Perhaps no team looked as desperate for the All-Star break as the Thunder on Thursday night. 

The shots Shai Gilgeous-Alexander knows and loves, jumpers he never reacts to when they leave his hands because he’s sure they’ll fall, betrayed him. For just the eighth time this season, Oklahoma City committed more turnovers than it forced. 

The strongest parts of its identity fell through Thursday in Minnesota, resulting in a 116-101 loss, just OKC’s 10th of the season. It’s happened so seldom — not winning, not pulling the inevitable avalanche of a run from the holster, not breaking the glass for an emergency SGA 40-piece — that the feeling is jarring. 

OKC trailed by as many as 19 points. Excluding its loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in December’s NBA Cup title game, 15 points is its largest margin of defeat all season. 

The Thunder has built an identity out of outclassing teams. Pulling the rug from under them when they feel they have a chance, or never giving them a semblance of a chance at all. It’s monopolized desperation. 

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But Minnesota came for a little more than a share Thursday night, unwilling to contribute to a Kumbaya transition into the midseason break. 

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It outrebounded OKC 20-12 on the offensive glass, leading to 23 second-chance points. Before a fourth quarter that saw the Timberwolves increase their lead to 19, finished with a white-towel lineup, the Wolves shot 70% in the paint. 

There was no one place the Thunder could focus. It was challenged from everywhere, asked to rotate from every corner of the floor. That Minnesota was down several starters, including Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert, mattered not. 

Naz Reid, who finished with 27 points and 14 rebounds, made all but one of his nine paint attempts. Jaden McDaniels had 21 points and connected on all but two of his 10 paint shots. Terrence Shannon Jr. exploded at the rim. 

Anthony Edwards, despite an inefficient 5-for-18 showing, managed 11 free throws and a dunk on Chet Holmgren so furious that Adidas released an ad campaign about him midgame, hinting at a man on the loose capable of such heinous acts at the cup. 

On the other side, Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s leading scorer, posted 24 points — tied for his fifth-lowest point total of the season. He shot just 1 for 11 in the first half. 

“Up to this point we’ve been doing a pretty good job with the team and where we stand,” guard Lu Dort said. “Tonight was just a bad one. Bad execution.”

This was not OKC. 

Not the one that rattled off 44 wins and an eight-game difference between it and the West’s No. 2 seeded Grizzlies. 

This version of the Thunder needed a break. Its wish was Minnesota’s command. 

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SGA’s uncharacteristic night 

Nights like these for SGA are so rare that perhaps they don’t require an autopsy. 

Some will point to the lack of experience together from OKC’s new starting five, which features Holmgren and center Isaiah Hartenstein, and has seemingly valued Jalen Williams’ on-ball initiation at times over letting Gilgeous-Alexander cook. 

They’ll point to certain defenders, though this Minnesota defense was shorthanded. 

It’s very possible that Gilgeous-Alexander simply let his mortality slip for a night. 

There was a tunnel vision to the way he navigated the lane. The journey to his spots looked, at times, like hikes. His arrival there, at times, resulted in shots over multiple defenders without an audible. The easiest ones, those that only asked for his angelic touch at the rim, fell flat. 

There’s nothing about his night — besides earning his way to 11 free throws, to which the Target Center crowd chanted “free-throw merchant” toward him — that was consistent with who he’s been. 

OKC’s night likely unfolds differently if he resembled something closer to who he’s been. Yet even MVP candidates are mortal. 

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Schedule quirk brings rerun sooner

Thursday night was the first of a very abrupt two-week series between these teams. 

Ten days from its loss to the Timberwolves — separated by the All-Star break and a trip to Utah to begin the second half of the season — the Thunder will travel back to Minnesota for the third game of the season series, which began on New Years Eve. 

Less than 24 hours later, the Thunder will be back in Oklahoma City to play — you guessed it — the Timberwolves, concluding the season series. 

It’s among the more strange scheduling quirks any two teams will experience this season, ensuring that their regular-season series would span between just over two months and end two months before a possible postseason meeting. 

A hi-bye that those who conjured the schedule likely got a kick out of. 

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Up next: Thunder at Jazz

TIPOFF: 8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, at Delta Center in Salt Lake City (FanDuel Sports Network)