1 week Ago
On Saturday afternoon, the Thunder locked up a clean sweep of the Grizzlies, out-lasting Memphis behind a dagger from soon-to-be MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The four-game series had its fair share of fireworks, including an opening 51-point win, a historic 29-point comeback and more. Now, the Thunder look to Round 2, where they’ll face the winner of the Nuggets and Clippers series, which is currently very much up in the air.
Through four games, both Denver and LA have two wins each, with plenty of highs and lows between them. The series opened with a two-point overtime win from Denver on their home court, featuring late-game heroics from Nikola Jokic. Game 2 featured a Kawhi Leonard masterclass, where the all-timer scored 39 points on 15-for-19 shooting to help the Clippers take it by three.
Game 3 seemed a potential death blow for Denver, as LA coasted to a 117-83 at home with one more game in Intuit Dome. On Saturday, the Nuggets flipped the script, issuing the Clippers a beatdown of their own. Jokic saw an all-time performance — with Aaron Gordon putting the finishing touches in staving off LA with a last-second dunk — and the Nuggets re-grabbed momentum in what’s been the best series of the first round.
Regardless of who they play, the Thunder are going to have an exceptionally long break to tighten screws ahead of the second round. Gilgeous-Alexander said postgame of Game 4 that it could work in the team's favor and offer freshness, or hurt and bring rust. Both LA and Denver will offer challenges for Oklahoma City, with the former having a talented trio of stars and the latter offering one of the best player's on the planet.
OKC, though, will undoubtedly keep its head down and continue to work as it awaits its next opponent..
