Thunder stifle Anthony Edwards to move one win from NBA finals | NBA

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 40 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in a steely performance befitting the NBA MVP, and the Oklahoma City Thunder snapped back from a 42-point loss by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 128-126 in Game 4 on Monday night to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.

“I tried not to worry too much about scoring or making plays or whatever it was,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I tried to just lose myself in the competition, be aggressive, pick my spots.”

Jalen Williams scored 34 points on 13-for-24 shooting, including 6 of 9 from three-point range, and Chet Holmgren added 21 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in a statement game in his hometown that helped the Thunder stave off several pushes by the Wolves to tie the series.

“Tonight I thought we did a good job of competing from the very start, and once you compete you give yourself a chance to win any game,” said Williams.

Gilgeous-Alexander went 12 for 14 from the free-throw line, making a pair with 6.1 seconds left to stretch the lead back to three. The Thunder fouled Anthony Edwards with 3.5 seconds to go, and his intentional miss of the second one to try to keep possession was tracked down in the corner by Gilgeous-Alexander and flung out of bounds in attempt to drain the clock.

The Wolves had one more inbounds pass with 0.3 seconds remaining that Williams grabbed to send the Thunder back to Oklahoma City for Game 5 on Wednesday with the chance to advance to the NBA finals.

Edwards was limited to 16 points by Thunder’s relentless defense, and Julius Randle (five points on 1-for-7 shooting) was also bottled up by OKC.

“I don’t look at it like I struggled, or [Randle] struggled,” Edwards said. “They just, they had a good game plan, making us get off the ball. Especially for me, man. They were super in the gaps, I made the right play all night.”

According to ESPN, Edwards is averaging 17.3 shots per game against the Thunder, significantly lower than in the first round of this year’s playoffs (22.4) and the second round (19.8).

“It’s an urge that I want to get the ball in the rim, put it up there,” Edwards said. “But you don’t want to take bad shots and get your team out of rhythm. So I was just playing the game the right way, man.”