Timberwolves, to borrow a theme from coach Chris Finch, hit a home run in Game 3 vs. Thunder

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch is a basketball lifer, but he is also a big baseball fan. Often during his news conferences, Finch will sprinkle in references to baseball.

He used another one when he talked about the aggressiveness with which the Wolves played defense in their 143-101 victory over the Thunder on Saturday at Target Center, a win that announced their official arrival to the Western Conference finals after serving up two clunkers in Oklahoma City.

“Sometimes you just got to throw your fastball,” Finch said. “And we were trying to do too much other junk out there at times.”

As in, the Wolves stopped worrying about trying to shapeshift their defense around the Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and they got back to the core of what they do well. They jumped out on screens, trapped when it was there or switched, and flew around and covered for each other.

For the first time in this series, the Wolves looked like themselves again, and that fastball they threw? It landed unhittable on the corner for a strike. They’ll need three more of those, as the Thunder are still ahead in the count 2-1, with Game 4 on Monday.

“It just shows us, more than anything, of what we’re capable of doing,” said guard Mike Conley, who had six points. “So now we’ve set a standard for ourselves, like why aren’t we playing with this type of effort every night? So if we don’t do it the next game, that’s on us. It has nothing to do with them.”

After looking helpless against the Thunder during the third quarters of Games 1 and 2, the Wolves proved to themselves they could turn the tables on their opponents and deal the kind of body blows Oklahoma City gave them. The Wolves opened the night with a 34-14 lead after one quarter and held the Thunder without a point for 4 minutes, 47 seconds. Anthony Edwards was the tone-setter not just on offense — he scored 16 of his 30 points in the first quarter — but also on the defensive end.

“I don’t know where that came from, honestly,” Edwards said of the team’s defensive start. “That was just film this morning. We wanted to switch it. We were switching, we wanted to ‘black’ up into the ball, to change their path from being able to go downhill every time and get players to [go to] hands that we wanted them to go to.”

Edwards finished the night with nine rebounds and six assists and shot 12-for-17, the kind of performance the Wolves were waiting on. This was typical of how he has navigated each series so far. Early in series, he has needed to read how teams are guarding him, and his play improved around Game 3. But he said the Wolves bringing enough energy to exceed the Thunder’s was the biggest change overall. As Nickeil Alexander-Walker said after Game 2, the Wolves can’t wear the Thunder down the way they can other teams. The Wolves seemed to get that message ahead of Game 3.

“OKC plays with a ton of energy, no matter what,” Edwards said. “First through fourth quarter. So, just trying to exceed their energy or match it at least. That was the most important thing today.”

Edwards wasn’t the only player who found his groove again. Julius Randle had 24 points after scoring just six in Game 2. He and Finch had a talk after Randle didn’t play the fourth quarter of Game 2 when Finch stuck with a group that was making a bit of a run.

“Me and Finch been through all the ups and downs this season,” Randle said. “He knows who I am. I know who he is. Me as a competitor, obviously I want to play and do anything I can to help my team win. I know he trusts me to do that, and I also know I trust him to do what’s best for the team at all times. I know he doesn’t have any ill intent. Obviously I want to play, but for me it’s about bounce back and how you come back the next game.”

The Wolves’ bench finally came alive after some rough shooting nights. In a twist, Finch added rookie Terrence Shannon Jr. as the ninth man of the rotation, and Shannon delivered in a big way. He had nine points in just the four minutes he played in the second quarter and finished with 15. The main four off the bench — Shannon, Naz Reid (10 points), Nickeil Alexander-Walker (12 points) and Donte DiVincenzo (six points) — combined to shoot 16-for-25.

“I knew when I got drafted here, I got drafted to a good team,” Shannon said. “I knew I was going to have to work my butt off to get in the rotation or even get minutes. I just go out there with a smile on my face every day, cheer these guys on and be the best teammate I can be. My time will come when it comes, man. Just taking advantage of each day.”

But when it comes down to it, the Wolves have become contenders the past two seasons because of their defense. After trying different ways in Games 1 and 2 to combat Gilgeous-Alexander, who they held to 14 points on Saturday, they threw out some of those coverages. Conley said the Wolves watched how zone defense by Denver frustrated the Thunder at times in their previous series. But the Wolves have different personnel and weren’t executing the zone the way the Nuggets did.

“We hadn’t played those zones before, technically, all year. So it was brand new to us,” Conley said. “Guys were kind of slow in rotations as we were trying to do it right, but we’re more of a man-to-man team, a physical team. So it was backing up a little bit and doing what we do better. Being more locked in defensively in man-to-man coverages and then throwing in that zone here and there.”

BOXSCORE: Wolves 143, Thunder 101

The numbers indicate the level of success: Denver made 15 turnovers and shot just 40.7% in the game, 30% in the first half.

Game 3 had the feel of Game 6 of their second-round series against the Nuggets a season ago. The Wolves came into Minnesota backs against the wall in the series after losing three straight, and they blew the Nuggets out by 45.

The Wolves led by as many as 45 in this one before winning by 42. The 72 points in the first half set a franchise record for most points in any half of a playoff game in team history. They almost topped that with 71 in the second half. They now know they can beat the Thunder, and not just squeak by them either. Now they have to prove Saturday wasn’t just a lucky pitch.

“We don’t feel psychologically disadvantaged when we step out on the floor,” Finch said. “… So we just had to keep finding a better game within ourselves. We hadn’t really played our best basketball, all credit to them at times, for affecting that. I think we just were able to put it all together, and gotta do it again.”