NEW ORLEANS — In the moments immediately following the final buzzer of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s sweep of the New Orleans Pelicans, a 97-89 road victory in Game 4, Thunder players looked unfazed.
They exchanged hugs and handshakes, gave each other pats on the backside and reserved the proper show of respect for the opponent they just dismantled and left discombobulated.
But the NBA’s youngest team, as spirited as they come, noticeably did not celebrate inside the Smoothie King Center on Monday night. In the Thunder’s minds, their journey is just starting.
“There’s a difference between age and maturity,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “And we have a mature team. We have a committed team.”
Only when Thunder forward Jalen Williams spotted team sideline reporter Nick Gallo did the players let loose. Williams, who was superb throughout this short series, bounced over to Gallo and playfully shoulder-checked him several times. Of course, Williams’ teammates followed, nine of them huddling around for their customary, collective postgame interview.
Jalen Williams just lit up when he realized he was on his way to talk to team reporter Nick Gallo. The team just absolutely mobbed him. pic.twitter.com/4pXM5cJky0
— Joel Lorenzi (@jxlorenzi) April 30, 2024
It was the Thunder’s first playoff series win since defeating the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals in 2016. Williams, now in his second season, was a 15-year-old high school freshman the last time Oklahoma City advanced. The Thunder, who are the youngest No. 1-seeded team in NBA playoff history, also became the youngest team in NBA history to win a playoff series, according to the team’s public relations.
Yet the only other sign of celebration was seen in Daigneault’s drenched hair.
“Our players are idiots,” Daigneault explained, jokingly. “Just a quick shower from the fellas.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the team’s lead conductor, said it was only water.
“We probably should have used Gatorade,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
Added Williams: “It was cold water, though.”
With that, the Thunder turned their attention to the second round. They’ll face either the Dallas Mavericks or LA Clippers, hoping to continue this magical ride in a season few saw coming.
Before marching to 57 wins this season, Oklahoma City went 86-150 over the previous three, missing the postseason in each season. Two seasons ago, the Thunder won only 24 games, which was two more than they won the season before that.
“It was tough years,” said resident defensive Doberman Lu Dort, who has played all five of his seasons in OKC. “It’s not easy going into a game and knowing that there’s not a high chance that we have to win the game. That was our thing. We wanted to build and get to where we’re at today.
“Now we’ve just got to look forward. We can’t look back anymore. But I feel like it kind of built our character and now we can enjoy where we’re at now.”
The envy of the NBA?
With its starting lineup’s average age being just 23.2 years, Oklahoma City’s roster is lined with talent that has a 10-year runway of endless possibilities. But the Thunder are ready to win now. The last time Oklahoma City swept a series was against Dallas in the first round in 2012. The Thunder journeyed to the NBA Finals that season, a run observers also considered at least one year ahead of schedule.
“We don’t want to get all high on our horse and think we’re so good because we’re young or we’re the youngest team to do something,” center Chet Holmgren said. “You could look at it the other way. When things don’t go well, we can try to look for excuses that way. We don’t like to do that.
“We’re just trying to be where our feet are at, continue to get better, stay at it as a group. That’s what’s worked for us getting to this point so we’re not going to switch up anything now.”
Two conclusions can be drawn after the Thunder dominated the series. The first is that OKC certainly was fortunate that injured Pelicans star Zion Williamson couldn’t play. His mere presence would have changed everything for both teams. But that’s not diminishing what the Thunder accomplished. Because you can’t help but view OKC as a true contender now.
“When you take a step back,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, “it’s very hard to beat an NBA team, no matter what NBA team, four times in a row. We had to do a lot of things right on a lot of possessions — and there are so many possessions in a game — just to get one W.
“The group of guys that — I guess you could say we’re young and don’t have the most experience in winning basketball games. To figure it out and to stick with it the way we have is very impressive. And it’s just cool to be a part of it.”
