Thunder steamroll into first NBA Finals since '12

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder routed the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-94 connected Wednesday nighttime to triumph the Western Conference finals bid 4-1 and beforehand to the NBA Finals for the archetypal clip since 2012.

Gilgeous-Alexander, who won his archetypal league MVP grant past week, was a unanimous enactment arsenic the MVP of the Western Conference finals.

Chet Holmgren had 22 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks and Jalen Williams added 19 points and 8 rebounds for the Thunder.

A fanbase that had suffered done the nonaccomplishment of Kevin Durant done escaped bureau successful 2016 and a rebuild that took the squad adjacent the bottommost of the league's standings conscionable 4 years agone fto escaped successful the 4th fourth erstwhile the Thunder sat their starters with 5:14 remaining and a 108-74 lead.

Oklahoma City volition play the Indiana Pacers oregon New York Knicks successful the finals. Indiana leads the Eastern Conference finals bid 3-1 with Game 5 to beryllium played successful New York City connected Thursday. Oklahoma City volition person homecourt vantage erstwhile the Finals statesman connected June 5 due to the fact that of its league-best 68-14 regular-season record.

Julius Randle scored 24 points and Anthony Edwards added 19 for the Timberwolves, who changeable conscionable 41.2% from the tract and committed 21 turnovers.

Oklahoma City opened the crippled connected an 11-3 tally and extended the vantage passim the archetypal quarter. Cason Wallace drained a 3-pointer arsenic the archetypal 4th expired to enactment the Thunder up 26-9 astatine the extremity of the period.

Oklahoma City led 65-32 astatine halftime and 88-62 heading into the 4th quarter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.