Thunder entered the finals again after thirteen years, Alexander sets a record, and the Wolves value plummeted

On May 29, the Thunder played against the Timberwolves in the fifth game at home, and the Thunder led 3-1. At the beginning of the game, the Thunder's defense was significantly stronger than the Timberwolves, and they led 26-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Thunder led by 33 points in the first half, and the Timberwolves made more than 14 mistakes in the first half than they scored. In the second half, the Timberwolves recovered some point difference but were unable to make up for the situation. In the end, the Thunder won 124-94, and entered the finals with a total score of 4-1. This is their first time since 2012.

The Thunder made a very strict defense as soon as they came up, and the Timberwolves shot very low. Alexander scored eight points in the first quarter, and his teammate Carson Wallace made a three-pointer, and the Thunder led by 17 points in the first quarter. The Thunder substitute players continued to score in the second quarter, with the maximum score difference reaching more than 30 points, and the end of the half was 65-32. The Timberwolves only assisted six times in the first half, with more mistakes than goals, which is rare.

The Thunder's defense relaxed a little in the second half, and Edwards and Randle made several three-pointers, but the gap remained at more than 20 points. At the end of the third quarter, the Thunder led 88 to 62. In the fourth quarter, the main player of the Thunder played for a while, and the score difference reached 34 points, and the Timberwolves replaced the main player and admitted defeat.

Alexander scored 34 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists in the game, and was basically confirmed to be the MVP of the Western Conference Finals. This is a newly established award. If he gets it, he will become the first player in history to win both the regular season MVP and the Western Conference Finals MVP. The Thunder's other two main points scored by Chet Homegren, 22 points and Jaylen Williams, 19 points. Edwards scored 19 points on the Timberwolves, but basically no points were scored in the first half, and he barely managed to catch up with some points in the second half. Randall scored sixteen points in the second half, but couldn't even hold the ball under high pressure defense in the first half. Reed scored 11 points in the game and made frequent mistakes in handling balls at critical moments. After the game, some comments said that these people have poor psychological qualities and give up when they fall behind in big scores, which will affect their future market value.

The Thunder won this time with team defense. The Timberwolves lost a lot of ball rights just by stealing in the second quarter. Caruso's defense effect is particularly obvious after coming off the bench, and the Timberwolves' players are often forced to have no way to go.

Alexander always hits a shot at critical moments, making 13 shots in 26 shots and 10 of them 11 free throws. His assists led his teammates to score, especially in the third and fourth quarters, and the Thunder kept leading the score through him.

The Timberwolves had problems with their mental outlook in the first half, and they were all wrong on the offensive end. As a storefront player, Edwards failed to stand up when the score gap was widened to more than 20 points. He didn't make a few three-pointers until the second half, but it was too late.

Thunder will participate in the finals next, for the first time in thirteen years. The memory of Durant leading the team into the finals may have made old fans sigh that Alexander has now become the new core. The psychological problems exposed by the Timberwolves in this round of the series may require good adjustments during the offseason, otherwise it will still be easy to collapse when encountering key games next year.

The game statistics show that the Timberwolves made 24 mistakes in the game, and the Thunder took advantage of these mistakes to score 28 points. The Thunder team has assisted 31 times, 25 more times than their opponents. This gap is particularly obvious in the playoffs, and the ability to handle the ball directly determines the game trend. The Timberwolves head coach said after the game that the players were too nervous and only scored with a little relaxation in the second half, but the imbalance in the mentality in the first half led to misperforming performance. Coach Thunder said that he would maintain the defensive intensity until the finals, especially for the opponent's main scorers.

Alexander said in an interview that the team's goal is to win the championship, but now he needs to take two days off to prepare for the next stage of the game. He mentioned that defense is the key to winning, especially limiting opponents’ scoring and reducing turnovers.

This game sounded a wake-up call for many players. The psychological state and ball handling ability at critical moments are more important than pure skills. Several high-paying players in the Timberwolves performed poorly and may have trouble in future contract negotiations. Thunder proves higher goals.