Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Game 1 Prediction, NBA Playoff Odds
We’re down to the final two teams in the Western Conference and to no one’s surprise, the No. 1 seeded Oklahoma City Thunder are still alive. OKC punched their ticket to the West Finals with a sweep of Memphis in Round 1, followed by a tough seven-game series against Denver.
Minnesota slid into the playoffs as the six-seed, narrowly avoiding the Play-In Tournament, but they’ve impressed through two rounds, dispatching the Lakers and Warriors in five games each.
The Thunder are 6.5-point favourites to win Game 1 on the NBA odds, with the total pegged at 217.5.
Timberwolves vs. Thunder NBA Betting Odds
Minnesota and OKC split the regular season series, with each team winning once at home and once on the road. Something will have to give on Tuesday as the Timberwolves have won five of their last six road dates, while the Thunder have won six of seven at home.
Oklahoma City is a heavy -350 favourite to win the series on the NBA futures board, while he T-Wolves are +280 underdogs. The favoured exact series result is a Thunder win in five games at +260 and the biggest long shot is a Minnesota sweep at +4000.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the favourite to lead the series in points at -210, followed by Anthony Edwards at +175. That likely points to the fact that OKC’s offence completely runs through SGA, while Edwards splits scoring duties with Julius Randle.
With the final four teams set, Oklahoma City stands as a -175 favourite to win the NBA championship, followed by New York (+450), Minnesota (+600) and Indiana (+800).
Minnesota Timberwolves
Why Minnesota can win:
Defence wins championships. Four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert has put to rest any concerns regarding his diminishing performance to help the Timberwolves become the best defensive team left standing. Jaden McDaniels has been solid on both ends of the floor, while Anthony Edwards has turned into a playoff gamer as one of the strongest 3-point shooters in the NBA. Minnesota also has an elite bench, with Naz Reid distinguishing himself as the best reserve in the playoffs.
Why Minnesota could lose:
As good as this team is defensively and as talented as Edwards, Gobert and Julius Randle are, Minnesota struggled to generate offence against an injury-plagued Warriors squad and that will be a major problem when they inevitably get in a shootout against the Thunder. This team just doesn’t have what it takes to outscore Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City Thunder
Why OKC can win:
OKC is the deepest team left in the playoffs and they just showed it in an NBA Finals-quality series against Denver. Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein did a lot to shut down Nikola Jokic and they are the type of depth difference-makers the team was missing from last year. Of course, the Thunder also boast elite scoring led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is leading all remaining players in the playoffs with 29.0 points per game.
Why OKC could lose:
Health has a lot to do with how far a team goes in the playoffs and the Thunder have been able to stay healthy by limiting minutes to their star players. That simply won’t happen against Minnesota, so you have to wonder how that will impact injury-prone players like Caruso and Chet Holmgren. The Thunder also tend to be quite physical defensively, so they thrive when the refs are looser with the whistle. Things could get tricky if this series is called tight.
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