Reusse: Timberwolves see clearly that Oklahoma City is a cut above

The Timberwolves had a mediocre start to this season. Then, Julius Randle returned in March after missing a month with an injury and became a marvel, and this became a superior team to the outfit that reached the Western Conference finals in the spring of 2024.

The problem now for the Wolves in achieving that again this season is they are facing a team superior to Dallas. The Mavericks’ shotmakers, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, took care of the Wolves in five games, but without the defense or the depth the Oklahoma City Thunder are bringing to the fray that started Tuesday night in cow country.

The Mavericks had won 50 games to finish fifth overall last season. The Timberwolves won 56 games, finished third, had the home-court edge and just didn’t play up to the same standard demonstrated in beating Denver in the quarterfinals.

This Oklahoma City outfit won 68 games in a year with the West being far deeper and more grueling than in 2023-24. You can find a couple of flaws, yes, but OKC won 16 more games than the next-best team in the West.

Sixteen!

This is a tremendous team that the Wolves were attempting to upset in Game 1, and in the series.

The well-rested visitors were able to exploit a couple of weaknesses, including getting back defensively and making OKC operate from a set offense.

Jaden McDaniels and other defenders stayed in front of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the most part, the referees stopped bailing out SGA (their favorite player) for a time in the second quarter and Wolves led by as many as nine points.

Randle was fabulous tossing in threes and the Wolves were leading 48-42 with 23 seconds left in the half.

Perfect … run the clock, take a last shot, head to the locker room up six at a minimum.

Nope. A steal from Randle with six seconds left, then a foul on Randle with one second left, two free throws and it’s 48-44 at halftime.

Right then you’re saying, “You don’t want that team going to the locker room feeling better about itself.”

The Thunder came out for the second half and it was no contest. OKC, with the No. 1 defense (and No. 3 offense) in the league, tightened the screws on Randle — and there was no one on the court to fill that gap.

Anthony Edwards turned an ankle in the first half and had few notable moments in the second half. McDaniels wound up fouling out with five minutes left. The bench was brutal — particularly with Nickeil Alexander-Walker throwing rocks, maybe in an attempt to impress his cousin, Gilgeous-Alexander.

The Thunder had 44 points and then scored at will in the second — 70 points for a 114-88 wipeout.

The Wolves lost Game 2 against the Lakers and came back to win in five games. They lost Game 1 against Golden State and came back to win in five games.

That would have taken longer if Steph Curry had not gotten injured in the first half of Game 1.

Getting past the old, bench-less Lakers and the Steph-less Warriors were two notable items. But this Thunder bunch with a super-duper-star, young legs and a long bench is a 180-degree turn from those aged legends.

The Wolves did not belong on the court with OKC in the second half.

Forget the dream of a Wolves-Knicks finals battle — Julius, Ant vs. KAT and Thibs. The Wolves might steal one at home, but this is another five-gamer — not because they didn’t play well (Dallas, 2024), but because the Thunder is too deep, too good for our fellas.

And for sure, they have the right cousin from the family picnic in Toronto.

OKC rolled to this victory getting only a few moments of quality from their Minnesota connection.

The opinion here is the Thunder have one of the most amazing weapons in modern basketball annals with Chet Holmgren. He is 7-foot-1, he is astoundingly lean, and he’s a ballhandler, a jump shooter, rebounder and dangerous shot blocker.

You see this extremely tall and gangly young man and wonder how he will not be broken in half competing in the NBA — always physical and more so at playoff time.

“Chet’s so big, and yet he played guard all his life before college,” said Larry Suggs, a development coach and once an AAU coach for Holmgren. “He handled the ball, he shot the ball, and then he became a great rim protector while also avoiding foul trouble.

“I saw him block seven consecutive shots without committing a foul. The other team, a good summer league team, had no idea what to do with him. The coach was saying, ‘Stop going to the basket.’ ”

Larry’s son Jalen was a tremendous guard (and football quarterback) at Minnehaha Academy. He spent one season at Gonzaga and then was the fifth overall selection by the Orlando Magic in 2021.

Holmgren was a teammate at Minnehaha Academy, then arrived at Gonzaga as Suggs was leaving for the NBA. He also stayed one season and was the second overall selection in 2022, behind Paolo Banchero for Orlando.

Chet’s father, David Holmgren, was a 7-footer who was a star at Prior Lake and then played for the Gophers. This was the early ’80,s and if a 7-footer was handling the ball and shooting from distance, the order would have come quickly:

“Get down near the lane where you belong.”

With Chet, and Suggs’ Team Sizzle, and Lance Johnson at Minnehaha Academy, it was more, “Show us what you got, big fella.”

Suggs said he first saw Chet as a scrawny third-grader in the summer program at the DeLaSalle gym. “I told him, ‘You have to take 250 shots a day for a few days before you can join our program,’ and he did that,” Suggs said.

“He was a fearless kid, I’ll tell you that. He’s in the fourth grade, we walk in the gym, and Chet’s sitting on the top of the basket. He climbed up behind the basket, walked across a thin railing, then grabbed the back of the backboard, came around and sat on it.

“I was out at his house once. They showed me some of the trees he would climb. When I found out he was a tree climber, I had no doubt he had the stuff to be an outstanding basketball player, even as such a skinny kid.”