that boat off of there. There are safety issues and environmental hazards. It was time. It was time for somebody to do something and we have the knowledge, ability and experience.”

Jarvis said the boat will be towed to Red Wing on Monday where it is possible someone might buy it for next to nothing.

“It might be scrapped or refurbished. It is really a wreck. Everything would have to be replaced,” Jarvis said, noting the boat would need a lot of work including a new engine and electrical system.

McNew apparently bought the 1981 Bluewater Intercoastal in 2024. The boat, which was beached on the sand, apparently had a hole in its hull and sank halfway, Willems said. It also had its rudder ripped off, he said.

“He thought he got a good deal and that he could fix it up and do something with it,” Willems said. “Then life happened, and he didn’t have the money or time to fix it up.”

Related Articles

Here’s how a local nonprofit is connecting people with horses (for free)

Remains of woman missing since 2016 are found in St. Cloud area

Wisconsin: Trollhaugen’s Adventure Park feature closing permanently

Minnesota ranks No. 1 for youth voter turnout in 2024 general election

Proposed NOAA cuts put Great Lakes research, safety at risk, experts say

In August 2024, Hudson officials contacted McNew, of Afton, and told him he had until Oct. 1 to remove the boat or he would be charged for the removal and towing of the boat. McNew “stated he understood,” according to police reports.

But the boat remained marooned on the island until Friday.

McNew, who has twice run unsuccessfully for the Minnesota House, first came to the attention of Hudson officials in July when he docked the cruiser at the city’s new boat launch in Lakefront Park, Willems said.

“It was parked there for, like, a week, and we started getting complaints about it,” Willems said. “So we called him and said, ‘Hey, the boat’s got to move.’ He moved it out to (Beer Can) Island and then just left it there.”

Unions representing correction officers and staff at the Stillwater state prison are calling for a halt to the plan to closure the facility.

“The proposed stated budget agreement that includes the closure of Stillwater Correctional Facility is not only shortsighted, it’s downright dangerous, disruptive and deeply disrespectful to the workers that keep the community safe and the inmates safe,” said Bart Andersen, executive director of the American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees Council 5, at a press conference at the state Capitol on Friday.

State officials said the move to close the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater addresses safety concerns concerning its aging infrastructure and will save more than $40 million annually.

But union leaders said Friday that the closure leaves staff members’ futures uncertain and poses safety risks to inmates, staff and the public.

Study on closure of prison

The prison houses some of the state’s most dangerous offenders, said Dan Gorman, AFSCME vice president and chief steward. Moving them could overcrowd other facilities.

“It makes it very dangerous for the inmate population and for the staff that work in those facilities,” Gorman said.

Union leaders also said they were left in the dark about the decision to close the facility, located in Bayport, and continue to have questions about the plans. A state study intended to look at closing the prison and advise lawmakers on it will apparently be unnecessary, they said.

“This move comes before the very study that was meant to inform a thoughtful and orderly closure of this facility,” said Megan Dayton, president of Minnesota Association of Professional Employees. “That study was supposed to guide legislative decision making … now it’s going to be conducted after incarcerated individuals are already being moved. That is not planning, that is scrambling. We have seen no bill language. We have seen no protections for staff. We have no clarity at all about staffing during this transition. We have no commitment on fair compensation or placement for workers who might not be able to transfer.”

While state officials say a full-modernization or replacement of the Stillwater site would cost an estimated $1.3 billion, union members say low-cost improvements they have requested over the years have been ignored.

Safety concerns

From what union leaders have been told, part of the closure plan is reliant on the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act which allows inmates to earn earlier release, Dayton said. The MRRA, passed by the Legislature in 2023 as part of the public safety bill, allows qualified inmates to reduce their sentences.

However, state officials have said inmates will not be released early as part of the closure. Early release under the MRRA is earned and determined on an individual basis, DOC officials told the Pioneer Press on Friday, and its implementation is entirely separate from the planned closure of the Stillwater prison.

