Thunder stay ‘in character,’ join a delightfully surprising NBA Final Four

OKLAHOMA CITY — It would have been one thing if these youthful, exuberant and absurdly talented Oklahoma City Thunder imposed their will on the decimated Denver Nuggets in this West semifinal series, sweeping them en route to asserting their title-contending superiority or, at worst, sending them home with a gentleman’s sweep.

But they didn’t.

Or if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was so magnificent that it made you wonder how any defense could possibly stop him (and by proxy, them) during this (soon-to-be) MVP campaign. That didn’t happen, either.

This was a seven-game slugfest, one that revealed the Nuggets’ championship grit amid so many setbacks (Aaron Gordon’s hamstring, Michael Porter Jr.’s shoulder) while exposing the warts (inexperience and inconsistency) that still exist on this loaded Thunder team that is the youngest ever to reach the West finals. And in this postseason where everything we thought we learned the past six months has since been cast aside, with purported juggernauts like the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers getting bounced in humbling fashion and so many teams that were once considered middle-of-the-pack (Minnesota, New York and Indiana) somehow surviving, nothing that unfolded in the Thunder’s Game 7 win on Sunday (125-93) changed this delightful truth about the NBA’s Final Four.

This title is up for grabs in the most glorious of ways.

In this age of parity and second-apron hell that has all been by (Collective Bargaining Agreement) design, you couldn’t ask for a better flurry at the finish. The Knicks, having reached the East finals for the first time in a quarter century, have all of New York City going bonkers over the possibility of a title that would be their first since 1973. The Pacers, whose turnaround from a 10-15 start to this beautiful basketball has been piloted by renaissance man Rick Carlisle, look capable of winning the franchise’s first NBA championship.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, who so many believed were mortgaging their future (for financial purposes) when they decided to swap Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo last summer, have not only returned to the West finals for a second consecutive time but are on an absolute roll in these past 11 weeks (they’re 25-5 since March 2, including playoffs). And then there’s the Thunder, who wreaked havoc on the regular season only to come so dangerously close to joining the other ill-fated elites when the second round rolled around.

Instead, we get to witness Gilgeous-Alexander and his dynamic bunch go up against Anthony Edwards and his Timberwolves team that so many left for dead.

“My gut says OKC wins the series,” one scout relayed Sunday night. “Their defensive coverages and schemes are so good. (They’re) closing up the paint and rotating out of scheme, then they have the best scorer in the game who has proven to come through when they need it.”

May the best young star (and his squad) win.

As Gilgeous-Alexander and I discussed in mid-April, there’s a counterintuitive truth that comes with this Thunder squad. While their youth should inspire patience, with the 26-year-old SGA the elder statesmen of a core that also includes Jalen Williams (24) and Chet Holmgren (23), the life-comes-at-you-fast nature of this modern-day NBA climate means there’s simply no (contending) time to waste. Just ask the Celtics, whose dreams of long-term dominance were in serious peril even before Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tendon tear and are all but gone now.

On the one hand, this Thunder team is constructed in a way that hopes to contend for a title for the next half-decade, at least. On the other hand, a second-round loss would have welcomed questions about whether they needed to fast-track the program with a blockbuster move for another superstar like, say, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (though league sources indicate that was highly unlikely regardless of the playoff result).

“(It’s) like (Thunder) coach (Mark Daigneault) said a couple weeks ago, this group that we have today could be the best group of players I ever played with,” Gilgeous-Alexander told me back then. “You think, ‘Oh, we’re all 25 or under, so we have a whole runway in front of us.’ But you never know what happens.”

Little did he know how true those words would be.

All in all, the Thunder — who overcame a double-digit deficit early on — deserve immense credit for getting the Game 7 job done. Gilgeous-Alexander, who admitted that nerves were a factor early on in what was the first Game 7 for the core players, finished with 35 points (12-of-19 shooting) while playing his pivotal role on the other end as well. Williams (24 points, seven assists) busted his slump at the perfect time, and Holmgren (13 points, 11 rebounds) was a constant threat at the rim on both ends.

Alex Caruso, the 6-foot-5 defensive savant who spent so much of the evening frustrating the 6-11 Nikola Jokić, was the real MVP of the night (Jokić had 20 points on 5-of-9 shooting, with nine rebounds, seven assists and five turnovers). Their swarming, relentless defense that held the Nuggets to 39.3 percent shooting in the finale, and suppressed Jokić’s greatness for so much of the series, is the most intimidating part of their program. And it’s not even close.

When it was over, the coach who came up through the Thunder’s G League program and was handpicked by general manager Sam Presti to take on the head-coaching role five years ago was asked what he takes away from this latest experience.

“Just that we were who we are,” said Daigneault, putting a twist on the famous quote from the late NFL coach, Dennis Green. “That’s the biggest thing. That’s enough with this team. I mean, if we just bet on who we are individually and collectively, we’re a really hard team to beat. I just thought we stayed in character. We got off to a rough start, (but) we didn’t panic. We played the 48, and we tapped into who we are.

“It was our best energy game and activity game. They drummed it up for Game 7. I just give them a lot of credit. … There’s not many games (when) you wake up in the morning and you know that you’re going to remember the game for the rest of your life, and Game 7 is one of them.”

But Game 1 of the West finals on Tuesday is the focus now, both for the Thunder and this Timberwolves team that earned all that extra rest by finishing off Golden State in five games. The Knicks and Pacers start on Wednesday.

What a time for playoff basketball, and these four teams to be alive.

“We believe in each other,” Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert told The Athletic after Minnesota advanced. “We believe in our chances. We think this group has a chance to lift that trophy in June. So that’s been our goal since the beginning of the season. And you know, we had a lot of adversity, a lot of growing pains throughout the regular season, and I feel like those stretches helped us grow tremendously, defensively and offensively, individually and collectively.”

That’s the beauty of these playoffs, really. That feeling, the very thing which has all four teams truly believing they could be the one, is in every locker room that’s left.

(Photo: Joshua Gateley / Getty Images)

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