Oklahoma City @ Minnesota preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 6, 2019 ) Minnesota 127, Oklahoma City 139

The Oklahoma City Thunder are rocketing up the standings in the Western Conference, but missed an opportunity to pick on a weakened opponent in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. The Thunder will try to pick themselves back up and win for the 12th time in 15 games when they visit the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday.

Oklahoma City took on the West-leading Lakers at home on Saturday with LeBron James and Anthony Davis sitting out, but fell into an early hole and never recovered in the 125-110 setback. "I didn't think it was for lack of effort, I just thought (the Lakers) were the aggressor tonight," Thunder coach Billy Donovan told reporters. "They had us back on our heels a little bit, and I think our guys were really trying, but there's just some nights where it's just not your night and I would say tonight was one of those nights. It just wasn't our night." The Timberwolves are coming off their own disappointing performance after suffering a 139-109 loss at Houston on Saturday - their most lopsided setback of the season. "Hey, we got our butts kicked," Minnesota coach Ryan Saunders told reporters. "Credit to Houston. They're a good basketball team. We've got to grow from that."

TIME: 8 p.m. ET. TV: FS Oklahoma, FS North

ABOUT THE THUNDER (22-17): Shai Gilgeous-Alexander recorded 24 points in Saturday's loss and leads the team in scoring at an average of 19.9 points. "We have a bunch of competitors and no matter what they score is, we're going to give it our all," Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters after the setback. "Honestly, we just love to play basketball and we just play as hard as we can." Gilgeous-Alexander is sparking the team with an average of 23.7 points over the last 13 games and is getting recent help from forward Danilo Gallinari, who averaged 23.5 points over the last two contests.

ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (15-23): Minnesota played its 13th consecutive game without All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns on Saturday and shot 37.9 percent from the floor while allowing the Rockets to go off at 51.6 percent. "We had a lot of breakdowns," Saunders told reporters. "We didn't guard the ball well. We didn't rebound well. We let shooters get free. Our transition defense (was poor). We had a lot of things that were not good." Timberwolves small forward Andrew Wiggins, who averages 23.6 points, struggled to 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting - 1-of-7 from beyond the arc - in Saturday's setback.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Towns (illness, knee) did not make the trip to Houston but is getting close to a return.

2. Thunder C Nerlens Noel (ankle) sat out the last four games and is day-to-day.

3. Oklahoma City earned a 139-127 overtime victory at home over Minnesota on Dec. 6 as Gilgeous-Alexander and Chris Paul combined for 59 points.

PREDICTION: Thunder 121, Timberwolves 113