It'll be the Minnesota Timberwolves against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, with Game 1 in OKC on Tuesday night.
The No. 1 seed Thunder blew out the Denver Nuggets 125-93 in Game 7 of their second-round series on Sunday afternoon, advancing to their first conference finals since the last season of the Kevin Durant era in 2016. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (35 points) and Jalen Williams (24) led the way in the scoring department, Alex Caruso was a defensive menace, and Oklahoma City forced 22 Denver turnovers.
The Nuggets led 21-10 in the first quarter, but the Thunder closed the half on a 50-25 run and took a 14-point lead into the break. They then came out and won the third quarter by 11 points to all but seal the deal. 20 points from Nikola Jokic and a gutsy effort from Aaron Gordon — who somehow played through a Grade 2 hamstring strain — weren't nearly enough for Denver, who pulled their starters with over nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Mark Daigneault's Thunder, coming off a second-round loss to the Mavericks last year, went 68-14 in a historic regular season. Their 12.87 average point differential was the best in NBA history, while their net rating trailed only the 1995-96 Bulls all-time. However, the Thunder — who swept the 8-seed Grizzlies in the first round — were far from unbeatable in needing seven games to get past Jokic and the Nuggets.
Two of their 14 regular season losses came against the Timberwolves, who split a four-game series with Oklahoma City. The Wolves lost 113-105 in OKC on New Year's Eve and won 116-101 in Minneapolis on Feb. 13. The teams then played on back-to-back nights shortly after the All-Star break. The Thunder won 130-123 on Feb. 23, and the Wolves rallied from a 25-point deficit in a 131-128 OT road win the next night.
Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, and Donte DiVincenzo — three of the Wolves' top seven players — missed all of the February meetings between the two teams. Minnesota gave significant minutes in those three games to Jaylen Clark and rookies Terrence Shannon Jr. and Rob Dillingham, who have not been in Chris Finch's postseason rotation.
Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP favorite, averaged 35 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists on 51 percent shooting against the Wolves during the regular season. Anthony Edwards put up 22.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 6 assists against the Thunder, shooting an uncharacteristic 31.6 percent from three-point range.
Those two superstars will be in the spotlight in this series, but it'll also come down to which supporting casts perform better. Randle has been playing some of the best basketball of his career during this Timberwolves playoff run. Jaden McDaniels, Gobert, Naz Reid, Mike Conley, DiVincenzo, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker round out the rest of Minnesota's eight-man rotation. The Thunder's rotation includes as many as ten players: SGA, Williams, Caruso, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, and Jaylin Williams.
To win the series as underdogs, the Wolves will need to be a lot better than they were in their second-round series against the Steph Curry-less Warriors. They'll especially need to take better care of the ball against the Thunder, who had easily the NBA's best defense during the regular season.
The series will be played every other night, beginning on Tuesday. Every game will be at 7:30 p.m. central time on ESPN (except for Game 3, which will be on ABC). The Wolves will have had five full days off ahead of Game 1, while the Thunder will have had only one.
The winner will advance to face either the New York Knicks or Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals.