In a game without free throws, Alexander lost by 42 points

In a playoff game with a 42-point margin, any technical and tactical analysis does not seem to be of substantial significance. Today can be regarded as the worst game of the Thunder's entire season, and it happened to meet the bottoming out of the Timberwolves.

With no way back, Edwards played his strongest game of the playoffs this year. Although the 30-point score is not ranked in this year's playoffs, the temperament and determination to win shown by Huazi throughout the game explain what a leader is.

The two steals and counterattacks in the opening game completely ignited the momentum of the home court and completely drove the defensive intensity of the Timberwolves. One of the first steals, Huazi chased the ball from the backcourt all the way to the frontcourt, overtook Jie Wei's position to grab the ball, and then violently blew up the basket, a bit of the national derby between Real Madrid and Barcelona back then, Bale forced the corner to overtake.

Just this one goal set the tone for the Timberwolves' opening defense. The ball should be grabbed at the five-five point, and it is more important to grab the ball if it is not the five-five-day kick-off. The Timberwolves extended the delay on Alexander, and Gobert's bag even pressed close to the midfield, eventually cutting the ball off Alexander's hand for another counterattack.

In a sense, the Timberwolves are using the Thunder to deal with the Thunder, strengthening the degree of pressing, not giving Alexander a breakthrough line and mid-range shooting, as long as it is a high block, it will force you to get out of the ball. Of course, the basis of all this is the referee's relatively lenient blowing scale in the first half today.

Alexander failed to get a foul on the first few occasions and played poorly. On the contrary, Caruso was whistled for a foul on the ball carrier for the first time after coming up today, and the same degree of pressing, the tie-break against Jokic was not blown.

So Caruso, who had a full presence in the first few games, was completely silent today, and only played for 10 minutes. You have to admit that the referee's blowing scale has a direct impact on a team's defensive intensity.

Of course, today's referee's overall blowing penalty is lenient, which is reflected in the end of some near frames, and the referee will basically not blow the whistle for fouls that can be blown or not. At the same scale, the impact on the thunder is greater.

In the first quarter, the Thunder scored only 14 points, had five turnovers, and even came out with a violation in the next eight seconds. Edwards scored 16 points in the first quarter, two more than the Thunder as a team. The Thunder didn't make any free throws in the first quarter, which is very rare.

Heading into the second quarter with a 20-point lead, Finch made one of the most important adjustments today, expanding the rotation from eight to nine, and Shannon Jr. entered the rotation and played the role of a surprise soldier. He scored nine points in the second quarter and opened up the game.

When it comes to this year's playoffs, there's a clear trend that long-rotation teams are going to be more dominant, and you can always wait for some role players to explode. The Pacers and Thunder are both like this, and the Knicks are ostensibly in an eight-man rotation, but in fact there are only seven players who can play, and the Timberwolves' eight-man rotation has reached the ceiling.

The Timberwolves clearly have better roster depth than the Knicks' stretched lineup, Shannon Jr.'s impact is what they need, defensive snack Clark is worth some time, and Leonard Miller at the end of the rotation is also a forward I really like, with a high offensive standard. Today's ninth man rotation has worked, and I hope Finch will continue in the next game.

Every time the Thunder attacked, the Timberwolves were able to respond, and today was indeed a game in which the Timberwolves' offensive level was greatly improved. Huazi didn't mention it, Randle also found the touch of G1, Reed, who didn't score a three-point goal in the first two games, made all 4 shots in the first half today.

The Timberwolves' first-half 72 points were the highest in a playoff half in their franchise history. Today's offense was a smooth one, the bench was opened, and of course the defense was the basis for winning.

So the score difference went all the way to more than 30 points, and the suspense of the game ended here. After five consecutive 30+ games, Alexander scored just 14 points today, the lowest since the start of the playoffs. He made just four free throws on 4-of-13 shooting in the game, compared to 29 in the first two games.

Huazi shot 12-of-17 today, and even made 1 free throw in the game, but he scored 30 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, all three of which were team-highs. The aggressive rebounding ball scramble, the ferocious floor ball scramble, this is the broken boat that Huazi came up with.

In a game where no one made free throws, Huazi finished the new MVP Alexander. Even Thunder fans have to admit that Alexander is a player who needs free throws to find his offensive rhythm. So he still needs to play a low-free-throw high-efficiency game, and at the same time lead the team's offense to silence the doubts completely.

Alexander's doubts after winning the MVP were so strong that they even surpassed Embiid back then. Of course, Embiid has never played a game of this level in the division finals, and there is no comparison.

To be honest, this year's Western Finals did not look good, and the gap between them and psychological expectations was too great. On the contrary, although the Eastern Final was also 2-0, the process was intense enough that there was no garbage time. The G3 relaxation of the penalty scale is a good sign and allows the players to decide the intensity of the game, not the referee's whistle.

In the next game, it will be the Thunder's turn to match the intensity of the Timberwolves.