OKC slows Wiggins, but T-Wolves' offense red hot
MINNEAPOLIS – There's an easy answer to keeping Minnesota's Andrew Wiggins off the free throw line. “Not fouling,” Thunder guard Terrance Ferguson said with a laugh. “No reaching in. Just playing solid defense. Showing your hands and letting the refs see you're in a great position. “At the same time, it's not that simple. Throughout the whole game you're not going to be able to keep your hands down the whole time, or get away with some things.” The Thunder didn't put Wiggins on the line once in the first half. But Wiggins wasn't the problem in a defensive struggle against the Timberwolves. The problem was stopping everyone else. Entering Tuesday's game, the Thunder wasn't getting away with any defensive strategies in regard to Wiggins. In the first two meetings between the Thunder and Timberwolves this season, Wiggins averaged 35 points, eight rebounds and 4.5 assists, including 50 percent from the field. Just 1:45 into the third quarter, Ferguson had four fouls. Much of it wasn't his fault. The Thunder switches constantly on defense and those switches put the slender Ferguson in the post against bigger defenders he has no choice but to foul. Wiggins only had 13 points on 10 shots entering the third quarter. Derrick Rose and the T-Wolves' mid-range game was the real issue. The T-Wolves shot 9-of-11 from mid-range in the first half, shooting out to a 71-57 halftime lead. Five of those baskets came from Rose, who regularly exploited his matchup with the smaller Dennis Schroder. And Steven Adams had no answer for center KarlAnthony Towns, who had 35 points in 25 minutes, including two long shots over Adams in that prolific first half in which he didn't even jump. Foul foul shooting The Thunder is one of the best teams in the NBA in getting to the freethrow line. The problem is when it gets there. The Thunder shot 11-of-19 from the line in the first half Tuesday. The Thunder gets to the line on 27.5 percent of its possessions, seventh in the NBA, but is 28th in free throw percentage (71.1 percent). Midway through the third quarter, Russell Westbrook and Adams were a combined 5-of-13 from the line. Westbrook was having a good offensive game, at one point hitting four consecutive pull-up jump shots in the second quarter, but the free throw shooting wasn't there. Tip-ins The Thunder had lost five of its last six games against Minnesota entering Tuesday. … Westbrook scored 30 or more points for the 10th time this season. He had 27 games with more than 30 points last season.