Karl-Anthony Towns had 28 issues, 11 rebounds and 3 blocked photographs and the Minnesota Timberwolves claimed the general Western Conference playoff spot with a 120-95 thumping of the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night time in a play-in sport.
Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert recorded 21 issues and 10 rebounds in his first look since serving a one-game suspension for punching teammate Kyle Anderson throughout Sunday’s sport in opposition to the New Orleans Pelicans. Anthony Edwards registered 19 issues, 10 rebounds and 6 assists for the Timberwolves.
Minnesota would be the No. 8 seed within the West and can face the top-seeded Denver Nuggets within the first spherical. The sequence begins Sunday in Denver.
Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander persevered a difficult night time whilst scoring 22 issues. He was once simply 5-of-19 capturing and in brief left the sport within the 3rd quarter after Gobert’s elbow attached to the appropriate facet of his face and left a deep reduce and swelling underneath the Thunder superstar’s eye.
Luguentz Dort and Jalen Williams each and every scored 17 issues and made 4 3-pointers for Oklahoma City.
Mike Conley added 14 issues for Minnesota. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 12 issues and Anderson tallied 11 for the Timberwolves, who made 51.8 p.c in their photographs and have been 13 of 32 from in the back of the arc.
Oklahoma City shot simply 36 p.c from the sector, together with 13 of 40 from 3-point vary. Josh Gidgey, who scored 31 issues in a play-in win over the Pelicans on Wednesday, had simply six issues on 2-of-13 capturing.
Minnesota scored 38 issues within the 3rd quarter to increase a 10-point halftime benefit right into a 95–78 lead.
Towns transformed consecutive three-point performs as a part of an 11-point quarter and Taurean Prince adopted with a trey because the Timberwolves scored 9 directly issues to take a 79-62 lead with 4:56 closing.
Isaiah Joe’s ferocious slam dunk introduced Oklahoma City inside of 84–74 with 2:20 left within the length prior to Minnesota completed the quarter with an 11–4 burst. Edwards scored 5 issues in a span of 7 seconds throughout the run because the Timberwolves exerted regulate.
Minnesota stored up the attack and scored 14 of the primary 16 issues to start out the fourth quarter. Gobert’s dunk on a cross from Anderson driven the margin to twenty for the primary time with 11:02 closing, and Gobert’s slam on a cross from Towns capped the burst and made it 109–80 with 7:52 left.
Towns scored 15 issues within the first part because the Timberwolves led 57–47 on the wreck. Williams had 14 within the part for Oklahoma City.