The open three-point shooting percentage is 28%! The Timberwolves made 51 long shots with iron sound formation

Facing the Oklahoma City Thunder, the first defense in the regular season league, the Minnesota Timberwolves were silent. They only scored 88 points in the game, with a 34.9% shooting percentage and a 29.4% three-point shooting percentage. What is more noticeable than these is that they made 51 3-pointers in a crazy way.

The Timberwolves this season are indeed a team that is good at shooting three-pointers. Their average three-point shooting and three-point shooting percentage in the regular season are both top 5 in the league. Except for the Timberwolves, only the Cavaliers team meet this standard. But even so, 51 three-point shots have set a new record for the Timberwolves' three-point shots in a single game this year, and they only made 2 games in the regular season and exceeded this number.

And the Timberwolves did not make three-pointers crazy because of their accuracy. Their three-point shooting percentage was only 29.4%, of which they only made 5 of 23 in the second half. The reason why the Wolves made a lot of long shots is closely related to the Thunder's defensive strategy.

"They blocked the penalty area tightly, which is what they like. The opponent's inside players don't have much height advantages, they count on us to shoot and hit the iron." Edwards, who came from outside the three-point line 8 times, said.

Blocking the penalty area has always been the defensive strategy that the Thunder are good at. In the last round, they limited the Nuggets, who scored the most points in the regular season, to only 39.1 points per game, which is the last in the regular season. The Timberwolves were even more dismal tonight, with only 20 points in the penalty area, setting the team's lowest single game since 2015.

The Thunder have good defensive scalability, so they can block the basket while trying their best to cause interference to the Timberwolves' outside. But even so, the Wolves' shooting performance tonight was still too bad. According to statistics, the Timberwolves got 39 open three-pointers in this game, only making 11 goals, while the Thunder's open three-pointers were 10 of 16. Among them, the three-point performance of Wolves bench rotation players was particularly bad. Reed, Divinchenzo and Alexander Walker made only 5 of 28 shots, and the three of them had only 4 of 24 open three-pointers. The Wolves' shooting performance allows the Thunder to steadily continue their defensive strategy until the gap is completely widened.

This year's playoffs, the Timberwolves had two consecutive three-pointers. They shot a total of 12 of 76 three-pointers in the first round G5 and G1 in the second round. But they also have nights of explosive touch, such as three-point shooting percentages of more than 41% in the last four games of the series against the Warriors. To fight against the Thunder's iron wall, the Timberwolves need to seize those fleeting three-point opportunities, which is the premise of everything.

(text/Thai Fu)