The Oklahoma City Thunder fall to the Minnesota Timberwolves on the second night of a back-to-back, 132-102.
It seems like the Timberwolves have the Thunder’s number this season as they have defeated them by margins of eight points, 30 points, 37 points and 30 points. The final regular-season meeting between these teams featured Shai Gilgeous-Alexander having his worst game in nearly two months as his 29-plus point streak comes to an end at seven games.
As has been the case since the All-Star break, the Thunder’s defense just continues to slip in the defensive rating standings as they are ranked 28th in the league entering this game. The Timberwolves ended up scoring 132 points on 52.3 percent shooting that included scoring 101 points in just the first three quarters. The Timberwolves were also hot from deep as they shot 22-of-52 (42.3 percent) from beyond the arc.
This was just a really bad loss as it feels like the lack of NBA talent is starting to finally catch up with the Thunder in recent games as they have lost five of their last seven games by double digits that includes giving up at least 120 points in regulation in five of those losses.
With the Thunder currently dealing with a lot of injuries that include some being season-ending ones, it’s hard to see things changing from here on out in the last month of the season at its current rate. Gilgeous-Alexander has been supernova and arguably the best scorer in the league since returning from his ankle sprain and that still isn’t enough to keep games interesting — much less collect wins for the Thunder. Let’s take a look at player grades as the team prepares to enjoy three consecutive days off.
