On the stage of the Western Conference Finals, who is the king of the new generation of the West?

As the first team in the league in regular season record, the Thunder demonstrated their young and energetic offensive and defensive system in the playoffs. After easily eliminating the Grizzlies 4:0 in the first round, they fought seven games with the Nuggets in the second round. Their series with the Nuggets was full of twists and turns. G4 and G5 both fell behind at the end of the fourth quarter and were once forced to the edge of the cliff by the Nuggets. But they finally advanced with a hearty big win and tied with a tiebreaker. The success of the Thunder relies on an oppressive defense, and they are the teams that make the most mistakes in the playoffs (18.3 times per game), which helps them score quickly in the conversion offense. However, they have hidden worries in the half-court positional battle, especially when the SGA is under key control, the team lacks a stable second-point scoring point. Chet Homgren and Jaren Williams have had a lot of performance, and once the perimeter feels bad, the Thunder can easily fall into scoring stagnation. In addition, the Thunder used more than 10 players in the first two rounds of the game, which gave the Thunder more room for personnel allocation, and also allowed them to maintain full physical fitness throughout the game.

Timberwolves defeated the Lakers and Warriors in the first two rounds. They showed great defensive dominance and physical confrontation in the series against the Lakers. In the second round, facing the Warriors who lacked Curry, the Timberwolves showed excellent competitive state. Especially Randall, he averaged 25.2 points and 7.4 assists per game against the Warriors, and strongly responded to outside doubts.

The Timberwolves' hidden worries lie in the stability of the ball, especially when Mike Conley is not on the court, both Divinchenzo and Huazi are prone to make mistakes when facing the Thunder's high-pressure defense. However, Randall's outbreak in the playoffs became the key to the team, and his form was far superior to the Thunder's Homegren and Williams. In the past 31 games he played, the Timberwolves have won 25 games and are in full swing. In addition, compared with the Nuggets, the Timberwolves have more defensive resources that can limit SGA. At the same time, with Gobert sitting in the inside, they can effectively deal with the Thunder's double-high lineup. Another point is that the Timberwolves averaged 15.9 opponent turnovers per game in the playoffs, second only to the Thunder in defensive performance. This round of the series will be a head-on battle between two new stars in the league, Edwards and SGA. In terms of overall strength, Thunder is younger, faster, and has better overall strength. The Timberwolves have a better body shape advantage, and Randall, who is in better shape, is the second strongest. In terms of the quality of the stars, although SGA is likely to be elected as the MVP of the regular season this season, Edwards is not inferior to SGA in scoring ability. Even Edwards seems to be able to contribute more to the team on the confrontation and defensive ends.

The outside world is generally optimistic about the Thunder in this round of the series, but I, the Timberwolves, have the chance to cause trouble to the Thunder and even keep the Thunder out of the finals. I boldly predict that the Western Conference Finals may eventually stage the story of "Wolf is Coming".