NBA GameTime | OKC Thunder beat Minnesota Timberwolves to win Western Conference & reach NBA Finals

NBA GameTime | OKC Thunder beat Minnesota Timberwolves to win Western Conference & reach NBA Finals

[Music] Congratulations to the Oklahoma City Thunder heading to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 with the 41 Western Conference Finals win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Welcome to Playoff Central Live presented by AT&T. That’s the Hall of Famer Isaiah Thomas. That’s Dennis Scott. I’m Chris Miles. And guys, from the first quarter, the Thunder set the tone. They allow just nine points to the Minnesota Timberwolves. That’s a season low in a quarter for Minnesota and they win by 30, which is the third largest conference final series clinching margin of victory that we’ve seen since 1971. Yeah, it’s unbelievable, Chris. And once again, I’m happy to be working with the Hall of Famer tonight because I want to start at the top. What Sam Prey’s done over the years putting his team together, not overreacting last year, losing to Dallas, going out and getting the so-called superstar. You go out and get Harkinstein, you go get Crusoe, you complete your defense, which how you won championships. And then offensively, SGA now is proven that he is a superstar. He knows how to run a ball club. He knows how to get 30 every night efficiently and still let Jay Dove and Cadet Homer be a part of the their big three as a team. So everything they’re doing right now, I’m not surprised because it’s steady growth. Now it’s you passed all the tests now. Somebody you and I have been talking about all season long. Now you’ve made it to the finals. Now it’s time to take that final exam. Is it New York? Is it the Patience? I don’t think they care the way they’re playing right now. And and what I’ve said is this is a this is a old school basketball team. I mean, they got, you said they went out and got Henstein, right? They went out and got a center, right? They got Chad who’s really eight feet tall, right? So, they got two seven-footers on the back line. They got small forwards who are, you know, 66, 67. And then they got Shay. You know, it reminds me a lot of, you know, that Orlando Magic team that had Dennis Scott, you know, Penny Hardway, you know, Nick Anderson, Shaq, Horus Grant. I mean, this is a big team and they may be the biggest team in the NBA sizewise. Um, they’re rooted in defense. That’s their calling card. And that’s, you know, that’s how they’re going to win. You know, I I I got them winning in the NBA finals because defensively they’re very solid, but again, they’re big, they’re long, they’re athletic, and they have a style of play, not a offensive style of play, but a defensive style of play. Well, Shay Gilis Alexander, your regular season MVP, also named the Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals MVP. And it’s fitting because you go look at his stats. 348 and seven to end the game, right? But go back and look at that first quarter. He accounted for 24 of their 26 points, 12 points, five assists in that first quarter, Zeke, providing he outscored Minnesota with just his scoring. He outscored Minnesota with just his assists. Yes, he did. uh you know and again we we always talk about the scoring what he did but acknowledging the nine points you know that they help you know Minnesota too I mean that that that’s the deal uh you know and of course you know 26 points in the first quarter you know that that’s an average first quarter that’s not a a a first quarter that we would say oh wow they got 40 in the first quarter they only got 26, but defensively they helped Minnesota to nine. So what that says to me is offensively Minnesota made no adjustments. They came in with the same game plan and they sent Edwards right into the teeth of the defense. They made him a jump shooter. They didn’t change anything offensively. And OKC was like, “Okay, well, we’ve seen this before. We seen it the last game. We seen it the game before. no adjustments offensively. So that that’s why you’re looking at a nine-point first quarter. Yeah, Anthony Edwards had six of those nine points. We saw backto-back buckets attacking the basket. Um but just nine points again a season low for those Minnesota Timberwolves in any quarter. Here’s their head coach Chris Finch after being eliminated four to one her second consecutive year in the Western Conference Finals. Chris, just to fall flat at the start like that, just what did you see from the group there that led to such? Then we missed uh missed a bunch of shots early. Jaden had some good looks. Mike had some good looks. They didn’t go down. Um they led the runouts, you know, and then we started trying to force it all, you know, individually one-on-one. And I think we had um you know, a bunch of turnovers in that next phase of the first quarter. And uh you know that obviously got the crowd into it that them going and then just you know we just struggled to find a rhythm. Everyone was kind of trying to do it all by themselves. We lost our connectivity but all credit to uh the Thunder. They certainly uh deserved this. Uh they played outstanding. Um and uh you know we came up short in a lot of ways. So to lose this decisively, is there just a kind of a level of disappointment in a moment this big to kind of answer? I mean, if you lose, you lose, John. You know, like all losses are disappointment for uh for us. So um um so yeah. So Chris, obviously you gave credit to the Thunder, uh but the games you played here were far different than the games you played at home. Like as you look at that group, they’re young. They’re in your same conference. They could be there for years to come. How do you view them as an obstacle moving forward for your group? Well, obviously, you know, um outstanding team, well built, super deep. Uh they got an identity and