Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be hoping to flush Saturday’s game from his memory.
Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder had their worst showing of the season in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. Presented with the opportunity to go up in the series 3-0, Oklahoma City instead laid an egg and got stomped by a final score of 143-101.
The Thunder went down by 20 points at the end of the first quarter and only managed 41 points before the half. As a result, their series lead has been trimmed to 2-1 heading into Monday’s Game 4 (which will also be in Minnesota).
During the second quarter (with the Timberwolves already leading 56-29), Gilgeous-Alexander went to the free throw line and was taunted with a three-word chant by the Target Center crowd. They yelled, “Free throw merchant!” at the newly-minted NBA MVP Gilgeous-Alexander.
Target Center crowd chants “free throw merchant” at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pic.twitter.com/XuIWMKmfW3
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) May 25, 2025
Calling Gilgeous-Alexander a “free throw merchant” is a pejorative way of saying that he relies excessively on fishing for free throws. Interestingly enough, ESPN’s Doris Burke used that exact term to describe Gilgeous-Alexander in Game 1, so the “merchant” jab has clearly gone mainstream at this point.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who led the NBA in scoring this season with 32.7 points per game, could only manage 14 points on 4/13 shooting Saturday (with a very uncharacteristic four total free throws attempted). Fans are growing increasingly irritated with Gilgeous-Alexander’s style of play, so something like this was inevitably going to happen once the Thunder went on the road this series.
