The Oklahoma City Thunder are on the verge of making their first NBA Finals appearance since 2012, a feat the team wouldn’t be close to reaching without newly crowned MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The seventh-year guard has been sensational all season, leading the league in scoring for the first time in his career. He also led the association in free-throw makes, which has been a topic of discussion for his detractors all year.
Advertisement
SGA didn’t come close to his career high of 10.9 free throw attempts per game that he reached in 2023-24. But with the league’s tighter officiating over the last two seasons, his 8.8 FTA per game mark was good enough for second in the league, behind only Giannis Antetokounmpo, the three-time All-Star who has seemingly perfected his foul-drawing skill set to the chagrin of his defenders.
Gilgeous-Alexander has continued to draw fouls at an elite rate throughout the postseason, even increasing his average to 9.6 FTA per game. This has caused issues for each of OKC’s playoff opponents. But none have been more outwardly frustrated than the Minnesota Timberwolves, who Draymond Green believes have been rattled by SGA’s foul-baiting tendencies.
The Timberwolves physical defense has gotten them in foul trouble in the first two games of their Western Conference Finals matchup. Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards are making their frustrations known on and off the court. “I think Minnesota’s getting a little caught up in the whole Shai bait-foul conversation, because I can see some of their reactions to Shai when he get fouled,” Green said.
“Like Ant-Man throwing the ball at [SGA] in Game 1, Jaden McDaniels just pushing [him] down in Game 2,” the Warriors forward recalled Minnesota’s lack of poise. “I love Jaden McDaniels’ answer. He stood on it, he said ‘I just wanted to foul’ … And he end up getting a Flagrant 1 for it. But to me, that look like frustration.”
Considering the Wolves’ winning ways are built on their imposing defense, giving SGA easy trips to the line could result in an eventual sweep. Now that the series is heading back to Minnesota, Green stressed the importance of the team holding themselves together, even when calls aren’t going their way.
Officiating is far from the only reason the Wolves failed to steal a road victory, though. Anthony Edwards needs more help on the offensive end, as OKC’s similarly stunting defense will prevent the star guard from winning on his own. Julius Randle obviously needs to get right after his Game 2 dud, but Green explained that they’ll also need more help from their bench.
“They definitely gotta get some home cooking,” the former Defensive Player of the Year continued. “You need Donte [DiVincenzo] to be better. You’re going to need Naz Reid to be better.” Considering Green’s belief that the Thunder are “feeding off of” Minnesota’s frustrations, the Wolves will need help from everyone.
Still yet to play in front of their home crowd, this series is far from over for the Timberwolves. But if they fail to bring out the right energy and again struggle to get their shots to drop, Minnesota could be heading for their second-straight conference finals loss.
