The Oklahoma City Thunder took a 2-0 series lead in the Western Conference finals Thursday night, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 118-103 at home.
Fresh off his MVP win, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander notched 38 points, his fifth-straight playoff game scoring more than 30 points.
Anthony Edwards led the Timberwolves with 32 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Western Conference’s top-ranked team.
The Thunder and Timberwolves play Game 3 in Minnesota on Saturday at Target Center.
Shai shines
The efficiency and overall offensive brilliance of Gilgeous-Alexander (with an impressive 38 points on 12-for-21 shooting) should be the talking point of Game 2 — especially on a night he was awarded the MVP in front of the passionate Oklahoma City fan base — but the Thunder’s ball movement remains supreme in this series.
Advertisement
Oklahoma City set the tone in the first half, generating 15 assists on 22 made field goals, the majority of which resulted from secondary and tertiary creation underneath Minnesota’s ball pressure. The Thunder finished Game 2 with 30 assists on 45 made field goals. Gilgeous-Alexander should draw the bulk of credit, using his downhill pressure to create passing lanes to ensure the offense wasn’t stagnant, but the Thunder’s unselfishness is what got them this far and should continue to carry them in this matchup.
Their ball movement allows Jalen Williams (who finished with 26 points, 11 of which came in the fourth) to be the aggressive shot maker who thrives as a second option, and it affords Chet Holmgren numerous inside-outside contributions and keeps the machine running. At the other end, the Wolves struggled to keep up, far too often relying on individual brilliance in isolation against an aggressive Thunder defense.
The Wolves have comparable advantages on the boards, and their second unit has more offensive capabilities, but as long as the Thunder can continue finding holes in the zone and creating mismatches organically, the NBA Finals will edge closer and closer. — Kelly Iko, staff writer
The MVP didn’t do it alone
Holmgren, with 22 points, three rebounds and two assists in Game 2, continues to be an underrated inside-outside weapon. He’s certainly not as physical as Julius Randle or Edwards, but his half-court IQ, which has improved each year in Mark Daigneault’s system, is on full display in this series.
The Thunder have ample flexibility with Holmgren’s placement, either using him in the corner and having him be a cutter late in the shot clock, or letting him hover in the holes of Minnesota’s zone.
Defensively, Oklahoma City can trot out lineups with Holmgren manning the middle surrounded with speed and agility, trusting his elite rim protection and rebounding ability. — Iko
Can Minnesota keep the series alive?
For the second game in a row, OKC wore Minnesota down with its ball pressure on defense and ran away with an easy victory once the Timberwolves let go of the rope in the second half. In Game 1, the Thunder sealed the victory by winning the second half by a 30-point margin. It wasn’t that lopsided on Thursday night, but Minnesota still fell behind 0-2 in this series after back-to-back double-digit losses. As of now, the gap between these two teams appears to be fairly sizable. OKC defenders Luguentz Dort, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso have done a phenomenal job of crowding Edwards every time he has the ball and making him work every look he gets at the rim. Edwards tried to mix things up in Game 2 by sprinkling in a few post-ups and being more unselfish on his drives to the basket. It’s difficult to consistently attack this swarming defense over and over again throughout an entire game.
Advertisement
Edwards finished with 32 points in Game 2, but he’s shooting a combined 17 of 39 from the field after two games in this series. Randle, Mike Conley and Donte DiVincenzo were a combined 6 of 25 from the field in Game 2. The other playmakers on this team have to take some pressure off Edwards. The Timberwolves won’t have a chance in this series if they keep hoping Edwards can get them across the finish line by himself. Playing in front of the home crowd in Games 3 and 4 could help lift the confidence of those supporting cast members. Minnesota will need it to keep this series within reach. — Will Guillory, staff writer
A game of adjustments
One of Minnesota’s big adjustments in Game 2 was to lean more into its zone defense to keep Gilgeous-Alexander out of the paint. After seeing a ton of zone in the second round against Denver, the Thunder looked extremely comfortable attacking the gaps and creating easy looks when Minnesota went to those zone looks.
Two things to keep an eye on when Minnesota goes to its zone throughout this series:
- Caruso hit a couple of floaters in the lane by attacking the middle of the zone. This appeared to be a deliberate adjustment the Thunder made, knowing the zone would come at some point. Minnesota has to put more pressure on the ball in the middle of the court.
- The Thunder had some success attacking Conley when he was one of the two guards at the top of the zone. It’s going to be really tough for him to defend one-on-one in those situations when he is isolated against Gilgeous-Alexander or Williams. I don’t think Finch can play his zone as much if Conley is out there. — Guillory
It’s official: SGA is now MVP. Andrew Schlecht breaks down the qualities that made the Oklahoma City Thunder guard the NBA’s best player this season.
(Photo: Brett Rojo / Imagn Images)
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
