Wolves fall 130-123 to West-leading Thunder, who get hot in fourth quarter from deep

Jerry Zgoda, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Feb 24, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Oklahoma City’s fourth-quarter, three-point shooting determined its 130-123 victory at Target Center on Sunday night after the Timberwolves started the game 1-for-11 in that category.

With the Wolves leading 110-105 with eight minutes left, the Thunder fired off seven threes — nearly in succession — on a night when they avenged a lopsided loss at Target Center on Feb. 13.

Veteran guard Alex Caruso came off the bench to make three of those threes, Jalen Williams and Minnehaha Academy’s Chet Holmgren each made another, as did the night’s leading scorer, MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers with 37 points, while his first cousin, Wolves reserve Nickeil Alexander-Walker, did his best to match, scoring 18 points off the bench, including four threes.

The Wolves played on after halftime missing starter Jaylen Clark, who controlled the game at times for the team as much as anybody.

Clark did a little of everything in leading the Wolves back from a 19-point, first-half deficit into a seven-point lead in the third quarter before he went to the locker room after going down with a hit to the head.

When he did so, the Wolves lost their most influential player in Sunday’s game.

Clark defended all over the floor and scored in a burst near the end of a big first-half run that gave the Wolves a 63-61 halftime lead.

He also scored 14 points in his first 16 minutes. He played two more minutes the rest of the night after starting in a lineup missing Julius Randle (groin), Rudy Gobert (back spasms) and Donte DiVincenzo (toe).

The Wolves went from a seven-point lead with Clark available early in the third quarter to trailing 103-96 at third quarter’s end.

The Wolves led 11-5 early before Gilgeous-Alexander led a 12-2 run that built a 25-15 lead late in the first quarter.

The Wolves trailed 35-22 after the first quarter and by as many as 19 before halftime.

The Thunder still led 54-40 with fewer five minutes left in the second quarter before the Wolves used a 22-4 run fueled by Clark’s defense and Naz Reid’s 16 points in 21 first-half minutes. Anthony Edwards had 10 points and a moment that shook the crowd when he went down holding an injured leg that wasn’t all that injured before too long.

Clark scored five of his nine first-half points at the end of that run before an OKC desperation three at the halftime buzzer made it Wolves 63, Thunder 61 at the intermission.

Gilgeous-Alexander had 15 by halftime himself.

The Wolves started the game 1-for-11 on three-pointers before finishing 18-for-45 for the night.

The last time these teams played, on Feb. 13, the Wolves sprung a 116-101 victory over the West-leading Thunder at Target Center.

It was the first of three out of four games in which the two teams played each other since the day before the All-Star break started.

The Wolves lost at Houston on Friday when play resumed, and Oklahoma City won at Utah that same night. They will play the third of four games against each other Monday night at Oklahoma City.

“It’s not too often in the middle of a a season you get kind of a playoff series kind of feel,” Holmgren said before Sunday’s game. “You don’t play teams back-to-back-to-back like that in a regular season. so it’s a good little challenge to play them in such a tight span. Each team tries to make adjustments and come into the next game right after that and see how those things work.

“I’m sure they’re doing the same thing, trying to do better. That’s what we do: Take much from these games with Minnesota in case you meet them in the playoffs.

_______