OKC Thunder Western Conference Finals Playoff Preview Against Minnesota Timberwolves

Following a thrilling Game 7 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, the Oklahoma City Thunder have advanced to the Western Conference Finals, with a new seven-game series kicking off tonight at Paycom Center in OKC. The top-seeded Thunder will host the No. 6 seed, the Minnesota Timberwolves after they beat the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors to get to this point.

The winner of this series will represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals, making this a significant opportunity for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Anthony Edwards to take their superstar status to the next level. The best players in the history of the game won at the highest level, with deep playoff runs and titles along the way. Both Minnesota and OKC are eight wins away from a championship.

Here’s everything you need to know about Oklahoma City’s second-round series against Denver.

Schedule

• Game 1: Tuesday, May 20 (7:30 p.m. CT) – ESPN
• Game 2: Thursday, May 22 (7:30 p.m. CT) – ESPN
• Game 3: Saturday, May 24 (7:30 p.m. CT) – ABC
• Game 4: Monday, May 26 (7:30 p.m. CT) – ESPN
• Game 5*: Wednesday, May 28 (7:30 p.m. CT) – ESPN
• Game 6*: Friday, May 30 (7:30 p.m. CT) – ESPN
• Game 7*: Sunday, June 1 (7:00 p.m. CT) – ESPN

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Regular Season Results

During the regular season, these two teams split the four-game series with a pair of wins each.

All four of these games were played over the course of less than two months, with three of them coming over an 11-day span. The most significant contest was the most recent, as Minnesota erased a 25-point deficit to stun Oklahoma City in overtime.

It’s worth noting that key players were missing in nearly every one of these matchups. Now, entering this series, both teams are much healthier, which makes it even harder to take tangible things away from these four previous games. Digging into the regular season matchups, it is fascinating to predict head-to-head player battles and potential schemes, but the reality is that this is a fresh slate. The postseason is played completely differently and it’s all about who is performing the best in this moment.

Things to Watch For

One of the advantages that Minnesota has leveraged in the playoffs thus far is the size and skill of its frontcourt. Not only is Rudy Gobert an elite rim protector at center, but the Wolves also have a trio of phenomenal forwards with Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid. The archetype of those three players is one that the Thunder has struggled with the past two years in the postseason, so keep an eye on the frontcourt as a swing factor.

On the offensive end, Oklahoma City has struggled tremendously shooting the ball. In fact, the Thunder has shot just 31.9% from beyond the arc in the playoffs, which is third last of the 16 teams that made it and by far the worst of any remaining squad. The shot quality has been there and OKC has generated good looks. While the Thunder has been able to overcome these shooting woes to this point, it may catch up to the youngest team in the playoffs if things don’t turn around in this series.

That leads into perhaps the biggest question of the Western Conference Finals: whether or not the Thunder can break a zone defense. Against the Nuggets, Oklahoma City struggled against their zone schemes. Expect Minnesota to deploy similar tactics, especially given that the Timberwolves ran quite a bit of zone against OKC in the regular season relative to what they usually do against the other 28 teams in the league. Breaking the zone will be easy if the Thunder can break its shooting slump. If not, it could be another ugly offensive series from Oklahoma City.

While anything can happen at this stage of the playoffs, the Thunder enters this series as the favorite to not only advance to the NBA Finals from the Western Conference but also win in that last round. Before then, the Timberwolves will be Oklahoma City’s toughest test yet.