This is an excerpt from Berry Tramel's Thursday ScissorTales. Read it in its entirety here
The Thunder’s 114-88 rout of the Timberwolves produced an awesome second-half performance and a rather glittering report card.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joins Durant and Westbrook as Thunder MVPs
3-point math: A. The 3-point avalanche in the modern NBA is simple math. At least that’s the Boston Celtics’ theory. And it’s a good one. Until it’s not. The Timberwolves shot 30 more 3-pointers than did the Thunder, yet Minnesota lost money on every sale. The T-Wolves made just 15 of 51 deep balls, while the Thunder attempted a season low 21 (27 had been the fewest) and made 11. Those extra possessions allowed the Thunder to shoot more foul shots (26-21) and far more shots in the paint (50-23). Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continued to struggle from beyond the arc (0-of-4), but the rest of the Thunder squad combined to make 11 of 17. Meanwhile, Timberwolves Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Donte DiVincenzo, Naz Reid and Mike Conley combined to make just six of 33 3-pointers.
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Paint game: A. Teams with Holmgren and Rudy Gobert aren’t expected to allow many points in the paint. That was half true in Game 1. The Thunder outscored Minnesota 66-35 in paint points. The Thunder attacked the basket with much more zeal after halftime and made 16-of-27 paint shots in the second half. It helped that Gobert drew two early fouls and ended up playing just 21 minutes, 20 seconds. Minnesota had 36 baskets from the paint in its Game 5 closeout of Golden State in the West semifinals. The Timberwolves had 10 baskets from the paint against the Thunder. Edwards took just one shot from the paint.
Defensive pressure: A. Another game, another massive Thunder edge in points off turnovers. Minnesota, a high-turnover team, committed 19 in Game 1, which is too many to maintain high hopes for victory. But even worse was the kind of turnovers. The Thunder had 13 steals, leading to a 31-10 edge in points off turnovers. OKC’s fast-break points advantage was 12-0. Jalen Williams had five steals. Gilgeous-Alexander had three. The Thunder now has two straight games with at least 30 points off turnovers (it had 37 in Game 7 against Denver).
Guarding stars: B. The Thunder kept the wraps on Edwards, which is nothing new. In the regular season, Edwards averaged 22.25 points in four games against OKC, shooting just 36.3%. Similar production in Game 1; with Luguentz Dort and Cason Wallace the primary defenders on Edwards, he had 18 points on 5-of-13 shooting. Meanwhile, Julius Randle torched the Thunder for 20 first-half points, mainly due to 5-of-6 3-point shooting. But the Thunder didn’t give Randle that kind of room in the second half. No more going under screens. Jalen Williams stayed on as the primary defender, with Kenrich Williams, Alex Caruso and Dort eventually taking some turns as well. Randle took just one shot the first 13½ minutes of the second half, a missed 17-footer. Randle scored eight points in the fourth quarter but never got off another deep ball.
Big lineup: C. For the third straight game, the Thunder got down significantly in the first quarter. Minnesota led 8-0 in the first 70 seconds of the game, and the Thunder played uphill most of the first half. Daigneault subbed out Holmgren early in both the first and third quarters, in an obvious strategy to go smaller. The starting lineup that includes both Holmgren and Hartenstein fared much better in its two stints after the first quarter, outscoring Minnesota 15-8 over six minutes. But the start is a concern.
Cason Wallace: A. The second-year defensive phenom keeps adding to his game. And his value. Wallace played 33:03, just five seconds less than Jalen Williams. Only 10 times in 171 career games had Wallace played more. And for the second straight game, Wallace produced an eye-popping number. In Game 7 against Denver, it was plus-38 — the Thunder outscored the Nuggets by 38 points with Wallace on the floor. Tuesday night, it was Wallace’s seven assists. Hartenstein called him “Magic Johnson.” And of course, Wallace’s real value rests on defense, where his tenacity against Edwards allowed the Thunder to either rest Dort or move him around to stymie a different Timberwolf.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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