a style of play that suits them. They got a bunch of young players. Uh and, you know, looks very, very promising. And but one thing we’ve learned about the league, you know, it looked promising for Boston a year ago, it looked promising for Milwaukee for a few years. Like, you know, it’s it’s the league is uh so hard right now. Um, you know, obviously health factors into it. Um, you know, roster construction, being able to afford the tax, all these things like come into play at some point. Um, that’s why, you know, you got to go for it now. You really do. Whenever you’re in the moment, you got to go for it right now. And, you know, these guys are well positioned to do that. Coach, uh, two questions. One, uh, what do you think Ant learned from this series that he’ll take moving forward? And two, you know, it certainly hurts everybody, but Mike Connley sitting at almost 40 years old, his third opportunity, didn’t get it. I don’t know if you saw his emotions or how he felt. Yes. And Mike is super upset, but um you know, the key I’ll start with that part of the question. you know, I mean, um, you know, nobody I mean, I think we all want, you know, wanted to go as far and win it all for Mike Connley, if not for anybody else in our locker room is what he’s meant to us, what he, you know, who he is as a person. Um, you know, we still have him next year. And, uh, you know, the key to these things right now in the league is like trying to get here as many times as possible. You know, we just talked about um, you know, the parody in the league. So the key is you know get there as many times and you know it’s it’s it’s very hard to do. Um but uh you know Mike is you know sometimes you maybe not maybe Mike maybe maybe it works out for Mike in a different way you know maybe maybe he wins one as a coach maybe he wins one as a general manager you know this there there’s a lot of things that can happen for you in your future but we’re going to keep battling for him and for the organization. Uh what did aunt learn? Um, you know, I think, um, obviously, uh, you know, we got to, he’s got to, you know, learn to play against that physicality and and and that type of, uh, kind of holding all the time. Um, you know, um, I think, you know, they made it really hard for him. I thought for a lot of the series he did make the right play and, you know, we preach that to him all the time. Yeah, we need him to be aggressive for sure. He’s got to find um some easier buckets. I got to help him do that. Uh you know, I think we were never able to establish something consistent with him. Um and that’s on us as much as anybody. So Chris, just over the course of the series against this opponent, just how close to I’m sorry. How how close to perfect did you have to try to play against these guys given what they could do to you on a in a short stretch of time? No, nobody’s you’re never going to play perfect. So that’s not we don’t even set out to kind of play that way. It’s pretty simple, right? I mean, they’ve beaten us more than we’ve beaten them this season, but every single time they’ve beaten us, we’ve had 18 to 20 plus turnovers. Every time we’ve beaten them, we’ve had 10 to 12. It starts there. And um and that gives you a chance, you know, that gives you the best chance. And and again, we turned it over at 21 times tonight. So, what did you just see in terms of the turnovers? Like I know you thought that it was sometimes in the Golden State series more of a product of losing focus late in games, but you know, they were high turnover performances and so were these. Like why do you think that kind of rear? Yeah, we just kind of we we started we didn’t reverse the ball well enough. I mean, there was a crowd on one side of the floor and when we would throw the ball away from the crowd, we’d come right back into the crowd and they’re super handsy and physical and um and they just were taking it from us in in those spaces. We had to get the ball to the other side of the floor. Um, and uh, we just didn’t do that consistently. Well, you know, the initial drive has to be to pass. Um, you know, and a lot of times those guys were just trying to score off of those drives and those plays were never really going to be there. So, Chris, I remember uh you said at the beginning of the season when it started slow, it was going to take a while for the cake to bake uh with this team and and it did and obviously not the end result that you were we’re hoping for this season, but reflecting I know it’s right now, but kind of reflecting on on that process and that challenge and the accomplishment of it. What what goes through your head? I mean, I’m just very proud of the guys. It was definitely a challenging season in a lot of ways. You know, they stuck with it. They stuck with each other. They stuck with me. Um, you know, it it wasn’t always pretty, but we played our best basketball when it mattered, which was down the stretch. You know, um, we found we found some things that we could repeat. Um, and you know, it was uh, you know, I remember having a conversation with Anthony like I don’t know, mid-season. I said, “What do you think, what do you think a good season feels like?” You know, what do you think that looks like for us right now? like how do you and he said let’s get into the playoffs win around and see where we go and I was it was exactly my thought at the time too you know I felt like we can get into the playoffs and win around like you know let’s there’s no reason we couldn’t go further and at the time we were not a very fully formed team like we had a lot of struggles right at that point in time but that was the goal and you know guys you know guys Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Anyway, [Music] Second Take that little cup.

NBA GameTime | OKC Thunder beat Minnesota Timberwolves to win Western Conference & reach NBA Finals