Cutting to the basket, Anthony Edwards hit the layup to expand the Minnesota Timberwolves’ lead to 13 points.
Seven seconds later, that lead grew to 16 points after a sloppy inbound pass led to the ball finding Edwards’ way once again for the back-breaking 3.
The rocking Target Center crowd loudly expressed their approval of the two-possession sequence with blaring cheers. It was quite the juxtaposition from the tame and quiet Smoothie King Center crowd two days prior.
It was that type of night for the Oklahoma City Thunder in their season-ending 120-95 loss to the Timberwolves, who advance in the play-in tournament and earned the eighth seed.
“We’ve set a high enough bar to be disappointed at this time of year,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault. “This is where you want to be. You want to be in these environments. You want to be playing these types of games.”
The Timberwolves will now begin a first-round series against the first-seeded Denver Nuggets. Meanwhile, the Thunder returns to the draft lottery for a third consecutive year.
After escaping with a thrilling win over the New Orleans Pelicans, the Thunder looked lethargic in their second consecutive do-or-die road game.
The Thunder never looked comfortable in this one, as the Timberwolves quickly built a 57-47 halftime lead. After cutting the lead to eight points, the Timberwolves finished the third quarter on a 25-16 run in the final seven minutes.
The Timberwolves delivered the knockout punch in the fourth quarter by beginning the final frame on a 14-2 run to open a game-high 29-point lead.
“Credit Minnesota,” Daigneault said. “From the jump and throughout the game, they were just the better team tonight. It’s a one-game series and in a one-game series, that’s how it works. A lot of credit to them. Obviously, didn’t throw our best punch tonight.”
The Thunder offense struggled mightily in a hostile environment, as they shot a poor 32-of-89 (36%) from the field. The outside shot was nonexistent for OKC as it shot 13-of-40 (32.5%) from 3.
Inside of the paint, the Thunder couldn’t convert on their attempts against the lengthy Timberwolves as they shot 15-of-39 (38.5%) in that area for a measly 30 points.
Meanwhile, it was the complete opposite for the Timberwolves, who feasted inside of the small Thunder for 58 points on 29-of-48 (60.4%) shooting.
A 28-point difference in a 25-point loss solely off of points inside of the paint.
Overall, the Timberwolves enjoyed a high-octane offense as they shot 43-of-83 (51.8%) from the field and 13-of-32 (40.6%) from 3. The Timberwolves mostly stuck to a five-man rotation, as all five scored at least 11 points and played at least 32 minutes.
Needing a win to move on, Karl-Anthony Towns led his squad with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting and 11 rebounds. Rudy Gobert made his return from a one-game suspension with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
When the Timberwolves made the blockbuster trade for Gobert last summer, this was likely the vision they foresaw and the fruits of their labor were devoured for at least one night.
After struggling against the Los Angeles Lakers, Edward bounced back with 19 points on 8-of-19 shooting. An improvement from his nine points on 3-of-17 shooting night in LA.
In his first start of the season, Nickeil Alexander-Walker was superb for the Timberwolves as he scored 12 points and had six assists. Matching up with his cousin Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he helped limit him to 22 points on 5-of-19 shooting.
After Jaden McDaniels fractured his hand in the regular-season finale, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch threw a curveball with starting Alexander-Walker. who’s had a history of playing against Gilgeous-Alexander growing up.
“When he came back from the injury, he kinda kept us afloat there in the third,” Daigneault said. “We were trying to make a little noise and it got our offense going a little bit.”
It’s a tough ending to such a young season for the Thunder, but it’s only fitting they did so because of zero rim protection and struggling to finish inside the paint.
Both issues should receive major boosts in help with the return of Minnesota native Chet Holmgren next season, who missed the entire year due to a Lisfranc injury.
The Thunder did an admirable job at patching up the Holmgren-sized hole for most of the season, but the dam finally broke on both ends of the floor in this season-ending defeat.
While this loss might sting in the immediate future, don’t let it cloud your judgment on OKC’s long-term outlook. This team is set up to be a contender for a long time and this was just a preview of what’s to come for the foreseeable future.
“Being projected to win 17 to 20 games and being able to have 41 (wins) is kinda just a testament of how hard we played all year,” Jalen Williams said.
The addition of a lottery pick will only strengthen OKC’s young core as it gains helpful experience playing two postseason contests.
“I told the team after the game, we’ve passed a lot of tests this season and we should be proud of that,” Daigneault said. “But we haven’t built our muscle quite enough to be where we want to be… We have a lot of work to do, we’re far from a finished product as a team.”
Let’s look at player grades for the final time.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: D
This was not a good game for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, to put it lightly.
The usual hyper-efficient All-Star finished with 22 points on 5-of-19 shooting and went 12-of-12 from the free-throw line. He also added seven rebounds and three assists.
Just like against the Pelicans, Gilgeous-Alexander struggled to get it going with a slow first half of 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting to go along with three early fouls. This time around though, he couldn’t turn it around in the second half.
Perhaps a Gobert elbow to the eye in the third quarter played a factor into the quiet second half, but regardless of reason, Gilgeous-Alexander never really turned it around as he shot just 3-of-14 inside of the paint.
In a valiant effort to quickly return from a scary-looking injury, Gilgeous-Alexander sat for most of the fourth quarter as the Timberwolves ballooned their lead to 29 points.
Daigneault confirmed after the game that he had a laceration under his eye and chipped his tooth — which makes his return to the court two game minutes after eating an elbow that much more impressive.
SGA went back to the locker room after being hit in the face on this play. pic.twitter.com/PP0EhIKymm
— ESPN (@espn) April 15, 2023
Jalen Williams: B+
The biggest positive of this 25-point loss, Jalen Williams had a much better outing this time around.
Against the Pelicans, Williams was held to 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting — an unusually inefficient game for the Rooke of the Year finalist.
This time around though, the freshly-turned 22-year-old had 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting and went 4-of-8 from 3 to go along with five assists, four rebounds and three steals.
Shai with the pass on the money to JDub pic.twitter.com/E27166IlKG
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) April 15, 2023
Back-to-back from deep for JDub and Zai pic.twitter.com/1mQET39L74
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) April 15, 2023
Pushing the pace and getting to the paint 🎨 pic.twitter.com/YXSdaxlm7j
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) April 15, 2023
Josh Giddey: F
It was a Jekyll & Hyde play-in tournament for Josh Giddey.
After scoring a career-high 31 points in a near triple-double performance against the Pelicans, Giddey was a nonfactor in this season-ending loss.
In 30 minutes, Giddey finished with six points on 2-of-13 shooting, five rebounds and four assists. The six points were a season-low for the 20-year-old.
While it would’ve been unfair to see a similar encore to the best game of Giddey’s young career, it’s hard to justify being essentially a negative on the court tonight.
Lu Dort: C
It’ll be forgotten because of the lopsided loss, but Lu Dort had a quietly solid night.
After scoring a season-high 27 points against the Pelicans, Dort followed that up with 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting and 4-of-8 from 3. He also grabbed eight rebounds.
Dort also did an excellent job at limiting the Timberwolves’ starting backcourt. Edwards scored 19 points on 19 shots and Mike Conley had 14 points but only managed to attempt six shots.
Being arguably the second-best player of this mini-postseason run, Dort is quickly building a reputation of being a guy who’ll step it up when it matters most.
“It was good to have this experience now under our belt so we know what to expect in the years to come,” Dort said.
