TALENTED WINGMEN
With Oklahoma City clutching a four-point lead, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drove into the line and smacked into triple coverage—doing the splits as he stopped and desperately tried to find a safe place for the ball.
Somehow, as he lost his balance and fell toward the court, he found space to fling it between the legs of Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels—and straight to a wide-open Jalen Williams behind the arc with 1:21 to go.
Swish. Game. Maybe even the series.
The Thunder saw that seven-point lead shrink back to one in the closing seconds, but they staved off the late push with a parade to the free-throw line and pulled out a 128-126 victory in Game 4 that gave them a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
Even the NBA MVP needs a wingman, and Gilgeous-Alexander has two. Williams and Chet Holmgren were so good in their own ways that a 40-point, 10-assist, nine-rebound performance by Gilgeous-Alexander on Monday night was somehow overshadowed.
Williams had 13 of his 34 points in the first quarter to give the Thunder the scoring to match their tenacious start after a 42-point loss in Game 3. He shot 13-for-24, including 6-for-9 from three-point range, and pitched in three of the team’s 14 steals.
“From start to finish, he picked his spots great, he was aggressive, stepped into everything,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was who he is. He’s gotten all these awards this year for a good reason, and he proved it tonight. He’s a really good basketball player. It’s crazy to think he’s so young and what he has already achieved.”
Holmgren had nine of his 21 points in the fourth quarter. He went 9-for-14 from the floor, grabbed four of his seven rebounds on the offensive end and blocked three shots—including a highlight-reel rejection of McDaniels in the final minute in a five-point game.
Perfect timing
After McDaniels followed his hard drive right with a slick spin move to beat him to the basket for a left-side layup attempt, Holmgren never lost his footing despite the change in direction and swiftly slid to his right before a perfectly timed jump to swat the ball without fouling as the clock dropped under the 40-second mark.
“On both ends of the floor, he affects the game at such a high level,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And it’s crazy because he’s out there just running around right now. We rarely call plays for him. He rarely gets anything set for him. He’s just out there playing off of feel and affecting the game at a high level, whether it’s making open shots, blocking shots, offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding.
“He’s just a winning player.”
