Oklahoma City wins wild one in OT over Timberwolves

Dennis Schröder made a layup as time expired to send the Thunder and the Timberwolves into overtime tied at 121.

It took a hail Mary pass, a buzzer-beating layup, and overtime but the Thunder emerged victorious from their game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday with a 139-127 victory.

The bizarre ending inside Chesapeake Energy Arena started like this: Oklahoma City trailed 121-119 with one second remaining in regulation when the Thunder fouled Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns missed the first of two free throws, but Minnesota was assessed a technical foul when Jordan Bell checked into the game in between shots because he didn’t have his shirt tucked in.

Danilo Gallinari made his technical free throw, cutting the Timberwolves’ lead to one.

Towns then made the second of his free throws, but despite putting Minnesota up two, the make allowed OKC to take the ball out of bounds.

Adams then threw a pass the length of the court to Dennis Schröder, who beat the buzzer with a layup to send the game into overtime.

He was so excited, he included the security guard on the sidelines in his celebratory hugs.

Schröder told reporters after the game that he and Adams had been communicating about a potential final play prior to Towns’ second free throw.

“I missed a wide-open layup to tie the game first. Everybody came to me and was like, ‘you’re going to make up for it”, he said. “Karl Towns wanted to miss that free throw, he didn’t miss. He (Steven Adams) took it out, and I mean, I had to make up for it. After that, I don’t know what happened, I blacked out a little bit.”

Oklahoma City outscored the Timberwolves 17-5 in overtime to earn the victory.

Chris Paul scored a season-high 30. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has been in somewhat of a slump as of late, had 29. Schröder, Adams, and Gallinari all made of the bulk of the rest of the scoring with 25, 22, and 21 respectively.

With the win, the Thunder split their two-game homestand and improve to 9-12 on the season.

Oklahoma City will head on the road where they will take on Portland on Sunday.