In response to concerns of overcrowding at other facilities caused by the closure and ensuing safety risks, DOC officials said that all of its correctional facilities are currently staffed fully at between 97 and 100 percent and such staffing is intended to meet facility needs at full capacity.

State officials and state labor relations specialists will begin labor management discussions immediately following passage of the phased-closure proposal, which union agreements require in instances of staff reductions, according to state officials.

State officials have cited safety concerns for inmates and staff at the aging Stillwater facility when discussing its closure. Some union members questioned that assessment and what they described as a long-term underinvestment in the prison and in low-cost safety improvements.

“It appears to be a cost-savings measure right now. And in order to consolidate effectively, to deliver programming effectively, to correct behavior, you have to invest in it,” Dayton said. “You have to spend money to rehabilitate people so that they can be functioning members of society again. And we have no guarantee that that’s part of this plan.”

The maximum security facility for adult male felons — built in 1914 — currently has 1,171 inmates. Its closure is expected by June 30, 2029, under the plan announced by state officials Thursday.

Related Articles

Stillwater prison closure, immigrant care debate may imperil MN budget deal

Stillwater prison to close as part of budget deal reached by state leaders

Here’s how a local nonprofit is connecting people with horses (for free)

Stillwater Veterans Memorial to undergo $200K expansion

St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour opens Friday at seven different studios

A 56-year-old St. Paul man has pleaded guilty to murdering his girlfriend at her downtown apartment in 2023 and will be given nearly 25 years in prison at his July sentencing.

Kelvin Maurice Perry pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder on Wednesday after reaching an agreement with the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in the killing of 39-year-old Shaqita Thomas at the Press House apartment building on Nov. 15, 2023. An autopsy determined she’d been asphyxiated.

Kelvin Maurice Perry (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Two minutes after Perry told a childhood friend, “My girlfriend is gone — she is dead,” he walked in front of a light-rail train and was struck in St. Paul, the criminal complaint says. He was charged with Thomas’ murder while hospitalized with serious injuries.

Perry entered a Norgaard plea, which means a defendant says they cannot remember what happened because of intoxication or amnesia but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.

The plea agreement calls for a little over 24½ years in prison. He remains jailed ahead of his July 23 sentencing.

Paramedics found Thomas dead in her bedroom after a friend asked the apartment building’s property manager to do a wellness check. She was lying face down beneath a blow-up mattress in the bedroom, and had head trauma and small cuts on her body.

Shaqita Thomas (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

A friend of Thomas told investigators she had been on a FaceTime video call with her about 11:20 a.m. Nov. 15 and she was crying while a man yelled at her in the background. Thomas told her friend the man was mad at her for spending the night at the emergency room with her estranged husband because of her son’s asthma, the complaint says.

Thomas’ husband, from whom she was separated, said he dropped her off in front of the apartment building on Cedar Street between Fourth and Fifth streets between 10 and 10:30 a.m. Thomas wanted him to leave so there wouldn’t be an altercation between him and her boyfriend.

An investigator also spoke with a woman Perry had dated. She reported he is a “very violent, jealous person,” the complaint states. She said she’d talked to a relative of Perry’s, who said Perry called people he knew and told them he “choked” Thomas out.

Related Articles

Noah Feldman: David Souter set an example for the Supreme Court

Trooper accused of producing child porn faces new charges in federal indictment

Minnesota Freedom Fund to stop bailing out jailed defendants

Former Tartan band director admits to sexually assaulting DeLaSalle student

Witnesses put suspected drunk driver’s speed at 90-100 mph before fatal St. Paul crash

Surveillance video showed Perry left Thomas’ apartment about 12:50 p.m. and that her key fob wasn’t used to unlock the door again until it was opened for paramedics two days later.

A woman who’s known Perry since they were kids said he called her at 11:13 a.m. Nov. 17 and that he “was crying and panicking” and told her, “Something is going on,” the complaint says. He asked her to tell his sister he loved her and the call ended.

At 11:15 a.m., Perry walked in front of a Green Line train at University and Western avenues in St. Paul.

“Perry has a significant arrest history out of Chicago where he is from and has family,” according to the complaint.