NBA Playoffs Picks 4/14 – Oklahoma City Thunder @ Minnesota Timberwolves

NBA Playoffs Picks 4/14 – Oklahoma City Thunder @ Minnesota Timberwolves

by Thomas Quaynor – NBA analyst for Wannamakeabet.com

The Oklahoma City Thunder (40-42) are on the road facing the Minnesota Timberwolves (42-20) in a do-or-die play-in game tonight on ESPN. The winner will secure the eight seed in the playoffs and face the top seed Denver Nuggets on Sunday, the loser goes home. Minnesota is a 5.5 point favorite and the total is 228, Oklahoma City won at New Orleans 123-118 on Wednesday night to advance to this game, while Minnesota blew a 15-point third quarter lead and lost 108-102 in overtime to the Lakers on the road.

Minnesota won the season series 3-1, winning both games in Oklahoma City and splitting the two games at home. All four games were played before Christmas, so it’s been a while since these teams have seen each other. 

THE SKINNY ON BOTH TEAMS

The youthful Oklahoma City Thunder came into the season with modest expectations after finishing 24-58 last season and then losing rookie Chet Holmgreen (the #2 overall pick in the 2022 draft) to a season-ending foot injury in August before the season even started.

Oklahoma City ended up being one of the biggest surprises of the season finishing 40-42 and having a shot at making the playoffs as the eight seed thanks to an impressive core of young players. 

The biggest reason for the turnaround has been the play of 24-year-old All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who averaged a career-high 31.4 points, 5.5 assists, 4.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1 block across 68 games.

He’s emerged as one of the top players in the NBA this season in his fifth year. Complimenting SGA is 20-year-old swingman Josh Giddy, who averaged 16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game in his second season. SGA and Giddy combined for 63 points in OKC’s win at New Orleans. 

In what can be considered an odd occurrence, Oklahoma City drafted two other rookies whose names are pronounced the same but spelled differently, they selected Jalen Williams with the 12th pick and Jaylin Williams with the 34th pick in the second round. Jalen was one of the better rookies in the NBA this season, he put up 14.1 pts, 4.3 rebs, 3.3 asts and 1.4 stls in 75 games. 

The Minnesota Timberwolves finished 46-36 last season and lost a hard-fought first round playoff series in six games to the Memphis Grizzlies. Expectations were high for Minnesota this season coming off last season’s success and a blockbuster trade for 3x Defensive Player of the Year and 3x All-Star Rudy Gobert but injuries to Karl-Anthony Towns, Gobert’s inconsistency and team in-fighting resulted in four fewer wins this season.

Gobert had his worst statistical season (13.4 pts, 11.6 rebs, 1.4 blks) since 2018 and a calf injury to three-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns limited him to just 29 games this season. Towns also had his worst scoring and rebounding averages (20.8 pts, 8.1 rebs) since his rookie year in 2016. There may be some questions as to whether Gobert and Towns can play effectively together in this era of “small ball” and big men playing on the perimeter.  

One of the few positives for Minnesota this season has been the play of 21-year-old guard Anthony Edwards who put up 24.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists (all career-highs) across 79 games in his third year. He was also named to the All-Star team for the first time in his career.

Minnesota suffered some self-inflicted turmoil on the final day of the regular season when Rudy Gobert threw a punch at teammate Kyle Anderson late in the second quarter of a win over New Orleans. Gobert was sent home after the incident and was suspended for the Lakers game. In the same game, star defender Jaden McDaniels broke his hand after punching a wall in frustration, he is now out for the season.

THE PICK

Minnesota has too many issues here, I like the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder, take the 5.5 points!