Wolves Take Down Thunder in Epic Play-in Game, Secure 8th Seed

The Minnesota Timberwolves made a risky move this year and signed Rudy Gobert to team up with Karl-Anthony Towns. The league mostly consists of teams that like to shoot from distance and play small ball, but the Wolves decided to do something different. This decision payed off in the end, as the Timberwolves beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-95 in their last game making them qualified to go into playoffs. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 28 points and 11 rebounds during that game, which largely contributed to their victory.

Karl-Anthony Towns said that the team utilized their size and did a really great job of causing pressure near the basket. Rudy Gobert was also fantastic and he brought lots of energy to help the Wolves become an 8th seed in the Western Conference Playoff bracket at the end of a difficult season. He had 21 points and 10 rebounds when he returned after getting in trouble for fighting with Kyle Anderson.

Anthony Edwards scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to help the Wolves win easily against their opponent. The series is now set, they will face Denver (the team in first place) who have the highest seeds in a best-of-seven match starting Sunday night.

Rudy Gobert had some encouraging words saying that the team isn’t labelled as an “8” seed because if they all play right, they can beat any other team in the league.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the highest scorer of the Thunder game, he scored 22 points! He was successful on all 12 free throws he attempted but couldn’t score from five of his nineteen field shots. In addition, Jalen Williams and Lu Dort contributed 17 points each.

Gilgeous-Alexander showed enthusiasm about Thunder’s performance this season; “It’s been really fun for us this year. We are doing great!” he said happily.

The Timberwolves were missing their best player Jaden McDaniels because he broke his hands by punching a wall out of anger in the last regular-season game. Then, as an argument started during a timeout, Nickiel Alexander-Walker took his spot and had to guard his own cousin — Gilgeous-Alexander who was very good. President of basketball operations Tim Connelly suggested this switch. Karl-Anthony Towns then praised Nickiel saying that he was the reason they won with no other explanation needed.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a slow start in the game against New Orleans, but ended up scoring 25 of his 32 points after halftime to help the Thunder get a win. But during the third quarter, he got his fourth foul early and then had to leave for treatment when Gobert elbowed him in the eye accidentally while his was trying to rebound from his own missed shot.

On Tuesday, Towns scored 24 points in Minnesota’s 108-102 overtime loss to Los Angeles in a play-in game by taking a combination of outside and inside shots. He and Gobert played against the much smaller Thunder team who did not have their No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren, who is from Minneapolis but was injured during the summer pro-am game.

Gobert was uncertain to play in the game due to a bad back and he had been banned from playing by his team. However, he put on something around his belly and played really well during the second part of the match.

In the fourth quarter, Mike Conley grabbed a lose ball in the corner and threw it almost full court to Towns. His pass resulted in an easy dunk for Gobert, giving the Wolves a huge lead of 109-80 – the biggest lead they had all night.

The Wolves coach, Chris Finch was happy that they hadn’t given away their lead like usual. He praised his team for being very focused on what they needed to do.

The Wolves won 3 out of 4 games they played against the Thunder. These four games took place really close together at the start of the season and then again close to mid-December — but when they finished up in December, Towns was out due to an injury. Later on, a 3-team trade happened that saw D’Angelo Russell leave Minnesota’s backcourt area and Conley and Alexander-Walker come in as replacements.

So with all of this change happening, does it even make sense for us to go back and take a look at what happened during those first four games?

“We prepare really hard because we don’t want to lose, but it doesn’t change the fact that some of our teammates are not here,” Daigneault said. “Both teams have changed a lot since then.”

TIP-INS:

Thunder: Josh Giddey scored 2 out of 13 shots. … Oklahoma City made 13 out of 40 3-point shots.

Timberwolves: Walker-Alexander got 12 points. … Minnesota’s last two playoffs were from 1997 to 2004.

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