Timberwolves-Thunder: 5 takeaways as OKC's defense ties up Minnesota for 2-0 lead
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander displays MVP form, Julius Randle disappears and OKC's defense dominates again in Game 2.OKLAHOMA CITY — The Timberwolves are slowly running out of answers, adjustments and if this keeps up, games in the Western Conference Finals.
The best-of-seven series is 2-0, advantage Thunder, and unless Minnesota proves otherwise at home, the next time basketball will tip here at Paycom Center will be Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
For the second straight game, Oklahoma City appeared very much a No. 1 seed for a reason, seizing control for good in a lopsided third quarter and using their defense and depth — and of course, the freshly minted Kia MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — to put the Wolves in their place.
Except for a few scattered spurts over two games, the Thunder have been in control, dropping hints of this developing into a one-sided series. Any drama or suspense or at least a close finish must wait until Game 3 (Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC), or beyond, after OKC won the first two games by a combined 41 points.
OKC flirted with danger in the seven-game semifinals against the Nuggets, falling behind twice, but has yet to feel much tension here, where they’re a step closer to the Finals.
Here are five takeaways from OKC’s 118-103 win, with the next two games tipping at the Target Center in Minneapolis:
1. Gilgeous-Alexander reminds crowd, and Wolves, who’s MVP
As he raised the Michael Jordan Trophy high in the air before tipoff, his home fans raised their voices. Therefore, both the MVP award and the noise were simultaneously heard, loudly and certifiably, and they screamed — Gilgeous-Alexander sits on top of the hoop world.Even better, the vibe continued through Game 2, just in case the Wolves weren’t convinced. Gilgeous-Alexander has dominated this series save for the first two quarters of Game 1, when he uncharacteristically couldn’t get shots to fall. No matter. Two nights after a bullish second half carried the Thunder to their first win,
Gilgeous-Alexander was consistent throughout the follow-up. Much like he did in the regular season, his presence was felt at both ends — dropping middies on one side, poking the ball loose on the other.
“He came ready to play,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. “He led with his approach, his force, his blend. Threw great passes, picked his spots … kept the scoreboard moving down the stretch.”
All told, his 38 points, eight assists and three steals loomed large in the victory. That performance did something else: it kept him a level up over Anthony Edwards. Wasn’t this series supposed to be about two young stars engaged in an arm-wrestle over the mythical face-of-the-league title? That hasn’t materialized … and it may never.
2. Wolves in first stress test since March
No team bum-rushed into this postseason with the force of the Wolves. Partly out of desperation, partly out of growth, the Wolves were the hottest team in the league when the playoffs began. They went 17-4 to finish the season, then breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs winning eight of 10.Welcome to adversity, finally.
They’ve now lost two straight, and Minnesota isn’t facing lesser competition anymore. No more breezy regular-season nights against the Utah Jazz, no more Los Angels Lakers or Stephen Curry-less Golden State Warriors. OKC is for real, and healthy, and bringing very few flaws in which to exploit. The Wolves will need to bring A-games to give themselves a chance, and that hasn’t happened yet.
Their response, starting with Game 3, will be telling. Can Edwards keep the foot on the gas, finally? Will Julius Randle bounce back? And really, what changes can coach Chris Finch make over the next 48 hours?
Their biggest need is a creative point guard. Mike Conley seems gassed at this stage of his career. And nobody off the bench brings a pass-first attitude, leaving it up to Edwards and a turnover-prone Randle to handle the ball and create for others. OKC’s top-rated defense is wise to that.
3. Randle finally turns to vapor
Randle went missing, not only through much of Game 2 but in the fourth quarter when he never left the bench. Perhaps this was inevitable, perhaps he was due. Seeing Randle stammer and struggle through a game is an uncommon sight in these playoffs.Actually, make that a game and a half. Randle had a strong 20 points in the first half of Game 1 but hasn’t been the same since. He has just 14 points in the last six quarters after a tough night Thursday, when he had two field goals and four turnovers.
About sitting Randle for Naz Reid in the fourth, was it a lack of faith shown by Wolves coach Chris Finch?
“I thought Naz had a good game going, just wanted to see if I could spread the floor and get some quick decision making out there,” Finch said.
4. OKC’s defense vs. Wolves’ offense is a mismatch
Randle’s issues shed light on something even more troublesome for the Wolves. Their offense — specifically, their ability to efficiently generate points — is mismatched against OKC’s defense.OKC has the advantage when the ball is in Minnesota’s hands. Their defenders are opportunistic, attacking dribbles, using swift rotations to cover for double teams, poking at the ball and shutting down passing lanes.
This is heightened when the Wolves, outside of Edwards and Randle, search for buckets or another hot hand. They’re not built that way, which is the dirty little secret about this team. Minnesota is a grinding team that relies on defense, rebounding and Edwards to be a superstar. The Wolves rarely beat anyone in a high-scoring game.
