The Thunder looked overmatched Sunday night without Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, and they may need at least one of them to return to have a chance to beat the Spurs in the Western Conference finals, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. Williams was downgraded to out with left hamstring soreness shortly before Game 4 tipped off, while Mitchell was ruled out Saturday night due to a strained right calf. There’s no indication yet on whether either player will be available when the series resumes Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
As Mussatto observes, OKC struggled to get good shots or even to hold onto the ball with two of their best play-makers sidelined. They shot 33% from the floor and 18% from three-point range and weren’t able to reach 80 points until Nikola Topic hit a garbage-time layup late in the game.
“I thought we left a lot to be desired on that end of the floor tonight,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “We didn’t have the sharpness, force or precision necessary to crack them. And they were really good defensively.”
While the Thunder have experienced injuries throughout the regular season and playoffs, they’ve rarely had to survive without two of their best offensive initiators. In their absence, a huge burden fell on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was limited to 19 points by the Spurs’ smothering defense and missed nine of the 15 shots he took.
SGA didn’t get much help from his teammates as Alex Caruso was shut out, Luguentz Dort managed just two points and Jared McCain was 1-of-10 on a four-point night. The misfiring took place throughout the lineup with Cason Wallace going 2-of-8, Jaylin Williams 1-of-7 and Aaron Wiggins 2-of-11.
“I think it’s a snowball effect,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “When you come out with the right energy, things like (missing two ball handlers) work out and the offense has flow. I don’t think we came out with the right energy today.”
There’s more on the Thunder:
- Gilgeous-Alexander talked about how to create more opportunities for Chet Holmgren, who had 10 points on eight shots Sunday night (video link from Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman). “Chet’s an easy target to find,” he said, “so probably just like find him more in the dunker, when he’s spacing, just put him in better positions to use his strengths as an offensive talent.”
- The Thunder are normally able to overwhelm opponents with their talent level, but that may not be possible for the rest of this series, states Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic. The inability to adjust to the absences of Williams and Mitchell and the poor response from so many players who were thrust into larger offensive roles took away the team’s normal cohesion throughout the game.
- Even though they got outplayed in Game 4, the Thunder have the solace of earning a split in San Antonio and returning to Oklahoma City with home-court advantage, notes Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman. The players understand that they’ll have to fight through adversity to get past the Spurs and return to the NBA Finals. “I think the biggest thing is we can’t rely on it being our best day to win basketball games,” Holmgren said. “We gotta figure out how to do whatever the game calls for for us to win games. We didn’t do it tonight. … We’ve done it in the past. We’ve had games where things didn’t go our way or shots weren’t falling, whatever it might be. We still figured out how to win the game, and that’s what we have to do.”
Playoffs is all about match ups. the one team that OKC has problems against is Spurs. Notice how OKC doesn’t go inside because of Wemby. Any other team they attack the basket.
Which is why OKC trashed the Warriors 4 times this year. Kerr’s small ball is worthless vs OKC. GSW gotta get as many healthy 7 footers as possible.
just one of the reasons also the warriors had too many old players on the court that can’t keep up with young athletic players.
No, GS was not a playoff team and had no business being anything but a lotto squad.
Davey you must really love the Dubs. lol this has nothing to do with them.
It’s an @arc89 post, he and I are in a long term, long form discussion and analysis about the vision and future of our fave team. If I came in and posted this as a comment or a reply to anyone else, and not a reply to @arc89, your critique would be more valid.
It’s called “analyzing” sweaty, look it up
I understand. It’s fine. I meant no disrespect. It was just funny that’s all.
This is a safe place. Let it out Davey.
“This is a safe place.” no, it 100% is not lol
Yes, a nice safe place to rant and rave, make things up.
I mean it when I type things on here. I’m here to discuss basketball. I might joke a little but I don’t harass or bully anyone. So I’m saying all of that to show that I come in peace. Just keep that same energy towards me please. 😊
@YKBOOGIE I was directing that reply at @Sheldon Bowen, not you. You, I have no ill will towards you or anything you have ever written. I love seeing people here strictly to talk hoop and not do annoying debatebro “gotcha” “im bringing receipts” terrible aura and energy here. You do not do that. Love your takes, no notes!
@Davey Understood. All love🤝
The shot diet was off for the Thunder last night. Aaron Wiggins should not be taking 11 shots. Chet should have been the second option in Game 4. The Thunder definitely didn’t get what they wanted on offense. Nobody was good for OKC
Chet too shook vs Wemby lmao he aint doing a thing offensively in this series, he’s useless on offense vs Wemby.
The thunder can’t blow out the spurs like they do any other team. Mainly because of how dominant Wemby is at protecting the rim. Also, it’s funny how people think that the thunder are outmatched when they only lose two players in game 4. But I get it, Ajay and Jalen are no scrubs and they are key pieces to the thunder’s rotations..but still, what happened to all that depth ppl kept talking about?🤔🤔
its called playoff adjustments. Now the ball is in OKC court to adjust their offense to Wemby protecting the rim. Expect to see a different OKC team next game trying to get Wemby away from the key. means Chet needs to step up and block out Wemby from being stationed under the basket. Its a chess game in the playoffs.
They’ve been trying to gameplan against Wemby since he went off and scored 40 on em. I’m honestly glad that he’s got them scrambling for a new strategy. The kid is special and you can’t help but want to see him go all the way. Spurs in 7. Calling it now🏆
OKC looked so ordinary last night. Spurs played the passing lanes and wedged everything for Shai. There was zero spacing last night. Chet is playing like a ballerina while having Bambi eyes against Wemby on both ends of the floor. I still have OKC in 7, but tomorrow night will be pivotal for both teams. OKC needs it more and can’t go down 3-2 headed back to San Antonio.
FWIW I expect OKC to address either ball handler or more size with the 12th pick. They are getting exposed on both sides.
OKC shot 18% from 3pt line so you know they will do much better next game.
If OKC were a good 3pt shooting team they’d sweep everyone. But they are not. I love seeing them jack 3’s. But every 10 games they shoot lights out like G3.
they can’t do worse than 18% on 3s like last game. If they shoot 33% that is 15 more points than last game and they are only down 6 points and inside opens up.
I mean Spurs didn’t do well behind the 3PT line, they just played bully ball and OKC got punked. Old school type defense last night.
@raz427, I rarely disagree with you, but OKC has as much ball-handling depth as any team in the league. Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell are injured at the moment. Any team that loses their #2 and #3 best ball-handlers is going to struggle against an elite defense.
As for this draft, there isn’t a single ball-handler that wouldn’t sit behind SGA, Williams, Mitchell, McCain, Caruso, and, maybe even Nikola Topic for their first season. Keep in mind that you also have to defend at a high level to see the floor at OKC.
IMO, there are some nice PG’s in this draft, but none of them could help OKC in their rookie season, with the possible exception of Darryn Peterson.
How about this idea: OKC has 2 lottery picks this season and 4 first round picks next season (that’s 6 total in the next 13 months) along with an excess of young talent on their current roster. No team can match what they could put together for Dybantsa, Boozer, or Wilson?
@aristotle Great points. Every statement was flawless.💙🫡 There shouldn’t be any excuses for okc at this point. They’re the defending champs..going up against a younger team that was already considered the underdog in this series. I’ll leave it at that for now..
That was the most physical game of the playoffs. Both teams basically dared the ref to call foul on every possession. Spurs did it better.