Expect the Timberwolves to throw multiple defenders at Gilgeous-Alexander. There's no true SGA stopper in the NBA. It'll be a group effort if Minnesota hopes to make him earn his inevitable 30 points. Alexander-Walker will be one of the defenders assigned to stop his cousin.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker shut down his cousin, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, in a play-in victory in 2023 that sent the Thunder home and clinched the Timberwolves’ second consecutive playoff berth.

Cousins Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nickeil Alexander-Walker have faced each other 15 times now in the NBA — including once in a play-in game — but never in a playoff series.