Now, the road back to that level of success is steeper — because this time, the Wolves aren’t facing Dallas, they’re staring down a team that’s even better. Sure, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving handled Minnesota in five games, but Oklahoma City Thunder is a different beast. The Thunder have something the Mavericks didn’t — elite defense and serious depth — and that battle began Tuesday night deep in the heart of cow country.
Last season, Dallas finished fifth with 50 wins. The Wolves had 56, grabbed the No. 3 seed, and had home-court advantage. Yet, they couldn’t keep up the same pace that saw them knock off Denver in the quarterfinals.
But this OKC squad? They stormed to 68 wins in a brutal Western Conference. That’s 16 more than the next best — an eye-popping stat.
Sixteen!
This is a powerhouse team, and the Wolves knew they were in for a war right out of the gate in Game 1.
Minnesota came in fresh and exploited a few gaps — slowing the Thunder’s transition game and forcing them into half-court sets. Jaden McDaniels and the other defenders did a solid job sticking with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, especially during the second quarter when the refs (finally) stopped giving SGA the benefit of every whistle. The Wolves even managed to take a nine-point lead.
Randle was feeling it, knocking down triples and leading the charge to a 48-42 advantage with under 30 seconds to play in the half.
Everything looked perfect.
Hold the ball. Take the last shot. Head into halftime with momentum.
But no — a costly turnover from Randle with six seconds left, followed by a foul with one second to go, led to two Thunder free throws. Instead of walking in with swagger, the Wolves hit the break up only 48-44 — and OKC had life.
That shift in energy? It was deadly.
In the second half, OKC, armed with the No. 1 defense and No. 3 offense in the league, went full lockdown mode. They clamped down on Randle, and no one else stepped up.
Anthony Edwards had rolled his ankle earlier and barely made a dent after halftime. McDaniels fouled out with five minutes to go. The bench was a disaster — especially Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who looked more like he was trying to impress his cousin, SGA, than help his own team.
The Thunder went from 44 points in the first half to dropping 70 in the second. Final score: 114-88. An all-out demolition.
Sure, the Wolves had bounced back before — losing Game 2 to the Lakers and still winning in five, losing Game 1 to Golden State and doing the same. But let’s not kid ourselves: LeBron's Lakers were old and thin on the bench. Steph-less Warriors? Not the same animal.
This OKC team? Young legs, deep rotation, and a megastar in SGA. The second half proved it — the Wolves simply didn’t belong on the same floor.
Forget the fantasy of a Wolves-Knicks showdown — Randle and Ant squaring off against KAT and Thibs. If Minnesota manages to steal a game at home, that’s a win. But this looks like another five-game exit — not due to poor play like against Dallas in 2024, but because OKC is just too deep, too talented.
And there’s no doubt: Oklahoma City brought the right cousin from the family reunion up in Toronto.
The Thunder didn’t even need much help from their Minnesota connection to dominate this one.
Here’s the kicker — Chet Holmgren might just be one of the most unique weapons in modern basketball. At 7-foot-1, he’s a rail-thin unicorn who can handle the ball, shoot, rebound, and block shots with ferocity.
He looks like he could snap in two — yet here he is, thriving in the NBA’s physical battleground, especially when the postseason intensity ramps up.
“Chet’s huge, but he grew up playing like a guard,” said Larry Suggs, a development coach who helped mold Holmgren. “He could handle, shoot, and protect the rim — all while staying out of foul trouble.”
Suggs recalls watching Holmgren block seven straight shots in a summer game without picking up a foul. “The opposing coach was yelling, ‘Stop going to the rim!’”
Suggs’ son, Jalen Suggs, was a star guard and QB at Minnehaha Academy, went to Gonzaga, and was picked 5th overall by the Orlando Magic in 2021. Holmgren played with him at Minnehaha, then followed his path to Gonzaga, getting drafted 2nd overall in 2022, right behind Paolo Banchero.
Chet’s basketball roots run deep. His dad, David Holmgren, was a 7-footer who starred at Prior Lake and later played for the Gophers. Back then, if you were that tall and shot from distance, you’d get yelled at: “Get down low where you belong!”
But with Chet, things were different.
He was part of Team Sizzle with Suggs and Lance Johnson, and the mindset was: “Show us what you’ve got, big guy.”
Suggs remembers first spotting Holmgren as a skinny third grader in the DeLaSalle gym. “I told him, ‘Take 250 shots a day for a few days, then you can join us.’ He did it.”
And he wasn’t just fearless on the court.
“He’s in fourth grade, we walk in the gym, and Chet’s sitting on top of the basket,” Suggs laughed. “He climbed up behind it, walked across the railing, grabbed the backboard, swung around and sat up there like it was nothing.”
“I visited his house once — saw the trees he used to climb. After that, I never doubted that skinny kid had what it takes to make it big in basketball.”