The Minnesota Timberwolves are moving on to the next round of the NBA playoffs, where the San Antonio Spurs are waiting for them, and it was a difficult road to get there. 

Over the course of the opening series against the Denver Nuggets, the Timberwolves lost three of their most crucial players to injury: Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo and Ayo Dosunmu. 

Deprived of that much firepower, the Timberwolves needed all the help they could get and needed every player left on the roster to step up on the court and help power them through.

That's exactly what Terrence Shannon Jr. did in the Timberwolves' 110-98 win over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday to finish out the series. 

Shannon Jr. finished the game with 24 points, his most in the series, while shooting 9-20 from the field and adding six rebounds and an assist. He came into Game 6 unsatisfied with his previous performances in the series and knowing how undermanned Minnesota would be, he wanted to do more.

That's a lot of pressure for any player to take on, especially the 25-year-old Shannon Jr., but a vote of confidence from Julius Randle helped give the Minnesota guard the support he needed to step out onto the court and perform.

"We knew that we needed him. He had texted me... just saying some stuff that he could have did better defensively and all that," Randle said (via Timberwolves). "I just told him to play. Don't worry about making mistakes. We're gonna cover for him. We've got his back."

That kind of reassurance, especially from an established veteran like Randle, goes a long way for any player looking to find their way. Shannon Jr. was looking to step up his game on the biggest stage and fixating on past mistakes is an easy trap for any athlete to fall into, but the support from the players around him went a long way.

It's an example of the kind of connectedness that the Timberwolves had that helped them so much in the series. Even as they lost players and suffered big losses against the Nuggets, they never stopped fighting each other.

It's those kinds of relationships, that kind of faith, that gets tested in the playoffs and at least in the opening series, the Timberwolves passed that test.

They'll have to keep playing through adversity against the Spurs as their team will remain depleted, but if the Timberwolves can rely on each other the way they proved they could against the Nuggets, any challenge they face will seem at least somewhat easier.