An encouraging Oklahoma City Thunder season came to an abrupt end in Friday's 2023 NBA Play-In Tournament loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Thunder were defeated 120-95 in blowout fashion. Early in the second half, it was clear that the Thunder wouldn't be headed to the NBA Playoffs.
The Thunder are the one team that was eliminated from the 2023 NBA Play-In Tournament and can enter the offseason with their heads held high. Unlike the Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City wasn't expected to compete for a spot in this year's NBA Playoffs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander emerged as one of the best players in basketball. Josh Giddey and Jalen Williams look like they can be core pieces of the Thunder roster when Oklahoma City is ready to contend for a championship.
All of those positives, however, don't erase the fact that the loss to the Timberwolves was a disappointing end for the Thunder. After beating the Pelicans in their first Play-In Tournament game, the Thunder had visions of becoming a frisky playoff team. Instead, Oklahoma will watch the playoffs from home for a third straight season. It's been seven years since the Thunder last won a playoff series.
Let's take a look at which Oklahoma City players deserve the most blame for the Thunder's Play-In Tournament loss to the Timberwolves.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Fair or not, the lion's share of the blame usually falls on the shoulders of the team's best player. Gilgeous-Alexander is far and away the best player on Oklahoma City's roster. The Thunder guard should've been the best player in Friday's game against the Timberwolves. Instead, it was Karl-Anthony Towns. It's the No. 1 reason why the Thunder are headed home after the Play-In Tournament instead of getting ready for a first-round playoff matchup with the Denver Nuggets.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 22 points, but he wasn't efficient enough for the Thunder beat the Timberwolves. Oklahoma City's point guard shot 5-of-19 from the field. Gilgeous-Alexander had seven rebounds and three assists. Given that he averaged 31.4 points and 5.5 assists per game in the regular season, Gilgeous-Alexander fell well short of expectations.
There's a notion that Gilgeous-Alexander might've established himself as a top-10 player in the league. The 24-year-old was fourth in the race for the scoring title. He led a team that was expected to tank to the Play-In Tournament. Gilgeous-Alexander might end up earning a spot on the 2023 All-NBA First-Team for what he did in the regular season. Gilgeous-Alexander raised the bar for himself, making Friday's performance a letdown.
Josh Giddey
There probably wasn't a single player who had a worse night in Friday's Play-In Tournament game than Giddey. The Thunder guard had an even worse shooting night than Gilgeous-Alexander. Giddey missed 11 of his 13 field-goal attempts. While Gilgeous-Alexander went 12-12 from the free-throw line, Giddey only took two free throws. Giddey finished with six points, five rebounds, and four assists in the biggest game of his NBA career, thus far.
Giddey averaged 16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game in the regular season. He didn't come close to matching those numbers against the Timberwolves. Giddey's plus-minus might be the biggest indication of how poorly he played. In 30 minutes with Giddey on the floor, the Thunder was outscored by 22 points.
Giddey's underwhelming performance shouldn't come as a shock. The guard is just 20 years old. These kinds of growing pains are going to happen before Giddey and the Thunder experience playoff success.
Jaylin Williams
Maybe it's unfair to put Williams in a category with Gilgeous-Alexander and Giddey. The guards are the Thunder's two leading scorers and distributors. Williams is a role player and a rookie. He even bested his season averages by scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds against the Timberwolves. However, there's no denying that he was dominated by Minnesota's frontcourt in the Play-In Tournament game.
Williams had little chance to compete with Towns and Rudy Gobert. Facing off against a pair of seven-foot centers, the six-foot-nine forward offered little resistance to the Timberwolves' stars. Towns had 28 points on just 16 field-goal attempts in 29 minutes. He added 11 rebounds and three blocks. In the first game back from his suspension, Gobert posted 21 points and 10 rebounds on 6-of-11 shooting.
The Thunder planned to have Chet Holmgren in the middle of their defense this season. The injury to the No. 2 overall draft pick left a sizeable hole in the backend of Oklahoma City's defense. Williams was a solid contributor after being selected in the second round of the 2022 NBA Draft, but he was exposed with the Thunder's season on the line.