Oklahoma Stifles Minnesota with Clinical Second Half to Bag Game 1

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Oklahoma City Thunder picked up where they left off coming from a dominant Game 7 win over the Denver Nuggets and thumped the Minnesota Timberwolves, 114-88, to draw first blood in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Conference Finals series on May 21, 2025.

After going down by as much as nine points in the first half, the youngest team in the NBA Playoffs didn’t take long to turn things around in the final two quarters and banked on another second-half surge to frustrate the visiting Minnesota franchise.

Oklahoma started slow in their first game back in the Western Conference Finals since the 2015-2016 NBA season as they were plagued by a series of missed point-blank layups, threes, and perimeter jump shots.

Whether it was fatigue from a grueling seven-game series against the Nuggets or feeling the pressure of protecting home court, Oklahoma’s head coach Mark Daigneault said that they can’t afford to have a start like that, especially against a well-oiled Minnesota machine.

The Timberwolves capitalized every Oklahoma miscue on both ends of the floor, as they were able to mount a nine-point lead in the second frame courtesy of Julius Randle’s waxing hot performance from the three-point line.

Randle, who is coming off an impressive series against the Golden State Warriors, torched Oklahoma with an efficient 5/6 shooting from downtown in the first half and already scored 20 points with two quarters left to play in the highly-anticipated Game 1.

The Thunder had plenty of things to rally around after only trailing by four points, 48-44, despite the Timberwolves letting it fly from deep with 10 three-pointers.

Just like their philosophy in the do-or-die Game 7 against Denver, defense will always be their best offense. And oh boy, did they wreak havoc in the second half when they put the Timberwolves in handcuffs, playing a small-ball lineup that made their switching quicker when they put Kenrich Williams at the five position.

That adjustment helped them erase Minnesota’s lead in the blink of an eye, backstopped by their signature suffocating half-court defense that forced 17 turnovers from the Timberwolves, resulting in 31 points off those TOs.

By moving Williams to the center spot, their defensive switching caused a lot of problems for the Minnesota half-court offense, especially when they fielded their front-court combination of Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert.

Oklahoma outscored Minnesota, 32-18, after the end of the third, and never looked back when they smothered the final 12 minutes with nonstop basket penetrations and disciplined reads in the passing lanes.

From a disappointing offensive start, Oklahoma’s superstar Shai-Gilgeous Alexander stepped on the gas pedal in the fourth and led his team with his perimeter scoring, while Chet Holmgren also did damage in the paint with his series of thunderous dunks that forced Chris Finch to call back-to-back emergency timeouts.

Minnesota never trimmed their deficit to a single digit in the remaining eight minutes of the fourth, and what could’ve been another flawless road win turned into disaster when they got schooled in the second half with a 30-point turnaround, 70-40.

SGA top-scored the Thunder for the second straight postseason game and dropped an all-around masterclass of 31 points, nine assists, five rebounds, and three steals, followed by Jaylen Williams’ 19-point outing.

Aside from his offensive punch, the first-time NBA All-Star also led the Oklahoma defensive backline and tallied a total of five steals, alongside eight boards, and five dimes.

On the other hand, Minnesota got a huge performance from Randle with 28 markers, but only scored eight in the second half after exploding for 20 in the first two quarters.

Anthony Edwards also struggled breaking free from the Oklahoma perimeter defense and only chipped in 18. He only managed to take a total of 13 field goal attempts, a testament to how the home team limited his offensive production when the two most important quarters began in the final 24 minutes.

Both teams will only have a day of rest before squaring off again in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, on May 23, 2025, still to be played at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma.