Timberwolves Thunder Reaction

 The conference finals might be the best time in basketball. There's a great matchup on every night, last night was no exception seeing the Thunder take down the Timberwolves 114-88. This was great for me and my prediction of a sweep, although the way the Wolves played does have me nervous that the Thunder can take 4 straight against them. Step in the right direction though and we will break it down here!

First Half Woes

The first half of this one had me sweating as a bandwagon Thunder fan. The Timberwolves defense was giving Shai absolute fits highlighted by Jaden McDaniels. McDaniels stuck on Shai through screens and suffocated him at every turn. There was a possession where McDaniels met Shai as soon as he crossed half court and simply didn't let him dribble around him until Shai dribbled it out of bounds for a turnover. Whenever Shai would call for a screen, McDaniels managed to slither around it to stick with Shai. In the mid range Shai was getting shots up but they were heavily contested, difficult shots that for the most part led to bricks. When he got all the way to the rim the Timberwolves met him with pressure and swatted a few of his shots. To put it lightly, the first half they completely shut Shai down. The Thunder were able to stay in the game on the back of their elite defense forcing a bunch of turnovers and Isaiah Hartenstein hitting some floaters and catching lobs. 

All of these struggles came with Julius Randle cooking them on the other end. I dislike watching Julius Randle go off because it feels like it is exclusively on shots you shouldn't be taking. He hit a couple of contested 3s in the corner then a borderline logo 3 from the top of the floor to set the scoring tone for the Timberwolves. Other than him though, nobody else could get it going for the Wolves. They were sloppy with the ball and turnovers are a death sentence against this Thunder team who can get out and run. In a first half where they held Shai to 2/12 shooting and the Thunder to just 40 points, the Wolves went into halftime with just a 4 point lead. I was feeling good here. 

Second Half Explosion

For some reason in the second half, the Wolves stopped fighting over screens and instead switched more easily. This led to Shai getting switches on Julius Randle, Naz Reid or Donte DiVincenzo and he was cooking all of them.  The Timberwolves essentially benched Rudy Gobert who really struggled on offense in the first half. The Thunder force you to make quick decisions on offense, which Rudy isn't the best at. With Rudy on the bench though, Shai saw a wide open lane to the rim not threatened at all by Naz Reid. The Wolves killed the Thunder on the glass in the first half, but again without Rudy that was much tougher to do. Chet and JDub who both did next to nothing in the first half each got going in the second, hitting their open shots and moving off ball for quick cuts. JDub even took on the point guard role and allowed Shai to create his advantages off ball which really helped to get him going. All of this opened up a big run in the third quarter that saw the Thunder burst ahead into a double digit lead. 

The 4th quarter came, Ant checked back into the game and I became nervous again. This time though, Ant didn't have it and he took I think only 1 shot attempt in the 4th. Alex Caruso was all over him forcing him to give up the ball to admittedly open shooters in DiVincenzo, McDaniels and Naz Reid, none of those guys could hit their shots. Meanwhile on the other end Caruso was stepping into clutch 3s and just being in the right place at the right time for the Thunder, he's such a winning player. The Thunder cruised through the 4th to take game 1 convincingly, and I went to sleep very happy.

Don't Post Up 

Something I noticed watching the Thunder against the Nuggets as well is despite their lack of size at most positions, they are a nightmare to try and post up. I mentioned yesterday that they forced Jokic into 4.4 turnovers per game for their series and most of that was just a smaller guy poking a ball free on a post up or denying the ball all together. In this one that was felt, essentially every time Julius Randle went to post up it led to a turnover and a fast break the other way. He got his scoring off with an absurd shooting performance outside the arc but his bread and butter was totally taken away by the Thunder defense. Not just post ups too, it seems like whenever you get the ball to a big near the paint, the Thunder defenders collapse into a swarm of limbs forcing you to think quick to pass it out or go up with a shot. This is one of the more fun and chaos inducing defenses I've ever seen in basketball, it will be interesting to see how the Wolves adjust to find some way to score. 

Don't be Mean to Shai

The overall consensus online this morning is that Shai is a foul baiter who gets a soft whistle and it's not enjoyable basketball. Now I will agree that his whistle last night was pretty soft, but still don't be mean to him! Shai is a national treasure, he hits the big shots when they matter and he did it again last night. If he makes people mad on the way to a title then so be it, I'll still be here for you Shai! No real defense here, I get why people don't like this stuff, but I love Shai so I don't care. 

And that's that! It was a much closer game than the final score would suggest. The Wolves had a shot in this one being down only 10 with like 5 minutes to go before the wheels came off completely. I will stick by my sweep prediction because I still do think Minnesota will struggle to score this series, but I didn't come away from that one certain I am right. Pacers vs Knicks tonight, I can't wait!