Every time the Thunder’s youth and inexperience should have sabotaged them in this series, they prevailed. Each time, they crafted a defiant stretch at both ends that announced their arrival louder as each contest passed. In Game 4, it was a game-changing 18-2 fourth-quarter run. The Thunder turned a five-point deficit inside the final nine minutes into an 11-point cushion with 3:08 remaining.
The game-winning rally showed poise, defense and shot-making rarely exhibited by first-time playoff performers. Josh Giddey, the youngest starter of the bunch at 21, stepped up as an unlikely sharpshooter. He drilled 3 of 4 pivotal 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Each came with the margin being a one-possession game. Giddey, a 31 percent career 3-point shooter, never hesitated to fire.
“Him hitting shots brought us life down the stretch,” Williams said. “Credit to him. He’s been guarded all kinds of ways this year so for him to step up in those big moments was huge.”
Dort was dominant throughout defensively, flustering Pelicans star Brandon Ingram out of the series and possibly out of New Orleans after the nightmare performance he produced. Ingram, to be fair, missed 12 of the final 13 regular-season games with a bone bruise in his left knee. But he never made a difference in the series. He scored a series-low eight points on 2-of-14 shooting in the closeout game. Dort led the effort in holding Ingram to a 14.3-point scoring average on 34.5 percent shooting. Ingram averaged 3.3 assists against 2.3 turnovers in the series.
Dort almost matched Ingram minute for minute in four contests. Ingram played 145 minutes. Dort logged 141. Dort also outplayed Ingram offensively, splashing in 12 of 23 3-pointers in the series and finishing only 13 points shy of Ingram.
“My main thing was to be physical the whole time,” Dort said. “He’s a great player. I watched a lot of film on him. He’s able to make a lot of tough shots too. So my main thing was just to be up in him and contest everything that I could. It wasn’t just me though. It was the help behind me as well. So I give credit to all my teammates as well.”
Oklahoma City held New Orleans to 93.5 points per 100 possessions, the lowest a playoff team has managed since Memphis and Houston in the 2016 postseason.
In Games 1 and 4, the Thunder proved they could win a slow-paced, grind-it-out playoff game. They went 21-1 in the regular season when holding teams to 105 points or less. The final margin was within five points in only three of those contests. The Thunder won the rest going away.
“In the playoffs, playing defense is important,” Williams said. “That’s where we’re going to hang our hat on. Offense is so, I don’t want to say hit or miss, but you can have games where you don’t shoot well. With defense, there are a lot of instances and controllables that you can impact the game with. I think we did a really good job with the game plan.”
In his debut playoff series, Holmgren was steady too, more than holding his own against burly Pelicans center Jonas Valančiūnas. Holmgren took a pounding each time the Pelicans threw the ball into Valančiūnas in the post. He shook it off and stood tall each time. Now he’s prepared for the highest level of physicality the game allows.
Even when teams try to attack Holmgren as the Pelicans routinely did, they’ll be committing to an antiquated style that sucks the life out of a modern offense. Not only does the strategy play into the Thunder’s hands, but Holmgren’s hard work is allowing him to win his share of those mini-battles.
Behind them all is Daigneault, the mastermind NBA Coach of the Year, who seemingly has pulled all the right strings this season. Player development is apparent. But the team’s best player and league MVP candidate put into words the personal touch Daigneault applies. It’s the same thing that helps Daigneault get the most from his players and accelerate this Thunder timeline.
“It’s his humility,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “When something’s wrong, it’s his fault. And when something’s right, he’s not the reason for it. Seeing that selflessness day in and day out is refreshing. It makes it easy to play for him. It makes it easy to come to work every day. It doesn’t feel like work. He’s just an A-plus guy all around.”
Daigneault has learned who his players are too. But he said the sweep of the Pelicans didn’t teach him anything he didn’t already know. It only reaffirmed it.
“I’ve learned not to underestimate this group of guys,” Daigneault said. “Nothing that they do surprises me at this point.”
(Photo of Jalen Williams and Herbert Jones: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
