SHAI GILGEOUS-Alexander stepped up in the second half as Oklahoma City Thunder prevailed over Minnesota Timberwolves, 114-88, in Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night (Wednesday in Philippines) at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.The NBA MVP frontrunner scored 20 of his 31 points in the second half, to go with nine assists as the Western Conference top-seed Thunder took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Jalen Williams added 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and five steals, while Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein contributed 15 and 12 markers, respectively, for Timberwolves.
Down 44-48 at the half, the Thunder went on a 10-0 run in the third quarter for a 66-60 lead before widening it to 71-62 midway through the third quarter following a three-pointer from Kenrich Williams.
The Timberwolves were still hanging around early in the fourth quarter at 75-86, but the Thunder responded with conversions from Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren to stretch the lead to double-digits.
âHonestly we were a bit rusty in the first half but we shouldn’t be,â Gilgeous-Alexander said. âWe were missing layups, free throws. We just needed to keep being aggressive and trust our work. We got downhill, the layups started to fall and we started making our shots and we started getting stops defensively.â
“Game ones are feel-out games. In game two they’re going to make adjustments and we’re gonna have adjustments. It’s a series and it’s best-of-seven, not first to one,” he added. It’s a good start but there’s a lot more work to do.”
Julius Randle scored 28 points for Minnesota, with only eight coming in the second half, while Anthony Edwards added 18 markers, but was held scoreless the entire fourth quarter.
“We didn’t have a lot of patience in the second half and then our offense didn’t get a bunch of quality looks and it affected our defense,” Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch said.
“And then when we did get good looks, they didn’t go down. Our offense affected our defense, and that can’t happen,” he added. “When we got good looks, we couldn’t really connect when the game was kind of turning against us.”/PN
BOX SCORE:
OKLAHOMA CITY 114 â Gilgeous-Alexander 31, Jal. Williams 19, Holmgren 15, Hartenstein 12, Caruso 9, K. Williams 8, Joe 7, Dort 5, Jones 3, Wallace 3, Wiggins 2, Mitchell 0, Dieng 0.
MINNESOTA 88 â Randle 28, Edwards 18, DiVincenzo 9, Alexander-Walker 8, McDaniels 7, Conley 7, Reid 4, Clark 3, Gobert 2, Shannon 2, Dillingham 0, Minott 0, Garza 0.
Quarterscores: 20-23; 44-48; 76-66; 114-88.
