Throughout the 2024-25 season, fans and analysts have marveled at the wonderful defense of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

That defense was shining brightly on Tuesday night as the Thunder took down the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

Following his team’s 114-88 victory, MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander spoke with ESPN about the path to success for the Thunder.

“We try to play to our identity,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 31 points despite going 2 of 13 from the floor in the first half. “We did a good job of that on defense. Our defense definitely gave us life early in the game and kept us in it.”

For the last seven games, the Thunder have been trying to figure out a way around the Denver Nuggets’ defense, but on Tuesday night, it was their defensive schemes that were completely in control.

OKC was stifling and constantly limiting the T-Wolves.

They converted 19 of the Timberwolves’ turnovers into 31 points, a huge achievement that gave them a comfortable winning margin.

The first half of the game wasn’t the strongest for the Thunder, but they rebounded in a huge way in the third quarter and turned things around.

Like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said, they were playing to their strengths and doing the things they are most comfortable with.

This team has one of the strongest and most charismatic identities in the league.

That is one of the reasons why they have been so dominant from the very beginning of the season.

After shaking off their problems in the first half, the Thunder looked like the team everyone fears.

Now they will try to keep it up and secure a 2-0 series lead in a few days.

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