NBA Matchups: May 22

Minnesota Timberwolves at Oklahoma City Thunder

Team Totals: Wolves 103.3, Thunder 110.8

Injury Report: Nikola Topic (O, ACL)

Wolves projected starters: Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert

Thunder projected starters: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein

Offensive Ranks: Wolves 8th, Thunder 2nd
Defensive Ranks: Wolves 6th, Thunder 1st

Season Series: 2-2

Noteworthy Missed Games: Rudy Gobert (3 missed), Donte DiVincenzo (3), Julius Randle (3), Mike Conley (1), Cason Wallace (1), Chet Holmgren (2), Alex Caruso (2) 

Finch quotes: Said they had some rushed offense overall, said they did get good looks from deep and they didn’t go down, said their offense affected their defense and too much foul trouble made them softer, said they had to get Julius the ball more earlier in the second half, said OKC has five guys in the paint at any given time and the 3-pointers are going to be there for them, said McDaniels turned down some shots, said the early fouls on Gobert were tough and he wanted to go with a “small, skilled lineup” later in the game, said Ant told him his ankle was sore at half and that he was going to be fine, said they have to play with more force and set better ball screens.

Daigneault quotes: Said it was a major victory to play that poorly on offense in the first half and only be down four, said it took a minute to calibrate to how the Wolves were defending them, said SGA had a great blend of scoring and passing, said J-Dub and Chet went to a different level in the second half (along with SGA), said Kenrich has been able to stay sharp with his “invisible work” and Kenrich playing like that is a huge energy boost for the team, said the Wolves are more free-flowing on offense and apply more pressure on defense (compared to the Nuggets), said it’s hard to know how many minutes the centers will play because things could change quickly. 

Stats and notes:

*OKC’s defense lived up to the billing with a 31-10 edge in points off turnovers, 12-0 fast-break points win, and winning paint points 54-20. The turnovers were key with a 17-13 advantage for OKC (13-5 in live-ball turnovers), but credit to the Wolves for keeping the Thunder to only 10.8% of their possessions in transition for their second-lowest mark in a game this postseason (Game 3 vs. MEM). The biggest story of the game was OKC getting 49 shots in the paint compared to just 23 from the Wolves. The Wolves also made just 10 of those 23 (43.8%; they went 2-of-8 in the first half) while OKC made 27 (55.1%; 11-of-26 in the first half). OKC’s paint defense slows down for nobody, and Chris Finch mentioned that the Thunder still kept their paint protected even with all the shooting out there. The Wolves did run bad on their shooting at just 8-of-30 wide-open looks for 26.7%, while OKC was nails on theirs at 10-of-13 (76.9%). OKC’s paint attacks were consistent all game and their 21 3PAs are the lowest they’ve had in a game all season, with it not even being close (27 in regular season vs. NYK, 29 vs. DEN in Game 5). The Wolves got the note on OKC giving up a ton of corner 3PAs, but they made just 5-of-21 in Game 1. Of course, the biggest issue out there is OKC winning the FTA battle 26-21 because of SGA’s 11-of-14 at the line. It was a dominating performance. All this led to OKC winning the halfcourt efficiency game 100.0 points per 100 to 81.1 from the Wolves.