Ratke On The Road | Western Conference Quarterfinals Game 5

We are back. I went for a run, but I am absolutely exhausted. Shouldn’t have done that pizza party last night. Once you hit 28, life moves fast.

The flight was actually a pretty quick one. I had an enchilada (bold move on a plane) and watched “Battle of the Sexes” with Emma Stone and Steve Carrell. Only made it about an hour in, but it was solid. I’ll finish it sometime this weekend.

Not really much Ratke on the Road content to cover. We have plenty of content written from last night, plus more coming tomorrow.

Big ups to Julian Andrews for helping me out with everything. Believe it or not, Wi-Fi doesn’t work everywhere.

Thanks again for following along with this edition. Unfortunately, the ending to this isn’t the happiest, but we have plenty to look forward to with this team. I can assure you that.

Well, it’s over.

The Wolves fell 122-104 last night in Game 5 to end the season.

I’ll have a column up on this later, but the way the team fought in the series was pretty remarkable. Minnesota’s offense wasn’t at its best, but defensively the Wolves came to play and apart from a few quarters, was right there.

We’ll have plenty more content coming from the series and the season, but get yourself started with the recap here and a piece from Julian Andrews.

After the game last night, a few of us had a little pizza party at the hotel. Unnecessary calories are fun.

We fly out here shortly, so I’m going to clean up my room a bit and get a coffee. Keep checking the site for more content throughout the day. I’ll try to post a bunch on the flight.

Thanks for reading, y’all.

Good afternoon!

I’m currently in my room wearing a robe and slippers because there are only so many moments when you can do that in life. This is one of those moments.

We are going to head over the arena shortly to get our pregame stuff ready.

If I could wear this robe and slippers, I surely would.

Shootaround was at 11 this morning with media availability after. Nothing groundbreaking. Just the do-or-die type mentality you’d expect the Wolves to have.

After shootaround, I wrote some stuff and then grabbed some lunch at a nearby sports bar that definitely had more than 80 animals hanging from the walls. So yeah. Texas.

I had a southwest salad, sub spinach in for iceberg lettuce. It was tasty, but I’ll probably still go for a little snack run before we leave.

Nothing else to really report here. Hopefully I can check back in sometime before the game.

Wolves in seven.

Good morning from the place where the lead singer of Destiny’s Child was born.

It’s very nice here. Judging from looking out the window, it appears to be 68 degrees.

Last night, Noah and I went and got some tacos from a place where one guy was working the food line, the bar and was also bringing out orders. There’s an 18 percent chance we get sick today.

I decided to head to that Astros and Angels game. I got to see Shohei Ohtani pitch, which was a pretty cool thing. He gave up 4 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, but oh well. There were five home runs in the game. I did not catch any, but for $30, my seats were pretty awesome.

But the question you’re all dying to have answered. Did I finish “Dunkirk” when I got back?

You’re darn right I did. I talked to Noah about the movie on our walk to dinner. He seemed underwhelmed with the movie, and I get it. There wasn’t much for character building. Overall, though, solid film. And only $2.95 to rent on Amazon Prime!

I’m going to hit the old elliptical now before we head off to shootaround. After shootaround, we’ll have videos, plus two or three written pieces leading up to the game.

You can check out the game’s scouting report here.

For breakfast, odds are I’ll have an Uncrustable, but stay tuned!

Houston, we have arrived.

(If you don’t read anymore of this, I completely understand.)

I watched "Dunkirk"  on the flight and oh my goodness, is that a good movie. I have about 13 minutes left, which means I’ll definitely buy it on Amazon Prime tonight and finish it instead of simply waiting 48 hours to watch it on the flight back.

What have I done since arriving?

After getting into the hotel, I immediately scarfed down a Cliff Bar even though I wasn’t hungry at all.

I did a little gym session alongside Dave Benz. A few other Wolves staffers were getting their fitness on as well.

Now I’m writing this. Not exactly a wild day. Noah and I are going to get some grub soon, hopefully something culturally authentic. Any ideas?

The team didn’t have practice today after arriving, so not much to report team wise.Tyus Jones (knee) is officially listed as questionable for tomorrow's game.

Maybe I’ll go to the Astros and Angels game tonight. Shohei Ohtani is pitching. Could be fun.

I’ll check back in soon.

This is the first-ever playoff edition of Ratke on the Road.

This is a pretty emotional moment for all of us here.

We’re heading to Houston for Game 5 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals. The No. 8 Wolves trail the series 3-1 to the No. 1 Rockets.

The Wolves have a must-win Game 5 on Wednesday night at the Toyota Center at 8:30 p.m. CT. The game airs on Fox Sports North (Jim Petersen & Dave Benz), TNT (I don’t know) and 102.9 Buz’n FM (THE Alan Horton).

For those who are new to Ratke on the Road, which I’d imagine this is all of you outside of my family members and my cat, welcome. This is a blog that isn’t necessarily basketball centric. It’s about food, travel and random thoughts from the road. If there are basketball nuggets that don’t quite work into a full post, I’ll throw them in here.

On the trip from our Digital Content team, we’ve got myself, Shahbaz and Noah. We’ll create some engaging content for you folks, we hope.

We are currently waiting to fly out. I forgot that it’s warmer in Houston, so I had to buy a few t-shirts from the Timberwolves Team Store located in the skyway. The Timberwolves Team Store is open from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. and has all of your Timberwolves gear, with new stuff arriving weekly. #ad

As far as snacks go, not much to report. I had a big breakfast and I’ll likely be full until 3 p.m. Younger Kyle would be pretty disappointed in himself for not loading up on snacks for a flight. Maybe they’ll have Stroopwafels.

Not much else to report. THE Alan Horton is on my flight, so I’m a little bit star struck right now.

I’ll check back in when we land.

Good afternoon!

I’m currently in my room wearing a robe and slippers because there are only so many moments when you can do that in life. This is one of those moments.

We are going to head over the arena shortly to get our pregame stuff ready.

If I could wear this robe and slippers, I surely would.

Shootaround was at 11 this morning with media availability after. Nothing groundbreaking. Just the do-or-die type mentality you’d expect the Wolves to have.

After shootaround, I wrote some stuff and then grabbed some lunch at a nearby sports bar that definitely had more than 80 animals hanging from the walls. So yeah. Texas.

I had a southwest salad, sub spinach in for iceberg lettuce. It was tasty, but I’ll probably still go for a little snack run before we leave.

Nothing else to really report here. Hopefully I can check back in sometime before the game.

Wolves in seven.