The Oklahoma City Thunder recovered from an embarrassing Game 3 defeat and won a claw-biting Game 4 contest with the Minnesota Timber Wolves.
The Thunder took an eight-point lead at halftime, earning a 128-126 victory at target centers.
The most valuable player, Shy Gilgauss Alexander, undoubtedly had his best playoff performance with 40 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists.
Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren also had an incredible evening, with Gilgeous-Alexander saying a lot about the latter at a post-game press conference.
Holmglen is quietly running an impressive playoff campaign as Thunder’s third option. The SGA stole the show, and Williams was second, but Holmglen’s contribution was also important.
And SGA believes Power Forward deserves additional credits for his offensive output. He made it clear after Game 4 that he instinctively played and doesn’t even have a play called him.
“Yeah, that was amazing,” the MVP praised Holmgren. “Like you said, hell on both ends of the floor. He’s influenced the game at such a high level.
“And that’s crazy because he’s just running around right now. We rarely call plays for him. He’s nothing set up for him.
“He’s just there, he’s got a feel, he’s got an impact on the game, making open shots, blocking shots, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds. He’s just a winner and it was a really good version tonight.”
The Thunder have all the traits of the best team of all time, but it seems stupid that now they aren’t so fond of winning the championship.
They have outstanding head coaches (Mark Deinialt), defense, role players and Big 3 (Gilgauss Alexander, Williams, Holmglen).
However, after losing Game 3, the trio had to step up to Game 4 to regain control of the Western Conference Finals Series. Well, they couldn’t respond that well and scored a total of 95 points.
Of course, it’s unlikely to happen again, but you can expect Thunder’s Big 3 to produce over 70 points each night.
Given that they have the deepest bench in the NBA, it seems almost impossible for them to beat in the 7-game series at this point.