So much weight is on such players as Reid, Donte DiVincenzo and Jaden McDaniels to produce, and none are volume scorers. They haven’t always been reliable scorers through Games 1 and 2 of this series, either.
Edwards had 16 of his 32 points in the first half, looked around for help in the second half and couldn’t find it, aside from some too-little, too-late buckets by McDaniels (22 points) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (17). Edwards had no choice to bring force and more shot attempts (22) after he produced a mild 18-point Game 1, just five in the second half.
“Edwards was loosened up,” said Daigneault. “Our guys took on that challenge. He really had to earn everything he got.”
It was a frustrating experience that boiled over when McDaniels shoved Gilgeous-Alexander to the floor midway through the fourth quarter, OKC up 16 points.
“I just wanted to foul him,” McDaniels said. “I wasn’t even mad. I just had fouls to use.”
5. Jalen Williams gets out of his funk
He struggled through much of the semifinals against the Nuggets and those nights proved costly for OKC, which was stretched to seven games.Since then? Williams redeemed himself, and more. He had a strong Game 7 to help eliminate Denver, then for the second straight game supplied sublime efforts on both ends in the two victories over Minnesota.
On Thursday, he was good for 26 points, 10 rebounds, five assists (and no turnovers). His energy was noticeable. He’s giving the Thunder exactly what they need, a capable co-star for Gilgeous-Alexander — a role in which Williams filled all season.
“He was really aggressive,” said Daigneault. “He chose the right spots to get to his spots and pull up, chose the right spots to attack the basket, found good passes. Great performance.”
Make that great performances, plural. Through two games of this series, Williams has 45 points, 18 rebounds, 10 assists and is still waiting to commit his first turnover against Minnesota’s very good defense. Plus, he has six steals.
The Wolves have problems to solve, and he’s one of them.
Knicks-Pacers: 5 takeaways as New York rallies in Game 3 to make it a series
Karl-Anthony Towns comes alive when it matters most and Tom Thibodeau digs deep into his bench to put pressure back on Indiana.INDIANAPOLIS – With so many speedy guys in town Sunday, it was ironic that the Indiana Pacers would have downshifted, sputtered and finally stalled out short of their intended checkered flag against the New York Knicks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Pacers, the most offensively potent of the four teams left in the conference finals, were held to a postseason low in their 106-100 Game 3 loss to the Knicks. A team that put up 118.9 points per 100 possessions through its first 13 postseason games fell well short of that standard.
The breakdown thus far is simple:
When the Pacers have scored 114 or more against the Bucks, the Cavaliers or the Knicks, they have gone 10-0. When they fall short, they are 0-3.
With Indy 500 winner Alex Palou in the house, the Pacers replicated a little of the Brickyard. They missed 20 of their 25 3-point attempts, a trifecta of fail from the arc: fewest makes, fewest attempts and worst percentage in their three rounds so far. They had hit an average of 14 until Sunday.
New York, of course, deserves more credit than Indiana deserves blame. The Knicks were the ones whose season was on the brink after losing Games 1 and 2 at Madison Square Garden. They were the ones facing scathing criticism and potentially overhaul-level changes if the slide into summer continued unabated.
They were the ones who fell behind by 20 points in the second quarter, with scoring star Jalen Brunson mired in foul trouble and big man Karl-Anthony Towns accounted for but largely absent to that point.
Yet here they and their boisterous supporters who managed to score tickets in the Pacers’ building are, alive again trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven. Here are five takeaways from New York’s sparkling reversal heading into Tuesday’s Game 4 (8 p.m. ET, TNT).
1. Zombie comebacks are almost routine now
What Indiana did in Game 1, scratching back from apparently dead in the final minutes to force overtime and win, was so impressive that it seemed to spill emotionally into the Pacers’ subsequent victory in Game 2.It will be intriguing to see what happens now that New York has fired back. Remember, the Knicks overcame 20-point deficits in Boston in the first two games of their semifinals series. They now are the only team in NBA history to pull off three such comebacks in a single postseason.
Not that they want to dig such a hole again, but they surely wouldn’t lack confidence if they did.
“Unpredictable,” Brunson called this playoff run. He said the key Sunday was that, in the locker room at halftime, the Knicks assured each other they would not fray under the stress of the lopsided score.
“You can quickly start to turn on each other,” Brunson said. “But we talked together as a team. It’s an emotional game. It’s a game.”
It helped that the Knicks used a 10-3 spurt before the break to shave seven points off that margin. They used up the third quarter knocking off only three more points, but whooshed by the Pacers in a 17-5 rush in the initial minutes of the fourth.
“I know you guys roll your eyes when we say no lead is safe,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “But no lead is safe. If you let up just a little bit, that’s what happens.”
2. KAT spends 1 of his lives saving self, team
He didn’t use up all nine of them, but the man nicknamed KAT surely cashed in one of them in the fourth quarter. To that point, he had scored only four points, including a scoreless opening quarter. He was 2-for-8 and the Knicks were hurtling toward a 3-0 deficit, with the inevitable elimination soon to follow.Who do you think the talk shows and the tabloids were going to eviscerate had that scenario held?
