Thunder
The Thunder won Game 1 of the West finals fairly easily, topping the Timberwolves by a 114-88 count on Tuesday. And they did it the same way they’ve been winning all season — with a swarming, relentless defense and lots of production from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31 points, nine assists).
Amazingly, Oklahoma City trailed 48-44 at halftime. So it was an utterly dominant second half. Much of it happened because OKC had its way in the paint.
“The Thunder outscored the Timberwolves 54-20 in the paint in Game 1,” wrote Law Murray of The Athletic. “Oklahoma City wound up making more shots in the paint (27) than the Timberwolves attempted (23).”
- Added Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports: “Stark shot profile contrast in Game 1 between Minnesota and OKC: The Wolves took 61.4% of their shots from 3 — second-highest rate of the entire playoffs. Only Boston took more. The Thunder took just 25.6% — second second-fewest in the playoffs. Only Houston took fewer.”
- Former Nuggets coach Michael Malone is serving as an ESPN analyst for the West finals and said out loud what a lot of people are thinking. “Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he showed why he’s the MVP,” Malone said, leading some to believe he was taking a shot at Denver star Nikola Jokic.
- As for the defense, OKC scored 31 points off of Minnesota turnovers, and that proved to be the difference.
- Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, via Joel Lorenzi of the Oklahoman: “To play that poorly offensively and not get knocked out was huge. We lost the rounds, but we didn’t get knocked out.”
Timberwolves
Wolves star Anthony Edwards scored 18 for the game, but was held scoreless in the fourth quarter. He attempted just one shot over those final 12 minutes.
Minnesota, of course, was mostly victimized by playing little more than a perimeter game.
“Shooting on open 3-pointers in Game 1 tonight, according to ESPN Research: Minnesota: 11-for-39; Oklahoma City: 10-for-16,” wrote ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, citing Matt Williams. “Donte DiVincenzo, Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker alone combined to go 4-for-24 on open 3-point attempts tonight.”
Wrote Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
“The Wolves led 60-56 when the Thunder shut them down for 4:11 and went on a 10-0 run. Wolves coach Chris Finch tried to get his team back together and prevent the Thunder from going on a large run by calling a pair of timeouts, and they finally broke the run when Edwards hit a layup with 3:11 left in the quarter.
“But it didn’t get much better for the Wolves after that. Kenrich Williams hit a pair of shots, then Gilgeous-Alexander hit a jumper to put the Thunder up 73-62. The Wolves kept missing at the other end to the tune of 6-for-19 in the quarter.
“The fourth quarter was a runaway, with the Thunder outscoring the Wolves 38-22.”
- Game 2 is Thursday night, also at Oklahoma City.
- Minnesota also scored just 88 points in their Game 1 loss to the Warriors in the West semifinals. The Timberwolves bounced back to win the final four games of that series.