Oklahoma City Thunder (0-0) @ Minnesota Timberwolves (0-0)
When: Wednesday, October 19th, 2022 at 7:00 PM CST
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
And so it begins. Another season of Oklahoma City Thunder basketball. This is the time of year where hope springs eternal. Can the Thunder make it to the play-in tournament? Sure. Could Shai Gilgeous-Alexander be an All-Star this year? Sure. Will Jalen Williams make some noise in the rookie class? Hell yeah. And for you tank aficionados, can the Thunder lose enough games to get the highest odds for a certain generational Frenchman? In the words of former Thunder legend Russell Westbrook, why not?
To kick things off, the Thunder open up the season on the road against one of the off-season’s mystery teams: the Minnesota Timberwolves. The all-in trade for Rudy Gobert this offseason catapulted the Timberwolves into the “contender or pretender” narrative for this season. Will Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns be a harmonious twin tower combination or will one of them eventually get played off the floor in meaningful games?
Injury Report
- OKC – Chet Holmgren – OUT (R foot – Lisfranc surgery recovery)
- MIN – Eric Paschall – OUT (L ankle/Achilles tendinosis)
Three Big Things
- Starting Line-ups – Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has made a point this season to be more secretive about his starting line-ups leading into games. Minnesota’s front court may force Daigneault to get a little creative with his starting line-up today. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is likely the starter from the center position. But the options for who starts at the PF position may be a mystery. Does Daigneault want Aleksej Pokusevski going up against Gobert or Towns on the defensive end? Or does Daigneault want to exploit Towns’ issues on the defensive end and go with a small-ball line-up with Jalen Williams starting at the 4? Or maybe we go completely bonkers and start Ousmane Dieng at the 4 to compete with Minnesota’s size up front. Many options and many questions.
- SGA – The preseason was nullified for Gilgeous-Alexander due to an MCL sprain. Thankfully, the injury will not keep SGA out for any regular season time. Coach Daigneault at practice yesterday confirmed SGA is a full go and has no minutes restrictions heading into tonight’s game. The All-Star campaign for SGA starts tonight. It will be interesting to see how quickly SGA meshes with all the new parts on the team this season.
- Surging Sophomores – The quartet of 2nd year players for the Thunder (Josh Giddey, Tre Mann, JRE, and Aaron Wiggins) have all come into this year with high expectations. Giddey appears to be straddling the line of superstardom with his ability to break defenses down and get into the paint at will. Mann seems well on his way to being one of the premier scoring guards off the bench this season. And JRE and Wiggins have glue guy/key role player written all over them.
Prediction: Minnesota wins a close one 111-104 as their size proves to be the deciding factor late in the game.