Sports Writing (USA), Apr 14 (EFE).- The Dominican Karl-Anthony Towns opened the way this Friday for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who swept the Oklahoma City Thunder in the last play-in game of the West (120-95) and that they will face the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs.
Towns excelled with 28 points (11 of 16 from the field) and 11 rebounds for the Wolves (eighth in the West) while Anthony Edwards, who against the Los Angeles Lakers (seventh) had signed a terrible performance (9 points with 3 of 17 on shots), he retaliated with 19 points (8 of 19), 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
The young and deserving Thunder (tenth) could not with the power in the paint of the Wolves (58 of their 120 points inside).
Minnesota also left behind its convulsive last days for the Frenchman Rudy Gobert’s punch to his teammate Kyle Anderson during a timeout at the end of the regular season and for wasting +15 in the third quarter against the Lakers.
Gobert, who did not play against the Lakers due to being suspended, also vindicated himself this Friday with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the top scorer for Oklahoma with 22 points but suffered badly from the shot (5-of-19 shooting from the field but 12-of-12 from the foul line).
Josh Giddey did not have his day either, with a dismal performance of 6 points and 5 rebounds (2 of 13 shooting).
Minnesota stood out not only for its solid collective performance (six players over 10 points) but also for a very compact defense that stopped these Thunder, who have been one of the surprises of the season in the NBA and who stayed tonight in a 36% success rate in shots (51.8% of his rivals).
The viewers who made a double ‘play-in’ on television splicing the Miami Heat-Chicago Bulls duel with the Wolves-Thunder quickly saw the differences between one game and another.
Faced with the duel of suffocating defenses and a rhythm typical of the 90s that Miami took, the game in Minnesota entered into a fast dynamic and quick attacks from the beginning, although with limited success.
Thus, the Wolves won the first quarter (24-23) despite only making one of seven on three-pointers, while the Thunder were concerned about Gilgeous-Alexander’s second foul before the second period began.
Towns began to make a difference inside against a Thunder without answers to their forcefulness and a triple from Anderson placed +11 for the locals.
Rookie Jalen Williams held the Thunder too weak in defense and the Wolves, despite clearly dominating the score, were unable to break the game before the break (57-47).
At the restart, an inadvertent elbow to the face from Gobert to Gilgeous-Alexander sent the talented point guard to the bench, where he watched, scarred on his face, as Wolves extended their dominance to +15.
Towns brought the hammer back in the zone and Edwards displayed his scoring versatility in Minnesota from 3-pointers or driving to the rim.
Gilgeous-Alexander returned to the game and kept his team alive by repeatedly taking fouls on their drives to the basket, but even so, the Wolves faced the final quarter with a comfortable 17-point lead (95-78).
From then on, the distance only grew for some Wolves who also tried a zone defense successfully in the last quarter.
In any case, a three-pointer from Anderson put it +26 with less than nine minutes to play and an “alley-oop” from Towns finished off by Gobert extended the margin to 29 points with just eight minutes to go, an insurmountable margin for some Thunder who threw in the towel.
