Preview: Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Minnesota Timberwolves

Sports Mole previews Friday’s NBA clash between Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, including predictions, team news and form guides.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will be aiming to put one foot in the 2025 NBA finals with a victory in Game Two of their Western Conference showdown against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday.

Meanwhile, restoring parity is the major objective for the away side ahead of their trip to the PayCom Center, where they will be keen to avoid going 2-0 down in the series before it returns to Minneapolis.

Match preview
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Back in action for the first time since a commanding Game Seven victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, the Thunder picked up right where they left off with an emphatic 114-88 triumph against the Timberwolves to draw first blood in the conference finals.

Despite shooting just 37% from the field in the first half, Mark Daigneault’s men went into the interval trailing by just four points before putting up arguably their most impressive half of the playoffs so far, outscoring their opponents 70-40 over the subsequent two quarters.

Continuing his superb offensive barrage during the off-season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander recorded a game-high 31 points on 10-27 shooting from the field to go along with five assists and nine rebounds in 38 minutes.

Now 9-3 over their 12 playoff matches so far, the Thunder have set a new record for their best start to a postseason journey and continue to highlight why they have been strong favourites to go all the way and pick up a first title in franchise history.

A win on Friday would put them halfway through making it to the NBA grand finale for the first time since 2012, and the hosts will take to the court with huge confidence, and unsurprisingly so, given their 13-2 record across the last 15 home matches.

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The Timberwolves made relatively light work of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors in the opening two rounds, but on the evidence of Wednesday’s Game One against the Thunder, they are in for their biggest test of the postseason so far.

Chris Finch’s men made a relatively bright start to the contest, which took some time to get going, and led for over 25 of the 48 minutes of action but had no answer for the Thunder once the number one seed took control of proceedings.

The Timberwolves were stifled for large chunks of the second half by arguably the best defensive team in recent history, as last year’s conference finalists managed to knock down just 15 of their 51 three-point attempts and 29 of their 83 shots overall.

While Julius Randle enjoyed another impressive outing with 28 points and eight rebounds, Anthony Edwards cut a peripheral figure with just 18 points on the board, none of which came in the fourth quarter where he played seven minutes.

Ahead of a huge Game Two on Friday, the visitors can draw huge belief from having not lost consecutive games in the current playoffs, but significant improvement is needed at both ends of the floor if that run is to continue.

Oklahoma City Thunder NBA Playoffs form:

Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Playoffs form:

Team News
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There are no changes on the injury front for both teams with Rob Dillingham and Nikola Topic still out of contention for the Timberwolves and the Thunder respectively.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander recorded his fourth consecutive 30-point playoff game in Wednesday’s win and is now just one shy of equalling his own record of five he set last season.

Fellow All-Star Jalen Williams also had an outing to remember last time out as he became the youngest player in NBA playoff history to record 15 points, five assists, five steals and zero turnovers.

Anthony Edwards will be aiming to bounce back for his side here and avoid scoring less than 20 points in back-to-back playoff matches for only the second time in his career.

Oklahoma City Thunder possible starting five:
Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort; Williams, Holmgren; Hartenstein
   
Minnesota Timberwolves possible starting five:
Conley, Edwards; McDaniels, Randle; Gobert

We say: Thunder to win by 8+ points
The Thunder made light work of the Timberwolves last time out, but we are expecting a much closer contest this time around, albeit with the hosts still emerging victorious.

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