The Minnesota Timberwolves got back on track Saturday night with a dominant 143-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of Western Conference finals. After going down 0-2 in Oklahoma City, the Timberwolves arrived on their home floor motivated and jumped out to a 20-point lead in the first quarter that they would never relinquish.
Anthony Edwards scored 30 points on 12 of 17 shooting, while Julius Randle poured in 24 points. Perhaps the most impressive feat came in containing NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored just 14 points while shooting 4 of 13 from the field.
It marked the third time this playoff run that Gilgeous-Alexander was held under 20 points. He was held under 20 points just once in the regular season.
You don’t often see NBA MVPs get blown out in these kinds of games. In fact, according to OptaSTATS, the MVP’s team losing by 42 or more points has happened just three times — and all three instances came to a Minnesota team in the playoffs. In 1956, Bob Pettit and the St. Louis Hawks lost by 58 points to the Minneapolis Lakers. Last year, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets lost by 45 to the Timberwolves in Game 6 of the conference semifinals. And then SGA joined that rare company as the Thunder lost by 42 in Minneapolis on Saturday night.
According to CBS Sports research, the Thunder’s 42-point loss is tied for the second-largest playoff loss by a No. 1 seed in NBA history, and the 143 points allowed were the most allowed by the Thunder in any playoff game since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City.
Gilgeous-Alexander was named MVP last week after registering one of the best seasons for a guard in NBA history. He led the league with 32.7 points per game while shooting 51.9% from the field, 37.5% from 3-point land and 89.8% from the charity stripe. He also averaged 6.4 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game.
Despite Saturday night’s clunker, the Thunder still have a 2-1 series edge over the Timberwolves heading into Game 4 on Monday.
This news was originally published on this post .
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