{"id":1925381,"date":"2026-05-08T16:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1925381"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:55:00","slug":"thunder-proved-their-inevitability-extends-beyond-sga-they-know-how-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1925381","title":{"rendered":"Thunder proved their inevitability extends beyond SGA: \u2018They know how to win\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Athletic has live coverage of 76ers vs. Knicks<\/a> in Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Inevitability, for the Oklahoma City Thunder, once required their MVP. That signature avalanche of a run. That series of expected blows that creates distance between the defending champs and their opposition. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is meant to be in the middle of it.<\/p>\n

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So it must be understood how deflating Thursday\u2019s third quarter felt for the Los Angeles Lakers. When a band of players hoping to hold down the fort without Gilgeous-Alexander \u2014 who picked up his fourth foul after just 18 minutes \u2014 took the roof off instead. Jared McCain and Ajay Mitchell ran devastating offenses. Jaylin Williams nearly entered the astral plane, his four-point play appearing like an out-of-body experience. \u00a0Chet Holmgren excitedly beat Williams on the chest until it bruised.<\/p>\n

From his seat on the floor after the whistle, Williams saw his four surrounding teammates react in synchronization, like unmasked Jabbawockeez. Their jaws unlatched. Their roars unleashed, their lungs emptied. They were riffing without their MVP-caliber organizer.<\/p>\n

If the net rating wasn\u2019t enough, if the weaponization of deep bench players seemed at all fluky or purely predicated on the regular season, then take the third quarter as a public service announcement. For nearly 11 minutes, virtually everyone not named SGA declared themselves capable.<\/p>\n

\u201cFull confidence in those guys,\u201d said Gilgeous-Alexander, who tallied a modest 22 points in the Thunder\u2019s 125-107 Game 2 win<\/a>. \u201cThey know how to win basketball games. They\u2019ve proven that, no matter who\u2019s on the floor now, they know how to get the job done, and they just did it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Thunder trailed 65-61 when he exited with 10:34 remaining in the third. He didn\u2019t play the remainder of the quarter. He didn\u2019t need to. From 8:15 to 1:51, OKC went on a 25-7 run.<\/p>\n

No SGA, no Jalen Williams. Mitchell\u2019s ballhandling responsibilities elevated beyond a secondary need. He caulked star-fitted cracks.<\/p>\n

In 10 third-quarter minutes, he didn\u2019t morph into a check-down quarterback. His possessions didn\u2019t suggest a preference for safety. He relentlessly barreled toward the rim, tallying seven points and three assists, along with six free throw attempts. The pressure on the paint, the order in that quarter, began with him getting downhill.<\/p>\n

His touch was the last thing the Lakers saw on drives. His fingerprints were on a telling run.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe played three years in college,\u201d Holmgren said of the former UC Santa Barbara guard, \u201cand didn\u2019t play a single minute with Shai.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Ajay<\/p>\n
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\n Ajay Mitchell, Thunder\u2019s breakout player, carries the dreams of his late father\n <\/div>\n
\n After losing his father in December, this season took on more meaning for Oklahoma City’s Ajay Mitchell: “I don’t want to let him down.”\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Mitchell and McCain didn\u2019t discover something on Thursday. They built upon a dormant connection. McCain, who arrived via the Philadelphia 76ers at February\u2019s trade deadline, entered this series aware of the volatility of his minutes. That he could just as well swing a quarter as he could watch it from the bench. For two consecutive games, he and Mitchell delivered the offensive stretch that produced OKC\u2019s biggest lead of the night.<\/p>\n

That momentum washes over McCain. When his deep 3-pointers invoke a frenzy that shatters ear drums, he senses the opposing shoulders shrug. He\u2019s hit four 3s in each of the first two games in these Western Conference semifinals. Thursday felt like his indoctrination as a true cog in an undeniable machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I see him get a touch,\u201d Holmgren said, \u201cI think it\u2019s going in. I know it\u2019s going up. At this point, I know it\u2019s going in, too. As he should.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCain finished with 18 points Thursday, just two fewer than the entire Lakers bench. That score, through two games, sits much closer: L.A.\u2019s reserves with 35, McCain 30. He\u2019s more than doubled the 12 points he scored in four first-round games against the Phoenix Suns. He\u2019s also twisted the dagger deeper into the wound created by his Philadelphia departure.<\/p>\n

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\n Jared McCain was a key contributor off the bench in the Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s Game 2 win Thursday over the Los Angeles Lakers. (Joshua Gateley \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Thursday marked the first time the Thunder trailed at halftime in this postseason, the first time a team truly got in OKC\u2019s grill. SGA, obsessively doubled and thrust into foul trouble less than two minutes into the second half, couldn\u2019t save them.\u00a0Nothing about McCain\u2019s short-lived time with the team told him it couldn\u2019t be him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a skeptical or cynical locker room, then the first time a guy dribbles off his foot, everybody\u2019s rolling their eyes,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said the afternoon before Game 2. \u201cThat has a huge impact on the confidence of a young player. We don\u2019t have that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cason Wallace, a plus-14 in the third quarter, spent much of the period beside them. His disruption, his sturdiness, allowed OKC to get greedy. Holmgren reached eight points in 10 minutes. Isaiah Hartenstein held down the rim in a game where the Lakers repeatedly tried him vertically. Alex Caruso let his bank of LeBron James data inform his defensive swipes and chatter.<\/p>\n

The Lakers didn\u2019t die then. Another push followed in the fourth, which saw them cut the deficit to five. But without the momentum sourced by the non-SGA minutes of the third quarter, the gall behind that stretch, there\u2019d be no lead to threaten. No composure to break.<\/p>\n

In nearly 33 minutes with Gilgeous-Alexander off the floor in this series, the Thunder are a plus-21.\u00a0The Lakers have exhausted resources to minimize him through two games. Such excessive coverages, concerted efforts to get the ball out of his hands immediately, come with a cost.<\/p>\n

The team the Lakers are challenging to beat in four-on-three scenarios has spent the past couple seasons learning SGA\u2019s gravity in these scenarios. They\u2019ve got platoon swaps of four-man units that can probe and pick at these coverages. They\u2019ve got players near the end of the bench who can swing games.<\/p>\n

Their dedication to cage SGA hasn\u2019t granted solutions to Mitchell\u2019s poise. To Holmgren\u2019s presence. To Caruso\u2019s irritation. To McCain\u2019s inferno.<\/p>\n

There is no algorithm or coverage that covers inevitability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of 76ers vs. Knicks in Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals. OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Inevitability, for the Oklahoma City Thunder, once required their MVP. That signature avalanche of a run. That series of expected blows that creates distance between the defending champs and their opposition. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander […]<\/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-1925381","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\/1925381","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=1925381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}