Curling off Isaiah Hartenstein’s screen, Jared McCain had the ball in his hands as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trusted his newest teammate. The 22-year-old rewarded the pass as he drilled a top-of-the-key outside jumper near the midcourt logo. Talk about range.

The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to roll with a 116-103 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the healthiest they’ve been in a while, they extended their win streak to eight in a row.

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McCain finished with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting. He shot 5-of-9 from 3. He also had one steal.

Pure outside buckets. That’s what you’ll get from McCain. He knows what his bread and butter is. Credit to him for being aware of that in just his second season. The Thunder leaned on his outside range to run their second-unit offense. He didn’t disappoint with the opportunities

Putting this game away, McCain scored nine points in the fourth quarter. The Timberwolves couldn’t keep up with his off-ball movement and constant screens gave him a sliver of space. That’s all he needed, thanks to his quick trigger.

On defense, McCain has shown he has some fight in him. He ripped the ball away from Donte DiVincenzo in the fourth quarter. The Timberwolves put him in a ton of action. For the most part, he held his own. That’s all OKC is asking for if he wants to maintain his rotation minutes. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault detailed so after the win.

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“He knows this team really defends and takes pride in defense. We were very clear with him that we’re not working around him on that end of the floor. He would have to scale up fundamentally. He’s done that,” Daigneault said about McCain. “I thought in the Denver game, he had a great play on Gordon. Post defense against Gordon on the left wing. He had a great late-game play against Murray. I mean, those are real players. We’re not asking him to be Lu, Caruso or Cason. He’s just got to be sound. He’s doing a good job of that.”

What a mid-season acquisition. He’s completely changed OKC’s offensive dynamics. One of the funniest NBA subplots has been seeing Philadelphia 76ers fans lose their cool every time McCain has a moment. Over a month later, they’re still stunned at how easy they gave up on him.

“It’s impressive. It’s not easy to get traded in the middle of the season, first and foremost. Also, being so young. I could imagine it’d be pretty hard. Just so many outside-of-the-court things you have to deal with,” Gilgeous-Alexander said about McCain. “Then, coming into a group where we have a solid foundation. We have guys who are proven. We’re very stable as a group. For him to find his way in that on the fly with so many things going on is impressive.”

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: OKC Thunder lay out blueprint for Jared McCain to get playoff minutes