MINNEAPOLIS -- When the Spurs went to Minnesota for their first chance to eliminate a tough opponent on the road, they probably thought it would be a lot harder.Then again, they probably made it look easier than it was.The Timberwolves had been to the Western Conference Finals the last two years, and in their second-ever playoff series as a group, this San Antonio team closed them out with one of their most dominant and impressive wins of the year. They went into the Wolves' den, dominated in a wire-to-wire 139-109 win. It sets these young Spurs up for their third playoff series as a group: the Western Conference Finals against the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder.Stephon Castle led all scorers with 32 points, fiove made 3-pointers and 11 rebounds, while De'Aaron Fox added 21 points and 9 assists and Victor Wembanyama kicked in 19 points and 3 blocks. Three more Spurs logged double-figure scoring, and nobody had to play more than 30 minutes."He's pretty damn good," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said of Castle. "I thought his temperament and disposition led to him having the right approach and playing the right way, and we have a few guys on our team that are just that talented that when they do that, they take over at times, the talent pops, they get to just have fun, and it's pretty rewarding as a coach just to watch."It's hard to win an NBA game, especially by 30, especially on the road, especially in the playoffs, especially to finish a series, especially against a good team that has a history of fighting like hell with their backs against the wall.The Spurs didn't consider any of that as they scored the first 20 points of the second quarter and built their lead out to 29. Everything went their way, with Castle, Fox and Wembanyama each taking turns dominating the game.Just when it looked like the Timberwolves didn't really want to go back to the Alamo City for Game 7, the home team began to play with the necessary level of desperation. Ant Edwards and Naz Reid both deployed flamethrowers. Wemby missed a pair of free throws as the crowd got loud. Fox appeared to tweak his ankle and limped back to the locker room.By the end of the half Minnesota had cut San Antonio's advantage to just 13, a deeply unsafe lead given the situation. "The casual observer wouldn't understand when you're up 16 points, hypothetically you don't need to be settled in, it feels like you got a big lead in the playoffs on the road against his team, that's not the case," Johnson said. "Just some really undisciplined things that we can control, and so that was really frustrating at the time, because again you can have 22 minutes of really high level execution, and well fought together, and when you give away seven points in that little time, that's how delicate it can be."Out of halftime, Fox felt alright enough to play and play well. The Spurs outscored Minnesota 30-15 to start the second half, and never looked back en route to the big win. The home team waved the white flag with eight minutes left, and the visitors deployed the human victory cigars.A month ago, Victor Wembanyama and many of his young teammates had absolutely zero postseason experience. Now this team is the proud owner of a pair of series wins and an 8-3 postseason record, though not without a fair amount of adversity to overcome.They got their first-game jitters out of the way in front of a fiesta-colored crowd in Game 1 against the Trail Blazers, then lost Wembanyama to a concussion and lost Game 2. This young group responded with a pair of double-digit comeback wins on the road in Portland, including one without their top guy. Then they went for the kill in Game 5.The series against Minnesota brought a surprising loss in Game 1, a huge response in Game 2, a solid road win in Game 3, and the elbow heard round the world in Game 4. Wembanyama atoned for his ejection with a masterful performance in Game 5, and in the biggest game of their season the Spurs they completely crushed it.“A lot of talk of experience with our team, or lack thereof… the 10 games we’ve played and the journey we’ve had this season, it’s a lot of experience it feels like this team has had this year.”In Game 6 against Minnesota, the Spurs built a 30-point advantage for the third time in the series. The two games that the Timberwolves won were by a combined seven points, and San Antonio never faced a double-digit deficit at any point over the course of the six games."It shows we already gained a little bit of experience from our short playoff time," Wembanyama said. "Feel like we put ourselves in the best conditions."It was about as lopsided as a 4-2 series could have been, and now the Spurs know what it's like to send a motivated team home in front of 20,000 people rooting against that result. That experience might come in handy as they head to Oklahoma City, the only opponent they don't hold home-court advantage over in these playoffs. Games 1 in Oklahoma will be on Monday May 18."My mind is excited. My body is tired after this game," Wembanyama said. "Just the words 'Conference Finals,' it's crazy, like something I heard my whole life, and now being in it is just special. It's hopefully many more Conference Finals to come."While the Thunder secured a better record overall in the regular season, the head-to-head record tells a different story. The Spurs beat OKC during the NBA Cup in Vegas, and twice in San Antonio, and once in Oklahoma CIty on Christmas Day."They're the defending champs. They haven't lost the game in the playoffs, so we'll have to be at our best to make it competitive."The Thunder are probably even better than they were when these teams faced off earlier in the year, but so are the Spurs. And now, San Antonio has finally acquired some of that valuable playoff experience they've heard so much about.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow