3 Takeaways from Thunder's Emphatic Game 1 Win Over Timberwolves

Compared to the round before, the Oklahoma City Thunder has a much more encouraging start to its Western Conference Finals matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

It took awhile for Oklahoma City to get the ball rolling, but once the second half began, there was no looking back from there. The Thunder outscored the Timberwolves 70-40 in those 24 minutes of action — backed heavily by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Minnesota forward Julius Randle dominated with 28 points on 9-of-13 shooting, though otherwise, Oklahoma City didn't let much of anything fall through the net. As a collective, the Timberwolves shot just 35% from the field.

Not letting the opposing team take Game 1 was highly important for the Thunder this series — a goal that it accomplished in stride.

Here are three takeaways from the 114-88 win:

Defense is the Key

As it has all season, Oklahoma City's defense carried the way in Tuesday night's win.

Holding Minnesota to roughly 35% shooting from the field was impressive alone, but in particular, its 3-point shot was completely eliminated. The Timberwolves shot a brutal 15-of-51 from behind the arc, compared to the Thunder's lesser volume but more efficient 11-of-21 shooting.

Anthony Edwards, in particular, was rather neutralized, putting up just 18 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field in 37 minutes of action. Between Luguentz Dort and Alex Caruso — among a cast of elite defenders — Oklahoma City has plenty of neutralizers at its disposal on the perimeter.

It's hard to imagine the Timberwolves shooting this bad again for the rest of the series, but this performance did showcase that the Thunder has the potential to really give their offense trouble. Even important contributors on the bench unit struggled — notably Naz Reid's 1-of-11 shooting clip.

Bottom line: Oklahoma City is in the best position it could've asked for after Game 1.

SGA's series

It's the first WCF of Gilgeous-Alexander's young career, but that doesn't mean there aren't immense expectations placed on the likely MVP winner.

Especially going up against another young superstar in Edwards, Gilgeous-Alexander is being eyed to perform at the highest level. It wasn't his prettiest game, but he did, in fact, rise to the occasion in the second half to bring the Thunder a big win to open up the series.

In 38 minutes of action, Gilgeous-Alexander finished the night with 31 points, five rebounds, nine assists and three steals on 10-of-27 shooting from the field and 11-of-14 from the charity stripe. He knocked down the most important buckets and smartly drew contact when the flow of the game needed it.

“I thought he was in attack mode tonight," coach Mark Daigneault said. "I thought he did a really great job at pounding the paint with the ball.”

The efficiency probably needs to improve if Oklahoma City is to continue to win, but nevertheless, Gilgeous-Alexander led the way the way he is expected to. The clutch moments are only increasing for the guard as the playoffs get deeper.

Holding Up the Paint

A legitimate cause for concern for the Thunder has been its ability to defend the paint, considering that Minnesota has all of Reid, Randle and Rudy Gobert in its frontcourt rotation.

However, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein more than just held up their end — they outplayed the Timberwolves' big men.

Holmgren was most notably active on the defensive end, putting up 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Following him up, Hartenstein recorded 12 points, five rebounds and a steal on 6-of-8 shooting.

Oklahoma City just narrowly won the rebounding battle 46-42, but that was good enough. It did slightly lose the offensive rebounding category 12-9 — though that didn't play much of a factor in the final result.

Keeping this momentum is going to be important for the Thunder moving forward, especially when Minnesota starts to boost its offense.