Towns made sure it didn’t, grabbing the game by the throat. He scored 20 points in the fourth, matching Indiana’s entire output. He took nine shots in the quarter, made six, missed only one of his four 3-pointers and one of his six free throws. He grabbed eight rebounds and made himself impossible to guard. Sure looked that way with Myles Turner and Tony Bradley as Pacers coach Rick Carlisle’s choices.
Brunson, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges had done much of the scoring for the Knicks prior to that, but they weren’t going to get in Towns’ way.
“The mantra of the team [is] unselfish guys,” Thibodeau said. “When someone gets going, you try to keep him going. It’s recognizing what’s working.”
3. BREAKING: Knicks use 9 players
New York fans are little different from folks who followed Thibodeau’s previous teams in Chicago and Minnesota. They fret and fume over the number of minutes he heaps on a few key players, typically his teams’ starters.In the playoffs, most coaches tighten their rotations, but Thibodeau rarely is outdone. Through the first 101 minutes of this series, in Games 1 and 2, he used eight players, with the exception of 26 seconds for Delon Wright in the opener.
Well, get a load of that box score from Sunday. Thibodeau dodged the minutes police by going nine deep. Wright joined the rotation to log more than 13 minutes and the Knicks coach even dug deep to use veteran guard Landry Shamet for more than 11.
Even with Brunson’s foul trouble, it felt odd to see New York playing long stretches without him. He had averaged nearly 39 minutes through the first 14 playoff games. He barely broke 30 this time.
Brunson is essential to the Knicks’ offense. But his value to their defense isn’t at that level. This time, New York was minus-6 when their All-Star point guard was on the floor but plus-12 in the 17:29 he sat.
Carlisle didn’t name names but he noted the difference in the Knicks’ stop-ability. “They had a lot of their better defenders in the game in the second half. That makes it harder,” he said.
Wright was a plus-2. Shamet? Plus-12, best of the Knicks. He had logged a mere 30 minutes in the entire postseason to that point.
Oh, and rim protector Mitchell Robinson started Game 3 in Josh Hart’s place, a move that paid off early when the Knicks center had six points and four rebounds in the first quarter.
This Thibodeau guy is getting almost zany, eh?
4. Nesmith goes down, Pacers’ zest goes with him
Aaron Nesmith opened eyes with an uncharacteristic scoring blitz in Game 1, sinking six 3-pointers in the final quarter of the Pacers’ dazzling comeback. But his greatest value is his defense and a toughness unsurpassed in his team’s locker room.The 6-foot-5 wing’s primary role this series has been shadowing Brunson. But he had the ball and was working the baseline when he stepped on Brunson’s foot, turning his own right ankle. Nesmith hobbled off with 6:06 left in the third with the Pacers up 70-57. When he returned with 7:03 to go in the fourth, an absence of just over 11 minutes of game time, the Knicks led 89-88, outscoring the home team 32-18.
With an ace defender turning into an Ace bandage, Andrew Nembhard missing shots, Ben Sheppard in foul trouble and Tony Bradley probably on the floor too long, Carlisle experienced some of the “haywire” rotations he spoke of prior to the game.
5. Plot thickens in pivotal Game 4
Nesmith’s ankle will be a topic for 48 hours. So will the Pacers’ unusually chilly night from the arc and Pascal Siakam’s odd game; he scored 17 points but the Knicks were 21 points better than Indiana when the lanky forward was in the game.For New York, the difference between 2-1 and 3-0 is everything. No matter what happens Tuesday, they get to drag the Pacers back to MSG for at least one more, with a chance to improve their 3-5 home record.
Indiana fired back strong in the previous round against Cleveland, the No. 1 seed, dropping Game 3 at home but controlling Game 4 in a 20-point blowout. Looking for patterns that will hold is risky business, though, when neither of these ultra-resilient teams looks vulnerable to having a stake driven through its heart.
Source: Pacers' Nesmith available for Game 4 vs. Knicks.
Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith is available to play in Game 4 against the New York Knicks on Tuesday after sustaining a right ankle sprain in Game 3, a source told ESPN's Shams Charania.Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said on Monday that Nesmith would likely be a game-time decision. Nesmith was listed as questionable on the NBA's injury report on Tuesday.
Nesmith had to be helped off the floor as he exited Sunday's 106-100 loss to the Knicks, but he returned with 7:03 remaining in the fourth quarter and finished the game.
Nesmith walked through the locker room after the game Sunday night with a noticeable limp.
Nesmith has started all 13 games for the Pacers this postseason, averaging 15.1 points and 6.2 rebounds on 52% shooting (54% from 3). Nesmith tied an NBA playoff record with six 3s in the fourth quarter of Game 1 in the series, helping lead to an improbable Indiana comeback win in overtime. He has also been the team's primary defender on Knicks guard Jalen Brunson.
