OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Minnesota hadn’t played in nearly a week and Oklahoma City had just played in a Game 7 two days earlier.
It was the Timberwolves who lacked energy as the Thunder rolled to a 114-88 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night.
Minnesota coach Chris Finch said his team was just a bit off.
“There were a lot of good shots out there,” he said. “I think we’ve got to clean things up a little bit. You know, sometimes the passes were late, sometimes we weren’t quite shot ready. Sometimes we need to turn to other plays, you know. But I did think that we got a number of really good looks.”
Julius Randle scored 20 points in the first half to help the Timberwolves take a 48-44 lead, but Oklahoma City shot 61.9% from the field after the break while Minnesota shot just 35%.
Randle scored just eight points in the second half and only took five shots.
“Whether there’s misses or makes, we’ve still got to defend at a high level,” Randle said. “And I think that was probably the difference in the second half.”
Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, who had averaged 26.5 points per game in the playoffs, scored 18 on 5-for-13 shooting. No other Minnesota players scored in double figures.
Edwards never delivered one of his highlight-reel dunks as Oklahoma City packed the paint. The Timberwolves made just 15 of 51 3-pointers.
“It’s kind of hard to get to the paint honestly,” Edwards said. “I mean, regardless, that’s my game. But they definitely took that aspect of my game away tonight from getting downhill. So good job to those guys.”
Minnesota center Rudy Gobert was a nonfactor. He committed two quick fouls and finished with two points and three rebounds in 21 minutes. Finch said he took the 7-foot-1 Gobert out and went with a smaller lineup to see if he could shake things up.
Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 of his 31 points in the second half to help Oklahoma City outscore the Timberwolves 70-40.
Minnesota’s sluggishness showed in how it defended Gilgeous-Alexander. The MVP finalist and scoring champion made 11 of 14 free throws and played a role in Jaden McDaniels fouling out in just 24 minutes of action.
In two examples of Minnesota’s mental state, Edwards drew a technical early in the game for throwing the ball at Gilgeous-Alexander and later picked up another foul for shoving Gilgeous-Alexander in the chest.
“There was a lot of frustration out there, but we’ve got to — we know we talked about that before the series started,” Finch said. “And we have to be able to kind of put that aside and get on with the next play.”
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