Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle both scored two figures, but it was not enough because their Minnesota Timberwolves were stunned 114-88 by OKC Thunder in match 1 of the West Conference final on Tuesday at the Pyycom Center in Oklahoma City.
After a slow first half, the Thunder caught fire in the second, outclassing the wolves of 30 and showing their depth, while largely neutralizing Edwards and Randle along the way.
During the post-match press conference, the star pair of Minnesota, which combined for 45 points on 14 shots out of 26 rebounds, laughed at a printed box score, which prompted fans to suppose that they reacted to the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander frank numbers.
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“Laughing Shai’s franc throwing numbers,” said one of them.
“They want to have a whistle of all time in SGA,” said another.
Despite a nuit of shooting of 10 out of 27 ineffective, SGA still managed to reach the line 14 times, jumping 11. On the other hand, the Timberwolves had only 21 attempts to throw frank, converting 15, with Anthony Edwards going 5 out of 7.
Here is what the others had to say about Edwards and Randle cracking on the statistics sheet:
“They should, the boys did not do any s ** t,” said one of them.
“Laughing from the 2 pts and 3 plates from Rudy in 21 minutes lol,” added another.
“Yes N *** A 0 points in the 4th is laughable,” said another.
A deeper look at the box score showed a breathtaking production of OKC’s starters: Jalen Williams won 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five interceptions; Chet Holmgren delivered 15 points, seven plates and two blocks; While Isaiah Hartenstein added 12 points.
The Thunder also won the battle of the 32-26 bench and dominated inside with an advantage of 54-20 in the points of the painting.
The Timberwolves experienced a rough shooting evening at only 34.9% and coughs 17 reversals. They were also excluded on fast breaks, OKC holding an advantage of 12-0 in this category.
Anthony Edwards fades in fourth
Anthony Edwards struggled to close while Minnesota completely collapsed in the second half, being out of date by 30 in total. On the fourth quarter only, where OKC jumped 38-22, Edwards tried a single blow and missed it.
He finished with a note of less than 23 under 23 in almost 37 minutes of action.
Julius Randle came out aggressive with 20 points in the first half, but later slowed down, adding only eight others to end with 28 points and eight rebounds. No other Timberwolves player has reached double figures.
Edited by John Ezekiel Hirro
