Minnesota suffered their first loss in four games after going down 97-102 to OKC on Saturday and Anthony Edwards wasn’t happy with how the referees were treating fellow rising star Shai-Gilgeous Alexander.
SGA went to the line 12 times during the Thunder’s win and shot well, nailing 92.3 from there.
“It’s hard to [contain OKC] with the calls that Shai gets,” Edwards said. “It’s hard to shut them down. You can’t touch him any time of the game. It’s super hard to beat. That team is a good team, especially when they’re getting calls like that.”
Alexander didn’t just shoot well from the line, he also had a game-high 33 points, to go with two rebounds and six assists on 45.5 percent shooting from the field.
As a team, OKC went 30-35 at the free throw line, compared to the T-Wolves’ 21-29.
Minnesota were also not helped by their whopping 21 turnovers – seven of those were committed in the fourth quarter.
“You’re not beating good teams with 21 turnovers,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “Particularly the way we turned it over.”
Edwards committed five of those turnovers and took ownership of his mistakes.
“I got to look in the mirror,” Edwards said. “Because it’s me who generates most of the turnovers. … I’m definitely looking at film trying to figure out what am I doing? The majority come from me trying to make the right play. It’s not really there. I’ll be better.”
The Timberwolves are still first seed in the West after their subpar performance, but OKC (29-13) are now within one game of the Wolves (30-12).