The Oklahoma City Thunder walked into Target Center facing a tough situation — the second night of a back-to-back for Minnesota, a hostile environment, and a red-hot home team that never cooled off.

Even with the Timberwolves coming off a game in Dallas the night before, there were no signs of fatigue.

“Even though they played the night before in Dallas, Minnesota showing no signs of wearing down,” Steve McGehee said. “It’s obvious Minnesota wanted this game more than Oklahoma City. It doesn’t hurt that Minnesota knocked down 22 three-pointers and after the first quarter, 11 points is the closest Oklahoma City would get the rest of the way.”

The early momentum set the tone and Oklahoma City never fully recovered.

“When you give a good team, as experienced in their environment, the first punch and let them feel comfortable at home, it’s pretty hard to turn it off,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They felt like they made a lot of shots, but they also felt like they were in rhythm. They were getting where they wanted to go, getting shots they wanted to.”

Minnesota’s rhythm came from both shot-making and defensive pressure, something Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault pointed to repeatedly after the game.

“We had some lapses in some of our defensive schemes that got those guys loose for threes,” Daigneault said. “To their credit, they burned us with the shot making.”

Turnovers and pressure tilt the game

While OKC found success in areas that normally translate to wins, points in the paint, ball movement, and assists, but turnovers flipped the script.

“I thought we fought a lot of pressure, especially early,” Daigneault said. “I thought we were trying to do too much with the dribble, even just up the floor. And it got them a head start on those possessions.”

Those mistakes quickly turned into points the other way.

“The live ball turnovers were obviously a huge issue, especially in the first half,” Daigneault said. “I think they had 22 points on those in the first half alone and ended with 30 for the game. So not a great recipe when you turn it over like that. They convert like that. And then to your point, they shot the ball really well.”

Hartenstein returns, but Thunder still shorthanded

There was one bright spot for Oklahoma City: the return of Isaiah Hartenstein, who made his first appearance since being sidelined with a calf strain.

Mark Daigneault liked what he saw.

“Never gonna like evaluate the performance when somebody’s been out that long,” he said. “But I thought his performance was actually pretty good. He made his free throws and seemed to be right back in a rhythm. His conditioning seemed pretty good for a guy that had a lower body thing going on. So we’re certainly happy to have him back. We’ll take everybody. And it’s great to get him back in the fold.”

Still, OKC remains far from full strength, continuing to play without Jalen Williams, Alex Caruso, and Ajay Mitchell, making the rotation challenge even steeper.

Minnesota’s wings deliver the knockout blows

Anthony Edwards got the engine running early, but it was Minnesota’s complementary scorers that stretched the game open.

“I thought Edwards got a lot of loose change in the first quarter that got him going,” Daigneault said. “We had some lapses in some of our defensive schemes that got those guys loose for threes.”

Jaden McDaniels, in particular, made OKC pay.

“He always carries a huge load defensively for them,” Daigneault said. “And tonight he burned us in a lot of the plays. Some of his threes, especially in the third quarter, were the ones that you just got to tip your hat to him with the shot making. They were tough shots.”

A lesson moving forward

For Daigneault, the message was simple: the game was lost at the start.

“I just thought to start the game, they were the aggressor on both ends of the floor, which just set us back in the game,” he said. “We played the entire game from behind because of the way we started and the way they started.”

And the takeaway is clear.

“We need to be a better 48-minute team,” Daigneault said. “That starts in the first minute. And if we had done that, I thought we would have given ourselves a chance tonight. But that wasn’t the case. So it’s a lesson we can learn from it.”

Oklahoma City falls to 38–11 and has now lost three of its last four games. With Isaiah Hartenstein back but key rotation players still sidelined, the Thunder continue to navigate adversity as they head into their next challenge.

Next up: Sunday night in Denver, a road matchup with the Nuggets the Thunder’s first meeting with Denver since last season’s Western Conference semifinals.