The Minnesota Timberwolves were coming into this season with a lot of expectation and hype. Tonight they started the quest of competing for an NBA Championship against the Thunder. Both teams have new pieces but are still very familiar with each other because of the conference.
The Timberwolves came out in this game hitting on all cylinders as it seemed that OKC couldn’t contain Gobert/Towns. Both of the big men for the Timberwolves came into tonight’s game with a chip on their shoulders as they wanted to prove that this can work. It was a thing of beauty as Karl-Anthony Towns was able to throw Rudy Gobert a couple of alley-oop passes for the throw-downs. OKC had no answer for the bigs of Minnesota in the paint early in this one. It wasn’t until the second half when OKC came out with some fire and it was led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Shai put the Thunder on his back and was able to create offense for himself and his teammates.
OKC made that adjustment as they got into some switches that had bigs on SGA/Giddey and they were going to work. Josh Giddey has grown in a short span of time and his IQ is on the level of a 10-year vet. Some of the plays that Giddey made tonight will go a long way to the journey OKC is on for the year. Josh Giddey finished with 14 points, 4 assists, and 11 rebounds tonight. On the night Shai finished with 32 points, 5 assists, and 6 rebounds. It was a complete game from SGA but the Wolves had the last say in this one. The future is looking bright in OKC when they get everything together as a unit.
The Timberwolves were able to counter the adjustments that OKC made and made them pay. Rudy Gobert was all over the paint in that second half and was able to make things tough on the OKC bigs. Gobert scored 23 points and made it look extremely easy whether it was a putback or getting his own offense. Gobert was able to surpass Al Jefferson for most rebounds in a Timberwolves debut now with 16 boards. If Rudy’s playing this dominant anything is possible for this Timberwolves team. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards had a sluggish night but this is a team sport. Russell, McDaniels, and Nowell gave the Timberwolves a spark on the offensive and defensive end when it counted. All three of them combined for 52 points out of the 115 for Minnesota.
This Timberwolves team is deep and it will be a tough team to deal with when it’s playoff time. The depth of the Timberwolves was shown tonight but they did lose a lead to OKC and regain it to win the game. If the Timberwolves are going to be a force in the NBA they will need to show us a night where Towns, Gobert, Anthony, and Russell go off so we can see its potential and cap.
Next, the Minnesota Timberwolves will take on the Utah Jazz on Friday in Minnesota. See what Rudy Gobert said about playing his former team.
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