The Timberwolves' season ended after 9 points in a single quarter

For Timberwolves fans, the only good news today is that after the first quarter, you know that the season is over, there is no regret of losing after a long entanglement in the fourth quarter of the game, the first quarter was beaten to the end, and the remaining three quarters are purely to accompany the Timberwolves on the last journey.

Randle made the first three-point shot in the opening game, which was the score of everyone except Edwards in the first quarter of the Timberwolves, and the Thunder immediately returned a wave of 11-0 to stop the Timberwolves. Edwards scored back-to-back breakaways, and then immediately went on a 9-0 run by the Thunder.

Only in the first quarter, the Thunder played two waves of counterattack climax, both from the strength of the invincible defensive intensity, Caruso led the whole team, and the rest of the Timberwolves shivered at the sight of the blue jersey player. Reed panicked when he saw Caruso rushing over and dribbled directly out of bounds; Walker was completely unguarded under the basket and faced the empty basket, and he was afraid of the Thunder's rim and finally failed to improve.

Except for Edwards, the rest of the Timberwolves don't seem to be able to play, completely lost in the blue ocean of the Thunder's home court. In the opening game, the Thunder almost completely let go of Maidan, but Maidan's 6 shots were all lost, and the Timberwolves offense collapsed.

Those who were able to respond to the goal in the last game, Maidan, Devine, and Walker all missed today, and the difference between home and away is huge. The Thunder played a "bullying" style of basketball, completely suppressing the Timberwolves, and to put it mildly, adults beat children.

Huazi is better than the previous game, at least he did not give up the ball at the first time in the face of the help defense with the ball, but changed the opponent's formation by breaking through and then dividing the ball. There are also two situations where the Thunder have found that the defense gear has scored in the game, and the energy on the offensive end is much better than the previous game.

However, it's hard to escape the frustration of this kind of competition. In the first quarter, the Timberwolves scored 9 points, Randle scored 3 points, and Huazi scored 6 points. Scored 3 goals and committed 4 turnovers in the first quarter; He scored 12 goals and made 14 turnovers in the half, 10 in the second quarter alone.

From the beginning of the second quarter, from the Timberwolves' non-stop live ball mistakes, Huazi's frustration began to spread, and in the face of the Thunder's encirclement, Huazi no longer insisted on breaking through, and ended the round with a dry three-point iron. Not only Huazi, but the whole Timberwolves team gives people the feeling that this game is not over.

The second quarter of the game was simply Alex Caruso's personal defensive show, protecting the frame, intercepting, making head-to-head steals, intercepting the Timberwolves' fast break and intercepting the last glimmer of hope for the Timberwolves. When he was substituted, the Thunder crowd stood and cheered as if the game was over.

After this round of the series, the gold content of the Nuggets, who still dragged the Thunder into the seventh-tie after the scars, is rising, and at the same time, the Clippers, who fought seven games with the Nuggets in the first round, are also rising. The Thunder's path out of the West has not been smooth sailing, and there have been life-and-death moments, but the Timberwolves clearly didn't bring that sense of urgency to the Thunder.

So the Thunder re-entered the Finals after 13 years, and the last time they led them to the Finals was a group of young people. Later, there were three MVPs among those young people, but because of the changes in the world, all three of them left here. Looking back at the summer of 2012, one really thought that those three young people would start their own era.

13 years later, the new "Thunder Three Less" was born, Alexander has won the MVP, and Jay and Chet played flawlessly. The defense of this Thunder team is more than a notch stronger than 13 years ago, and maybe what the predecessors failed to do, they can really make up for the regret.

When Thunder coach Dagneault first took over the Thunder, Oklahoma ended the Willless era with 22 wins in the first season, 24 wins in the second season, 40 wins in the third season, and 57 wins last season, before learning from the playoffs and trading Giddey for Caruso.

This season, they won 68 wins in the regular season, and they became more and more courageous in the playoffs, and after seven games over the Nuggets, they were unstoppable, tearing the Timberwolves apart in five games and breaking into the Finals. From a bad team to a Finals team, the Thunder only took five years.

The Thunder have become the perfect template for a rebuilding of the team, and they waited for Alexander's rise to pick top talent Chet to develop Jayway as Alexander's No. 2 attacker. A group of young people are growing up, and then they get the last piece of the puzzle, Caruso.

Maybe you will say that not every team has the luck of the Thunder and waited for an MVP, but Alexander's journey to becoming an MVP is not the effort of the Thunder. The Thunder also took a lot of detours five years ago, but the resources they have accumulated have plenty of room for trial and error.

As the man behind it all, when you see Presti standing next to Alexander at the time of the awards, there is a feeling that you have finally come out of it. As the best general manager in the league, he really deserves all the praise.

No championship is within reach, even if it's just a Western Conference championship, and Russian fans have been waiting for 13 years, waiting for batch after batch. Now, the 2012 Western Conference championship flag on the Thunder's home court is no longer alone.