Home team wins!
The Thunder beat the Timberwolves for the first time this season, 111-107.
Another double-digit lead had evaporated. Chesapeake Energy Arena was tense and quiet. Minnesota was back in the building, so it had to be a close game.
But on a night where the Timberwolves’ offense was hard to stop, Steven Adams was nearly unstoppable.
Only foul trouble could suppress the 7-footer in a 111-107 win against the Timberwolves on Friday. Adams finished with a career-high 27 points, and was the center of the Thunder offense as it snapped a three-game losing streak.
Adams played with a jammed thumb but was still able to shoot 11-of-11 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line, including a critical offensive rebound and putback with 26.2 seconds left to extend the Thunder’s lead to a two-possession game.
“They told me afterwards, mate,” Adams said nonchalantly about his perfect shooting game, one short of Serge Ibaka’s 12-of-12 game against Brooklyn on Jan. 31, 2014.
“The ball just went in. It’s whatever.”
Adams did it with his athletic tape running up his left thumb and wrist to help with a jammed thumb.
“It didn’t affect his shooting night, did it?,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan joked in postgame. “We need to do that to both of his thumbs.”
When Adams wasn’t scoring, he was turning the game on the defensive end. Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns had no other answer when called for a fourth-quarter foul but “How?!” Adams stood with his arms out, leaning slightly into Towns’ chest, but not committing a foul.
It was a critical juncture in another airtight game with the Timberwolves. With Paul George and Russell Westbrook each playing distributor with
a combined 23 assists, Adams scored the first six points of the fourth, then drew a critical foul on Towns to get the Thunder the ball back.
Leading by 11 with 5:27 to go, the Thunder’s lead was cut to three points in a little more than a minute. In that stretch, the Thunder was called for two offensive fouls, one of which was dubious — a erased Westbrook drive and score in which the reigning MVP was docked with extending the arm.
With Adams and Andre Roberson each playing with five fouls in the final four minutes, the Thunder had to watch its physicality. Once the game was whittled down to 101-98, Minnesota scored nine points on its final seven possessions.
The Thunder could have crumbled, but it won for the first time this season in a game decided by eight points or fewer after starting 0-9 in those contests.
“It just shows kind of the growth that we’re taking, that next step forward,” Thunder forward Carmelo Anthony said of holding off the Timberwolves. “We didn’t want to have the same game we’d been having where we give up leads. We stayed composed and I think that was a big key for us tonight.”
Adams was the biggest key, playing with an offensive confidence which was most apparent on an ill-advised possession in the second quarter.
Adams stole the ball and instead of passing off, he took off dribbling from 70 feet. He finished the fast break with a euro step and layup over Minnesota point guard Tyus Jones that immediately had Westbrook off the bench mimicking the move.
“Just gave it a go,” said Adams, who’d never tried it before in a game.
“I usually just stop so we can get a good play or something. On plays like that, I really value too much the possession, so I’m like ‘nah I don’t want to risk it.’ On that one I was just like ‘eh, I’ll give it a try, mate. Why not?’”
In a season full of wasted possessions by the Thunder, it appreciated every one with Adams on the floor.