Wolves claim eighth place behind ‘X-factor’ Nickell Alexander Walker

MINNEAPOLIS – Nickeil Alexander-Walker didn’t click right away.

Earlier Friday morning, the Minnesota Timberwolves coaches and players were telling him to “get ready” for that night’s playoff game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Alexander Walker thought it was just plain pre-match talk.

He knew his rivalry would be against a familiar opponent—his cousin Shay Gilgos Alexander—he didn’t realize what that might mean: he was starting.

“This morning on shooting there is my name on the clip with the matches and I finally got it all together,” said Alexander Walker.

In a repeat of a rematch that has happened countless times for the two, it was Alexander Walker who outlasted his cousin Friday night and helped lead the Timberwolves to the decisive 120-95 win that gave them the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Alexander-Walker helped hold Gilgeous-Alexander shooting 5-of-19 (26.3%) from the field, a season low. When asked about Alexander-Walker’s performance, Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t hesitate.

“The X Factor,” Townes said. “He’s the reason we won. He went in there and had a very difficult job tonight to guard Shay, who’s been fantastic this whole year and one of the best scorers in the league. And to get out there and do what he did is why we won. There’s no other way to put it.”

Once it was settled that he was making his first season with the Timberwolves, Alexander-Walker said he tried to back off.

“I was so grateful to have the opportunity to start and then get that job of guarding him,” said Alexander Walker. “It’s a little different than any other game. This is someone I’ve grown up with all my life. As far as people know, he knows me better than anyone else and he knows me more than anyone I can tell.”

The cousins, both 24, were born just 52 days apart — Gilgos Alexander is older — but they haven’t quite squared off at the NBA level. In fact, coming into Friday night, Alexander Walker has guarded his cousin in only 27 half-court games over his four NBA seasons and stopped him shooting 3 of 11.

On Friday night, Alexander Walker faced him 41 times. Results? Gilgios Alexander scored only eight points, went 3-of-12 from the floor and made only two free throws against Alexander Walker. Against all of the other Timberwolves, he was 2-of-7 but pulled out 10 free throw attempts, making all 10 attempts.

They’ve played against each other their whole lives, but this was on the win-or-go-home phase. The two spoke before the match and hugged each other as soon as the last bell sounded.

Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch said the idea to start Alexander-Walker at Gilgeous-Alexander really came from the front office.

Quite frankly, it was a thing [Timberwolves president of basketball operations] Tim Connelly said, “Hey, that’s a wild one, what do you think?” “It makes a lot of sense,” Finch said.

The Timberwolves entered the game without strong defensive player Jaden McDaniels, who broke his right hand on Sunday after hitting a wall in the tunnel. Without McDaniels, switching to 6-foot-6 Alexander-Walker was the move.

When Alexander Walker was drafted to the New Orleans Pelicans in 2019, Finch was an assistant coach on the team, so he’s had the opportunity to watch Alexander Walker grow over the years.

“I mean, I thought like most young players when we were considering him as a rookie, he was a defensive liability,” Finch said. “The game was moving fast. He was trying to catch up. But he really added defensive intelligence and competitiveness to his game. And that’s really going to drive him a lot because he’s such a smart player.”

While Alexander-Walker led things on point offense, the rest of the Timberwolves’ defense also thrived, holding the Thunder to 36.0% shooting overall and just 95 points.

On the other end of the earth, the offense played out in a way it didn’t against the Lakers in Tuesday’s first game play.

Towns (28 points, 11 rebounds), Anthony Edwards (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Rudy Gobert (21 points, 10 rebounds) all finished with a double-double.

Joubert was questionable going into the game with back spasms, and the outcome was much different from his last home game on Sunday when he got into a verbal altercation with Kyle Anderson and threw a punch at him at a Timberwolves huddle. Minnesota suspended Joubert from that game and suspended him from the Lakers game.

His back was an issue, and Joubert said he knew it affected him on Sunday. He said he thought it would be difficult to play on Friday night before the MRI showed there was no major damage.

With 7:52 left in the fourth quarter, Goubert asked questions around his back.

Mike Conley controlled the loose ball at one end of the field, stopping a fast breaker in the process. He turned and fired the ball 80 feet over the field to a waiting town, who immediately caught the pass and fired it toward the rim, where Joubert was waiting.

When Joubert caught the ball and hit it home, the announced crowd of 19,304 erupted inside the goal post as it became clear — the Minnesota Timberwolves were back in the playoffs for back-to-back seasons for the first time since going eight in a row from 1996 to 2004.

And they’ll face a top-ranked Denver Nuggets team they haven’t seen at all this year when Towns was healthy.

“Honestly, I don’t consider ourselves an eight-rated,” Joubert said. “We’re in the rankings, but I wouldn’t consider us an eighth seed. Now, it’s a great opportunity for us to keep improving as a team. It’s a big challenge for us. It’s an exciting opportunity.

“But we don’t look at the standings anymore. We look at who’s in front of us. We think if we play the right way, there’s no team in this league that we can’t beat.”