The Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the versatility of the taller group led by Al Horford played well.
Here’s the thing about the NBA trend of small lineups: Teams who go small aren’t successful simply because they don’t have players who are 6-foot-10. The teams are successful because they have more players who can do more things.
The Oklahoma City Thunder played a big lineup against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, but simply being big wasn’t the reason they took the T-Wolves to the final seconds even without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, George Hill, Lu Dort and Theo Maledon on the court. The depleted roster played the Timberwolves well in the 106-103 loss because those bigs are versatile.
Al Horford scored 26 points. The height difference certainly played a role — the Timberwolves started four players listed at 6-foot-4– but the bigger impact came from his versatility.
The center had seven rebounds, eight assists and made three 3-pointers. He helped set up offense from the perimeter and down low, and he drained the game-tying 3-pointer with 26 seconds left that evened the score at 103 and nearly sent it to overtime.
“Al Horford was an animal tonight,” head coach Mark Daigneault said.
Overtime was not to be. The Thunder stole the inbounds pass following the timeout after Horford’s 3, but Hamidou Diallo couldn’t make the contested layup and the Timberwolves miraculously escaped that broken possession with the game still tied.
D’Angelo Russell hit a 3 with 3.7 seconds remaining and Diallo missed a shot that would have tied it at the buzzer. He found himself open enough to get the shot off because Horford caught the inbounds pass inside the arc and quickly flipped it out seemingly on instinct to give Diallo a look with enough time.
Oklahoma City found playmakers in Horford and Diallo, the latter of whom finished with a career-high 10 assists as the de facto point guard of the starting unit.
“The fact that you can put the ball in (Diallo’s) hands that much over the course of a game, that’s not something I think that he would’ve handled as well in past seasons,” Daigneault said. “It’s certainly growth. I thought he did a good job of moving it tonight, he got off it early, he helped the offense function.”
It wasn’t just those two who moved the ball well. Every Thunder player had at least two assists except backup big Mike Muscala (0) and starting forward Darius Bazley (1).
Oklahoma City’s 28 assists ties a season high even without either of the starting guards or the backup point guard.
“That’s how we drew it up,” Daigneault said. “Without our primary creators out there, we wanted to play through the pass, we wanted to trust the pass, we wanted multiple passes and multiple actions on possessions.”
Daigneault has preached versatility throughout the season, and the team put on a good showing of that on Friday. Diallo, listed at 6-foot-5, was the only starter shorter than 6-foot-6. He was also the only active true guard.
Wing Kenrich Williams had nine points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Three of his rebounds were offensive, including one that set up Horford’s game-tying 3.
Big Isaiah Roby, playing a small forward role, had 11 points, three steals and three blocks to go with seven rebounds and three assists.
He was at the 3 because he shared the court at times with not just starters Horford and Bazley, but two centers in Horford and Muscala.
“I think it was an opportunity for me to show a different side of my game,” Roby said. “I had a lot of turnovers, I need to clean that up, but I think it gives us a different advantage on the glass, a different advantage defensively … I liked having that lineup out there.”
The Timberwolves’ 34-21 third quarter ultimately won the game for Minnesota. It broke open a game (albeit briefly) that featured 19 lead changes and 12 ties.
OKC went on multiple runs in the fourth quarter, including an 8-0 stretch early and a five-point spurt over 40 seconds with about three minutes to play. They eventually tied it but couldn’t get overtime.
Despite the loss, Daigneault was in fairly high spirits during the postgame press conference.
“I thought we took a step forward tonight,” he said. “Those possession games are tough, sometimes it comes down to a make or a miss … We got ourselves a shot at the end.”
