BASKETBALL
Gilgeous-Alexander: Defense showed Thunder's identity in Game 1 win
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander credited the Oklahoma City Thunder's defense for playing to the team's identity and allowing them to overcome a slow start against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The top-seeded Thunder were far from their best on offense in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday, only managing 44 first-half points.
But they went into halftime just four points down thanks to a Herculean defensive effort, with 18 of their 44 points scored coming off turnovers.
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When the Oklahoma City offense finally clicked in the second half, they pulled away for a 114-88 win.
MVP finalist Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 of his 31 points in the second half, also making eight of 14 field goals after half-time, having only gone 2-of-13 from the floor beforehand.
After the game, he knew who deserved the credit, saying: "We try to play to our identity. We did a good job of that on defense.
"Our defense definitely gave us life early in the game and kept us in it."
Chet Holmgren, who tacked on 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists, also credited the defense while admitting things had to improve offensively.
"There's two sides to the basketball game," Holmgren said. "If you want to play only one side, you got to play really good, and you don't want to count on that, especially in the playoffs.
"Especially against a good team and good players, like they have on the other side.
"You've really got to try to give yourself a chance at both ends, and if things aren't going well on one end, you've really got to hunker down on the other."
The Thunder converted 19 Minnesota turnovers into 31 points on Tuesday, and they have been historically good in transition this postseason.
They are averaging 25.3 points per game off turnovers during the playoffs, the most by any team since play-by-play records started in 1997.
Having also had 37 points off turnovers in Game 7 of their semifinal series against the Denver Nuggets, they are just the second team in playoff history to convert turnovers into 30 points or more in back-to-back games (after the 2017 Golden State Warriors).
"I just thought it took us a second to calibrate to the opponent, but our defense allowed us the margin to do that," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.
"The turnovers are never what we talk about. We talk about crowding around the ball. We talk about being aggressive with our help, trusting our help, trusting our scheme, trusting our team-mates.
"That tends to yield turnovers when you really have that going. But it also yields tough shots, out-of-rhythm shots, so that's what we're trying to do."
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