OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder tried their best to balance the euphoria of the moment with the fact that they haven’t completed their mission.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points, and the Thunder routed the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-94 on Wednesday night to win the Western Conference finals series 4-1 and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012.
After the win, the league MVP was measured in his excitement. Oklahoma City will play the Pacers or Knicks in the finals.
Indiana leads the Eastern Conference finals series 3-1 with Game 5 to be played at the Garden on Thursday.
“We’ve got a lot of growing to do,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do to get to our ultimate goal, and this is not it, so that’s all that I’m focused on.”
Still, the young Thunder players had some of their usual fun. During a postgame interview, coach Mark Daigneault began complimenting his young squad.
“These guys are uncommon. They do everything right. They’re high character.”
Then, several players started draping towels over Daigneault, as they often do to local sideline reporter Nick Gallo during postgame interview sessions.
“They’re idiots,” Daigneault said without breaking focus.
Chet Holmgren had 22 points, seven rebounds and Jalen Williams added 19 points for the Thunder.
A fan base that had suffered through losing Kevin Durant in free agency in 2016 and a rebuild that had the team near the bottom of the league’s standings just four years ago let loose in the fourth quarter when the Thunder sat their starters with 5:14 remaining and a 108-74 lead.
Julius Randle scored 24 points and Anthony Edwards added 19 for the Timberwolves, who shot just 41.2 percent from the field and committed 21 turnovers.
It was a tough loss for Minnesota point guard Mike Conley.
The 37-year-old point guard said these opportunities are rare.
“It’s going to take a while just to kind of dissect what we just did and what we weren’t able to accomplish,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m proud of my team, proud of these guys, man. They really fought. Not just for me, but for the whole team.
