{"id":1908630,"date":"2026-04-29T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1908630"},"modified":"2026-04-29T10:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:00:29","slug":"thunder-are-still-evolving-and-a-recent-sweep-showed-how-far-theyve-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1908630","title":{"rendered":"Thunder are still \u2018evolving,\u2019 and a recent sweep showed how far they\u2019ve come"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PHOENIX \u2014 Forgive the Oklahoma City Thunder if their steps toward the bus departing from Mortgage Matchup Center sounded relieved.<\/p>\n

The first round of the playoffs tastes like an appetizer to an apex predator, but after three first-round sweeps in as many years, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has learned to savor this. The postseason climb only gets steeper.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a really good feeling, just confidence-wise, as a group,\u201d the reigning NBA MVP said after Monday\u2019s 131-122 Game 4 win over the Phoenix Suns<\/a> to advance. \u201cIt\u2019s good to get a playoff run started off that way. You never know what can happen. Usually, the later you go, the better the team. You want to give yourself as many days that you can rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Two years ago, every Oklahoma City benchmark was tethered to its age. The Thunder were the youngest No. 1 seed, the youngest team to win a postseason series, the youngest core in the playoffs. How quickly they erased any memory of inexperience. A four-game sweep of the Suns became the bare minimum for a team with aspirations of a title defense.<\/p>\n

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The Thunder kept the eighth seed at arm\u2019s length without their All-NBA wing. Jalen Williams\u2019 mid-series injury did not alter their immediate fate.<\/p>\n

Five-time All-Star Devin Booker felt that inevitability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have all the answers to the test,\u201d Booker said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been tested together, and they\u2019ve been together for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thunder\u2019s maturation extends beyond last June\u2019s title, as they endured a pair of grueling seven-game series to get there. Their system \u2014 the way they enforce it, the way they adjust \u2014 it\u2019s all continued to incubate. It grows as Gilgeous-Alexander does. It ages with coach Mark Daigneault. It is enabled by every pesky defender on the wing.<\/p>\n

Leave it to Daigneault to push a series of buttons in a closeout game. In the first quarter, he played Aaron Wiggins five minutes after the wing played 10 real rotational minutes all series. Gilgeous-Alexander typically plays the length of the first quarter. With pest Dillon Brooks attached to him, forcing him to fight for every opening, Gilgeous-Alexander was yanked by Daigneault earlier than usual to let Ajay Mitchell run the offense.<\/p>\n

Daigneault still hasn\u2019t lost a first-round playoff game as a head coach.<\/p>\n

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He met Phoenix\u2019s desperation with competence. Brooks matched up with Chet Holmgren for every game of the series leading into Monday. Suns coach Jordan Ott gave Brooks what he wanted and requested Booker stay with Holmgren.<\/p>\n

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For three minutes, Holmgren impacted every possession. His contests, his spacing. He and center Isaiah Hartenstein\u2019s chemistry felt explosive. He lunged toward lobs and caught Booker sleeping. Oklahoma City\u2019s big men combined for 42 points and 24 rebounds. Their sturdiness extends the timer on their pairing.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It was) their ability to defend in space against a team with shooting everywhere, and that was playing with that tempo,\u201d Daigneault said of how much Hartenstein and Holmgren played together. \u201cThat was the kind of game a year ago that we would probably have to downsize more than we did. But their ability to keep themselves on the floor defensively against that type of offense allowed for us to get the stuff we got around the basket.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Isaiah Hartenstein (left) and Chet Holmgren have made a formidable duo on the interior for the Thunder. (Zach Beeker \/ NBAE via Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This series proved taxing for Booker before the cross-matching. He saw those double-teams he dreads, accompanied by Lu Dort in any other one-on-one scenario. But on Monday, as a defender, he was chasing Holmgren in actions. His own 12-point third-quarter outburst, much like the remainder of the series, never sustained.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, our game plan just worked,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said.<\/p>\n

Veteran Alex Caruso breathed life into the concept of playoff risers. He drilled eight of his 17 3s in the first round, forcing turnovers and runs at regular pace. Mitchell, in his second playoff start, remained audacious.\u00a0He needed to. He finished a team-high plus-27 \u2014 including a plus-15 in the second quarter \u2014 and served as a stabilizer of offense.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander entered Monday in the 100th percentile of the field as a pick-and-roll ballhandler in these playoffs, averaging 1.56 points per possession. He defied double-teams. He played Twister around blitzes and aggressive coverages. He appeared double-jointed near the rim.<\/p>\n

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Game 4 was a continuation. Of his prolific control of offense. Of his regular-season reign. The 31 points and eight assists. Phoenix\u2019s defense doesn\u2019t speak for the West, but Gilgeous-Alexander essentially elevated as a ballhandler for a series-sized sample. That\u2019s not nothing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re evolving,\u201d veteran Alex Caruso said. \u201cGuys can get better. I think that\u2019s the coolest thing about this team, that will all the success we\u2019ve had, accolades, awards, achievements. There\u2019s still areas to improve. Greatness is always chasing something.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Oklahoma City\u2019s case, the chase is terrifying because it has the legs to follow through, to keep improving by the series. Its momentum is not matchup-dependent. It\u2019s evidently prepared to stomach the injury misfortune seen across these playoffs, too.<\/p>\n

The Thunder, one ring down and another in their line of sight, already boast experience considered sufficient. They\u2019re an assembly line. Their aggregate, as exposed by the regular season and Williams\u2019 two-game absence, feels unfair.<\/p>\n

In nearly all of the other NBA playoff series, the first round went off-script. Vanilla, though, is Oklahoma City\u2019s superpower. Brooks\u2019 taunts and Booker\u2019s denouncement of officiating are one thing. As far as the length of this series, the Thunder never allowed this head-to-head to generate headlines.<\/p>\n

The final headline: Oklahoma City completes sweep, preparing for days off<\/em><\/p>\n

A line Gilgeous-Alexander can now appreciate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2014 Forgive the Oklahoma City Thunder if their steps toward the bus departing from Mortgage Matchup Center sounded relieved. The first round of the playoffs tastes like an appetizer to an apex predator, but after three first-round sweeps in as many years, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has learned to savor this. The postseason climb only gets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1908630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1908630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1908630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1908630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1908630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}