{"id":1954259,"date":"2026-05-25T12:36:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T09:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1954259"},"modified":"2026-05-25T12:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T09:36:52","slug":"thunders-depth-normally-a-strength-has-questions-to-answer-after-game-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1954259","title":{"rendered":"Thunder\u2019s depth, normally a strength, has questions to answer after Game 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s depth, magnificent throughout this season and this Western Conference finals series, had no magic to give Sunday night. Depth went from a helpful tool to dire.<\/p>\n

Down Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, two of the team\u2019s most important creators, the Thunder delivered their flattest game of the postseason, a 103-82 Game 4 loss<\/a> that evened their series with the San Antonio Spurs. A game that did not reek of desperation, but instead felt weighed down by the depth chart.<\/p>\n

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Yes, the Thunder played without a bevy of ballhandlers at different points during this season. But this is not Detroit in February. Or Utah in November. Can the Thunder conjure offense against such a harsh defense without the necessary initiators?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can,\u201d coach Mark Daigneault said postgame. \u201cI thought we left a lot to be desired on that end of the floor. We didn\u2019t have the sharpness, force or precision necessary to crack them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After Mitchell\u2019s prominence in the Los Angeles Lakers series, OKC entered the West finals with roughly 3 1\/2 star talents on the roster. But the injuries, as well as Chet Holmgren\u2019s disappearance, have made the life of back-to-back MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a lot more difficult than anticipated.<\/p>\n

Holmgren blossomed as a play finisher this season. He improved as a rebounder. He regained mobility after last year\u2019s hip procedure. He rounded into stardom and made the All-Star team.<\/p>\n

In this series, though, he\u2019s been quiet. Overpowered on the glass. Irrelevant in the offense. Incapable of launching his jump shot. Down in volume and attempts, which might not have been such an issue previously with OKC\u2019s numbers but undoubtedly is now.<\/p>\n

In 26 minutes on Sunday, Holmgren tallied 10 points on eight shots. His mythical contemporary, Victor Wembanyama, produced back-breaking plays. He scrubbed the top of the backboard for several fast-break dunks. He vacuumed any trace of OKC momentum with a half-court heave to close the first half.<\/p>\n

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He took 22 shots, seven of them 3s, and scored 33 points. The Spurs dominated his minutes, a plus-29 on the night.<\/p>\n

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The Thunder bench, fresh off a 76-point display in Friday\u2019s Game 3, scored only 18 before Sunday\u2019s fourth quarter. Alex Caruso, heroic for much of this series, played just 14 minutes. Two nights earlier, Jared McCain and Jaylin Williams were gamebreakers. NBA Jam hot<\/a>. The perfect two-man antidote to the starters\u2019 deficiencies. They were necessary wrinkles for an ever-changing series.<\/p>\n

In Game 4, they combined to shoot just 2 of 17.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s different when the offense is more dependent on their rhythm and when a defense is fixated on them. San Antonio generally stayed home on shooters after being blasted from deep in Game 3. Its collapses on SGA felt more timely and effective. That can happen when his two best complementary ballhandlers aren\u2019t available to attack the rare gaps in San Antonio\u2019s defense once he gets off the ball.<\/p>\n

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\n Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can\u2019t do it all by himself against this Spurs defense. (Scott Wachter \/ Imagn Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Thunder offense was more predicated on the cohesion of five-man lineups than at any other point in the series. OKC had 17 turnovers on the night. Its display from deep, just 6 of 33, was its worst in these playoffs. The Thunder were outclassed in the paint, shooting 43.9 percent on those shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these playoff games come down to physicality and force,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cYour force has to be better than their physicality on defense, and your physicality has to be better than their force on offense. That\u2019s kind of the trenches of a playoff game. \u2026 You\u2019ve gotta give yourselves more bites at the apple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the Thunder\u2019s most rhythmic, unforced stint in the game came in the opening minutes, when center Isaiah Hartenstein walked into a handful of floaters. That the remainder of the period was spent struggling to get SGA the ball should\u2019ve portended Game 4\u2019s results.<\/p>\n

Daigneault will need to sort through the team\u2019s process versus the dramatic, outlier results. He\u2019ll need to determine how much of the ugly was sustainable and how much can be ironed out in Tuesday\u2019s Game 5.<\/p>\n

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The Spurs did not piece together a masterpiece in Game 4 themselves. They made just nine of their 33 3-point attempts on a night they scored 103 points. Among the tangible differences, though, was that they played with desperation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey played like their season was on the line, and we didn\u2019t,\u201d Holmgren said.<\/p>\n

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The task now, separate from availability, is to conjure urgency and competence. Efficiency and order. San Antonio\u2019s defense will make that difficult. In the Thunder\u2019s pair of wins, the fearlessness of their reserves challenged Wembanyama\u2019s rim protection. In their losses, his impact is loud. Beyond him, Stephon Castle\u2019s smothering of SGA remains consistent.<\/p>\n

This series, not unlike most, is morphing from game to game. The odds, the circumstances, the personnel. Just days ago, OKC held an advantage after its most convincing and momentous win of the postseason.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, it waved the white flag fairly early in the fourth quarter, its offense deteriorating well before then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe series is 2-2, basically 0-0, and it\u2019s first to two games now,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cIt\u2019s not at the front of my mind, but it is a fact and the reality of where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander, experienced in the changing landscape of a series, remains undeterred. But his dwindling resources could soon become too overwhelming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s depth, magnificent throughout this season and this Western Conference finals series, had no magic to give Sunday night. Depth went from a helpful tool to dire. Down Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, two of the team\u2019s most important creators, the Thunder delivered their flattest game of the postseason, […]<\/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-1954259","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\/1954259","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=1954259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1954259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1954259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1954259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}