The Thunder Have Numbers

The Oklahoma City Thunder have options. Their best player got off to a rough start in Game 5. Before scoring a single point Tuesday night, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander committed three live-ball turnovers and a shooting foul, leading to seven points for the visiting San Antonio Spurs, and he missed four shots of his own, including a pair of layups. "If it was four or five mes out there, we would've been down 20 after the first quarter," Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. The Thunder were not down 20 after the first quarter; they were, in fact, up two points, and would spend the rest of the night lengthening their lead and fortifying their advantages, cruising to 127–114 victory. While Gilgeous-Alexander struggled for space and rhythm, Chet Holmgren took and made some tough mid-rangers over smaller defenders. Alex Caruso and Kenrich Williams buried three-pointers off the bench. Isaiah Hartenstein threw in one of those goofy push shots. Gilgeous-Alexander had plenty of time to work his way into a groove. "The guys were great to start the game. I probably should never start like that again, and give us a better chance to win a ballgame, but the guys held it down." It's not just on offense that Mark Daigneault has the resources for Plans B and C. When his first idea of a defensive plan for stopping Victor Wembanyama bombed back in Game 1, Daigneault unleashed Hartenstein to drag Wemby into the hell of endless arm-bars, and set Caruso and Lu Dort free to beat up San Antonio's perimeter playmakers. The Spurs have not yet exactly identified a counter-maneuver: After scoring a relatively cool 122 points in the series-opening victory, San Antonio's offense has become a painful grind, and even in their Game 4 win they were held to just 103 points, an offensive rating (102) more than six points worse than the figure produced by the regular season's shittiest offense. Yes, sure, San Antonio scored 114 in the loss Tuesday night, but they produced a sub-Wizards 1.06 points per possession during Wembanyama's 38 minutes of action.