Despite short rest, hosts OKC Thunder out to grab Game 1 against fresh Minnesota Timberwolves

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Thunder had plenty of time off ahead of their first two National Basketball Association (NBA) play-off series.

Now, in the Western Conference Finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves, it will be the Thunder who come into the series on short rest while their opponents have had much more time to recover.

The series begins in Oklahoma City on May 20 (May 21, Singapore time).

The Thunder are coming off a 125-93 win over the visiting Denver Nuggets on May 18 in Game 7 of their second-round series.

The Timberwolves have not played in six days after closing out the Golden State Warriors in five games.

Oklahoma City had one week between games before their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies and then nine days between games before the series against the Nuggets.

Minnesota had a six-day layoff before each of their first two series, against the Los Angeles Lakers and then Golden State. The Timberwolves won both in five games.

The Timberwolves are in the West Finals for the second consecutive season and the third time in their history, but they have never advanced to the NBA Finals.

Oklahoma City, who had the NBA’s best regular-season record, are in the Conference Finals for the first time since 2016 and looking for their first NBA Finals appearance since 2012.

The best-of-seven series features two of the NBA’s top defences.

The Thunder boast a 101.6 defensive rating – points allowed per 100 possessions – in 11 play-off games, best this post-season. Minnesota’s 106.8 defensive rating is second.

It also features two of the league’s top young stars in Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 26, and the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards, 23.

Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 29.0 points, 6.4 assists and 5.9 rebounds this post-season, while Edwards is averaging 26.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists.

Guard Gilgeous-Alexander, the front runner for Most Valuable Player honours, is looking forward to the matchup against cousin Nickeil Alexander-Walker of Minnesota.

The two Canadian players were born less than two months apart in Toronto and both attended Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“It’ll be very fun,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

“It’s hard to even explain. If you know how close we are, he’s literally like my second brother.

“He’s been through every stage of life with me – picking up a basketball to going to prep school to making the NBA, we’ve gone through every situation together.

“For both of us to be where we are is special, to compete against each other even more special.

“But I am trying to take his head off for sure.”

In a 2023 play-in game, Alexander-Walker helped hold his cousin to a five-of-19 shooting night.

Alexander-Walker said Gilgeous-Alexander’s consistency has lifted him to a different echelon.

“That comes from diligence, hard work, seeing it first hand and discipline that truthfully I haven’t seen in anybody else,” Alexander-Walker said. “I have not seen discipline like his.

“So I think that’s the main reason why people think he’s made a jump when really he’s just been able to be consistently that, because he’s been so disciplined in his approach.”

The teams split their four-game season series and also their two games in Oklahoma City.

Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert played in just one of those games – a New Year’s Eve loss – while Chet Holmgren appeared in two of the games for the Thunder.

In that regard, it is difficult to predict this series based on their previous games alone.

“Apples to apples, I don’t know if those games are the perfect framework through which to look at the series,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.

“It’ll be different.” REUTERS