Timberwolves focused on limiting fouls in Game 2 response

After a dismal 114-88 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, the general outrage has largely been focused on the amount of soft whistles league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drew during the game. However, internally the Wolves are focusing on their own game and how to best respond on Thursday night.

"The messaging at this time is you got to make more small plays consistently. Whatever that might be," head coach Chris Finch told reporters Wednesday. "I thought Oklahoma City did a lot better job of making more small plays than we did."

Minnesota held a four-point lead at halftime and limited SGA to just 11 points, with seven coming from the free-throw stripe. Oklahoma City took over in the second half though, outscoring the Wolves 32-18 in the third quarter before adding another 38 in the final quarter of play on their way to a series-opening win.

Minnesota got into foul trouble early on, with defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert drawing two in the first minute of play, limiting him to just 1:38 of action in the opening quarter. While the overwhelming whistles SGA drew on Tuesday brought on plenty of national ire, the Wolves and Thunder finished the night with 22 fouls apiece.

The Timberwolves finished the evening with 21 free-throw attempts to the Thunder's 26 attempts. However, SGA took 14 of those 26 Thunder attempts. Speaking to the media Wednesday, Wolves players appeared keenly aware of the need to limit those opportunities, even if there wasn't as big of overall imbalance as the national outrage would have you believe.

"We just got to stop fouling. We're being a little bit too physical. We got to switch our game plan," Jaden McDaniels said. "Because like, how the refs are calling the game, we just got to switch the way we play defense."