Wolves go big to beat Thunder in play-in game, get eighth seed

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Timberwolves went big this season, getting Rudy Gobert for an againstthe-grain pairing with Karl-Anthony Towns in a league increasingly revolving around outside shooting and small ball.

That’s how they got in the playoffs, in the last possible game.

Towns had 28 points and 11 rebounds, and the Timberwolves muscled and hustled their way past the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-95 to finish the play-in tournament on Friday night.

“We utilized our size. We did a great job of putting pressure on the paint and just doing what we do best,” Towns said. “Rudy was fantastic. He did a lot for us and really imposed his presence.”

Gobert had 21 points and 10 rebounds in his return from exile for swinging at teammate Kyle Anderson, and the Wolves filled out the NBA playoff bracket by seizing the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference with a near-perfect performance at the end of another harder-than-ithad-to-be season.

Anthony Edwards added 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Wolves, who had a 5830 advantage in points in the paint. They will face No. 1 seed Denver in a best-of-seven series starting on Sunday night.

“We are in the standings, but I don’t consider us as an ‘8’ seed,” Gobert said, adding: “We know if we play the right way, there’s not a team in the league that we can’t beat.”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 22 points, going 12 for 12 from the free throw line but just 5 for 19 from the field. Jalen Williams and Lu Dort each scored 17 points.

“It’s been really fun this year. We kind of turned the corner a little bit,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

With their best defender Jaden McDaniels out with a broken hand — thanks to a wall he punched out of frustration in the final regularseason game shortly before Gobert took a swing at Anderson in an argument during a timeout — the Timberwolves put Nickiel AlexanderWalker in the starting lineup. He guarded his cousin, the dynamic Gilgeous-Alexander, at the suggestion of president of basketball operations Tim Connelly.

“He’s the reason we won,” Towns said. “There’s no other way to put it.”

Gilgeous-Alexander was slow to get going in the Thunder’s play-in tournament opener, too,