Timberwolves beat Thunder in play-in game to claim 8th seed

MINNEAPOLIS — Karl-Anthony Towns had 28 points and 11 rebounds to lead Minnesota into the playoffs, as the Timberwolves muscled and hustled their way past the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-95 to finish the play-in tournament Friday night.

Rudy Gobert had 21 points and 10 rebounds in his return from exile for swinging at teammate Kyle Anderson, and the Wolves filled out the NBA playoff bracket by seizing the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference with a near-perfect performance at the end of another harder-than-it-had-to-be season.

Anthony Edwards, who was 3-for-17 from the field against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, made 8 of 19 shots and had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Wolves, who had a 58-30 advantage in points in the paint.

Minnesota will face No. 1 seed Denver in a best-of-seven series starting Sunday night. It will be a familiar series for Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly, who built the Nuggets as their executive VP of basketball operations and president of basketball operations from June 2013 until leaving for the Timberwolves last May.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 22 points, going 12-for-12 from the free throw line but just 5-for-19 from the field. Jalen Williams and Lu Dort each scored 17 points. After scoring 31 points against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday, Josh Giddey was just 2-for-13 from the floor.

With their best defender Jaden McDaniels out with a broken hand — thanks to a wall he punched out of frustration in the final regular-season game shortly before Gobert took a swing at Anderson in an argument during a timeout — the Timberwolves put Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the starting lineup. He guarded his cousin, the dynamic Gilgeous-Alexander, at the