Thunder Fall to Timberwolves in 2022 Season Opener

After an eventful offseason, the Thunder opened the 2022-23 season with a 115-108 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis on Wednesday night. Oklahoma City went 0-4 against the Timberwolves last year.

Wednesday’s contest served as center Rudy Gobert’s Minnesota debut; the French big man annihilated the Thunder under the basket, tallying 23 points and 16 rebounds.

Fifth-year guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way for OKC, pouring in 32 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Lu Dort, Josh Giddey, Kenrich Williams and Aleksej Pokusevski joined Gilgeous-Alexander in the Thunder’s starting lineup.

Oklahoma City got off to a sloppy start, taking poor shots and turning the ball over frequently while simultaneously struggling on defense. As the first quarter continued, OKC began to knock some of the rust off, but still couldn’t keep pace with Minnesota.

As expected, OKC’s post defense was a major area of concern, with the Timberwolves scoring almost at will on the Thunder down low. Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels dominated Oklahoma City in the paint to open the game, grabbing multiple offensive rebounds that he easily converted into putbacks. After the first frame, the Thunder trailed Minnesota 35-22.

In the second quarter, the Thunder were forced to play without forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and rookie wing Jalen Williams after Robinson-Earl picked up his fourth foul and Williams took an elbow to the face from McDaniels while contesting a layup. Williams, who did not return to the game, was called for a shooting foul on the play, which the Thunder unsuccessfully challenged.

Despite losing two key rotation players, OKC held its own heading into halftime, matching the Timberwolves 30-point quarter behind multiple drives to the basket from SGA and the soft shooting touch of Oklahoma City’s sixth man, Tre Mann.

Coming out of halftime, the Wolves looked poised to turn the contest into a blowout, extending their lead to 76-60. Two free throws followed by a nice take to the basket from Gilgeous-Alexander kicked off a 14-0 run that would cut the Wolves lead to two.

After Pokusevski split a pair of free throws, a physical finish at the rim from SGA brought the Thunder within one. On the next possession, the former Kentucky guard slipped a pass to Eugene Omoruyi for an interior bucket that gave Oklahoma City its first lead of the night. After a Gobert steal and buzzer beater, though, the game was tied at 89 heading into the final frame.

Minnesota jumped out to a 97-91 lead early in the fourth quarter, turning to Gobert for easy buckets at the rim. Dort hit a long stepback two and then whipped a pass to Giddey for a 3-pointer on the next possession to cut the lead back down to three with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

With the Wolves up by six, Minnesota big man Karl-Anthony Towns knocked down a massive 3-pointer that appeared to be the dagger. The shot was overturned, however, and Towns was called for a technical foul for tripping the defender after letting the ball fly.

While this momentarily gave the Thunder a ray of hope, a missed shot on the interior from Pokusevski that was converted to a fastbreak bucket by Minnesota ended up sinking OKC's chances of completing a remarkable comeback to start the season.

Oklahoma City will travel to Denver to take on the Nuggets on Saturday, October 22 at 8 p.m. CT.

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