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The Minnesota Timberwolves are already down 1-0 to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals following a 114-88 blowout on Tuesday night. A main talking point coming out of the game were the numerous touch fouls awarded to Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose 14 free throw attempts were twice as many as the next-leading player (Wolves guard Anthony Edwards).
It's been an ongoing storyline all season, and Gilgeous-Alexander has been labeled a "free throw merchant" -- someone who baits players into fouls so he can get to the charity stripe.
The issue, however, isn't so much that Gilgeous-Alexander is using that tactic, it's that the officials are rewarding it. Unless the officials radically change the way they're calling this series, it's going to be an ongoing problem for the Wolves, and coach Chris Finch wants his team to handle that better.
"There was a lot of frustration out there, but we talked about that before the series started," Finch said after the game. "We have to be able to kind of put that to the side [and] get on with the next play, mentality."
Reacting to every foul in favor of Gilgeous-Alexander really took the Wolves out of their game. Even if you take away his 11 points from the free-throw line, the Timberwolves would've still lost by double digits. It's certainly not the biggest issue they have to address when preparing for Game 2.
Everyone knows SGA is going to get a friendly whistle and use the officiating to his advantage, but that's not why the Timberwolves turned the ball over 19 times, or why they shot 29% from 3-point range. It played a role in Jaden McDaniels fouling out, and he will have to figure out how to defend SGA while not fouling, but there are many improvements the Wolves can make defensively moving forward heading into Game 2.