The Oklahoma City Thunder took it to the Timberwolves in every way Wednesday night, and now they're one step closer to a championship while Minnesota wonders "what if."
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points, and the Thunder routed the Timberwolves 124-94 to win the Western Conference finals series 4-1, advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 and sending the Wolves home after a great run with a disappointing finish.
After the win, the league MVP was measured in his excitement. Oklahoma City will play the Indiana Pacers or New York Knicks in the finals. Indiana leads the Eastern Conference finals series 3-1 with Game 5 to be played in New York City on Thursday.
“We’ve got a lot of growing to do,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do to get to our ultimate goal, and this is not it, so that’s all that I’m focused on.”
Minnesota-native Chet Holmgren had 22 points, seven rebounds and three blocks and Jalen Williams added 19 points and eight rebounds for the Thunder.
Julius Randle scored 24 points and Anthony Edwards added 19 for the Timberwolves, who shot just 41.2% from the field and committed 21 turnovers. There's certainly nothing to hang your head over, when you advance to a second straight Western Conference Finals, but it's a lost opportunity for Minnesota who looked terribly outmatched in the four losses - winning only one game at home when it seemed like the Wolves couldn't miss a shot all night. That wasn't the case Wednesday though, and the Wolves lost their way early getting outscored 26-9 in the first quarter.
"Missed a bunch of shots early, Jayden had some good looks, Mike had some good looks, they didn't go down," said head coach Chris Finch. "They led to run outs, you know, and then we started trying to force it all individually, one-on-one, and I think we had a bunch of turnovers in that next phase of the first quarter. That obviously got the crowd into it, got them going."
It was a tough loss for Minnesota point guard Mike Conley. The 37-year-old point guard said these opportunities are rare.
“It’s going to take a while just to kind of dissect what we just did and what we weren’t able to accomplish," he said. “But at the same time, I’m proud of my team, proud of these guys, man. They really fought. Not just for me, but for the whole team.”
Oklahoma City opened the game on an 11-3 run and extended the advantage throughout the first quarter. Cason Wallace drained a 3-pointer as the first quarter expired to put the Thunder up 26-9 at the end of the period. The game was never close after that.
"We just struggled to find a rhythm," Finch adds. Everyone was kind of trying to do it all by themselves. We lost our connectivity, but all credit to the Thunder, they certainly, deserved this. They played outstanding, and we came up short in a lot of ways."
Wolves have a difficult offseason of decisions ahead
After the Wolves traded away longtime stalwart Karl-Anthony Towns to the NY Knicks, getting forward Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo in return.
After a tough start, the Wolves got hot in the season's last month and rode that through the playoffs - a lot of that due to the great play of Randle. That great play largely disappeared in the series against the Thunder.
Still, forward Naz Reid, who is one of the players the team needs to figure out how to handle this offseason, says they overcame a lot to get to the West Finals.
"A lot of people didn't even think we were gonna get this far with the team we put together this year," says Naz Reid. "I think a lot of people doubted it. I mean, we answered some questions, but yeah, we got a lot of work to still accomplish in the next year I think we gotta come out with our hair on fire and show where we belong, at the at the top of the West."
Reid believes there's a bright future with the team's current roster.
"We got a great squad," Reid said after the loss. "We got a young squad as well, so that's always a plus. I think even with the younger guys that went in and played, they showed some resiliency as well. I think we got a bright, bright future ahead of us. We just gotta keep putting the work in, trust our work, trust each other, and kinda have that, like I said, have that defensive mentality. I think that kind of helped us get to this point today."
Even if Reid believes all the pieces are currently there, chances are they won't be come this fall. President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly has shown he's not afraid to make moves - even risky moves - and it sure appears Minnesota is well behind where the Thunder are currently, and the West is going to be as tough as ever.
Randle has a player option for next year for around $31 million and chances are he'll exercise that option. But he could opt-out and enter free agency, chasing a large, long term deal - which might be just fine with the Wolves the way he played in this series - a benching in Game 2 didn't help, and he played even worse in parts of Game 4 and 5. But there's no question he was a very solid number-two option to Edwards against LA and Golden State earlier in the playoffs.
Randle did not sound like a player eager to leave when he spoke Thursday morning.
"This is the most meaningful basketball I played in my career, and you know, from how the organization has made me feel, front office and just my teammates and playing with it as our leader, I love it," Randle said. "It's a lot to be excited about."
Reid can also opt-out and he certainly has the skill to demand big dollars in the open market. The Wolves are surely going to try and keep him.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker is a free agent and likely will leave. Mike Conley will also be making a decision if he wants to return after he turns 38-years old.
The Wolves really need some good, young point guard play. Their two young guards - Rob Dillingham and Terrance Shannon Jr. played sporadically this season but showed signs of being solid contributors. But there's little chance Dillingham is ready for a starting role come October for a team hoping to get to the NBA Finals and win a championship.
This is a rare year for the Timberwolves when it comes to the NBA Draft. They have the 17th and 31st picks in the first round. Much of their draft capital was given up in the trade that brought Rudy Gobert - who still has two yeasr left on his deal. Those two picks need to be good ones for Minnesota.
It's also time for Anthony Edwards to take another step. 24-years old means his prime is still coming and getting him to a place that SGA is - MVP and on his way to the NBA Finals - should be his and the team's goal.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.