In dramatic fashion, the Oklahoma City Thunder concluded a four-game road trip with an impressive 102-97 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. The matchup between the top two teams in the Western Conference standings lived up to its hype.
After being limited to 17 points in the third quarter, the Thunder entered the final frame trailing by nine points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led OKC to the win with a 33-point performance — including 11 in the fourth quarter.
The 25-year-old hit the stepback 3-pointer for the go-ahead bucket as the Thunder led for the final 1:14. A big reason why that was the case is because of a rare triple miss by Anthony Edwards at the free-throw line.
With no timeouts, Edwards received the inbound pass in the final six seconds and tricked Lu Dort into fouling him on a prayer 3-point attempt. The 85% free-throw shooter was on his way to forcing overtime.
That was until he got to the line, where he surprisingly missed the first two attempts. He failed to purposely miss the third attempt as a last-second chance to gain an extra possession.
Following the home loss — which was just the second of the season for Minnesota — Edwards questioned the referee crew, opinionating Gilgeous-Alexander received a favorable whistle.
“It’s hard to (slow them down) with the calls that Shai gets. It’s hard to shut them down. You can’t touch him any time of the game,” Edwards told local reporters after the game. “It’s super hard to beat. That team is a good team, especially when they’re getting calls like that.”
Where Edwards’ dissatisfaction with the officiating stems from is perplexing. Both the Thunder and Timberwolves had busy nights at the charity stripe — OKC went 30-of-35 and Minnesota went 21-of-29.
It’s especially more confusing considering Edwards had a chance late to force overtime after drawing a shooting foul.
