Jalen Williams did it all in Game 1, finishing with 22 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal and a block in 29 minutes.
The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Phoenix Suns by 35 points in Game 1 of their first-round series on Sunday, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shot 5-for-18 from the field.
One has to wonder if it could have gone even worse for the Suns, for whom it was both their fourth-worst offensive game (84 points on 93 possessions) and their seventh-worst defensive game (119 on 92) of the season.
As good as the Thunder are, the Suns have no choice but to feel like it can get better.
Here are some things to watch for in Game 2 on Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) …
1. Can Williams play like that again?
The Thunder were a better defensive team this season than they were last season. But they saw the league’s seventh biggest drop in offensive efficiency, largely because Jalen Williams missed 49 games and wasn’t quite as good when he did play. Both his 3-point percentage (29.9%) and his mid-range field-goal percentage (37.3%) were the worst marks of his four-year career.
But in Game 1, Williams looked like his best self, tallying 22 points (on 9-for-15 shooting), seven rebounds, six assists, a steal and a block in just 29 minutes.
His jumper looked smooth, both off the catch and off the dribble.
And though the Thunder were playing at home, he packed his bag …
The Thunder still scored just 25 points on 25 offensive possessions in Williams’ 11 minutes on the floor without Gilgeous-Alexander on Sunday.
The offense was ridiculously efficient otherwise, and the defense was great in those minutes, so it didn’t matter. But one of Williams’ primary jobs is to keep the offense afloat when the reigning Kia MVP goes to the bench.
The most important thing about this series may be the play of Williams and how that affects the Thunder’s chance of repeating.
2. Get the ball to the weak side
The strengths of the Thunder’s top-ranked defense are forcing turnovers and protecting the rim. But if you can get past the ball pressure and bend the defense, good shots can be had on the weak side of the floor.
The Suns got some open weak-side 3-point attempts in Game 1.
Midway through the first quarter, Phoenix came out of a timeout, got Jalen Green going downhill, and he found Dillon Brooks wide open in the left corner …
After a timeout early in the second, a similar action got Jordan Goodwin an open and in-rhythm look from the left wing. The Suns got some good shots, but they also left some open shooters waiting for the ball.
Here’s Devin Booker shooting a contested shot in a crowd with two unguarded Suns (one of them a 41% 3-point shooter) on the weak side of the floor …
Good things happened when the Suns got the ball to the weak side, even if the weak-side player didn’t shoot it. Early in the third quarter, Booker attacked baseline and found Royce O’Neale in the right corner. The Thunder rotated, but O’Neale skipped the ball to Green for a wide-open 3 on the other side …
The Thunder defense is awesome, and there were some possessions on Sunday where they covered everything. But there were also times when the Suns missed open shots or open shooters.
The Suns took 39 (47%) of their 83 shots from 3-point range in Game 1, and that rate probably needs to be higher for them to have a chance in any particular game. More 3-pointers lead to more variance and a better chance for the underdog.
That doesn’t mean they should be chucking as soon as they cross mid-court, but they should seek those weak-side 3s that the Thunder will yield.
3. Why Allen can help Suns
The shooter that the Thunder were most willing to leave open was Ryan Dunn, the Suns’ reserve wing who shot 33% from 3-point range this season, including just 26% on 3s above the break (not in the corners).
Here’s Dunn wiiiiide open in the right corner after Booker drew two to the ball and passed it to O’Neale at the top of the key …
Here’s the thing: O’Neale didn’t immediately make the swing pass to Dunn. Instead, he thought about shooting from six feet beyond the arc before Alex Caruso closed out. O’Neale then put the ball on the floor and finally passed it to Dunn after driving into the paint.
But Dunn didn’t really want to shoot it anyway. He shoveled the ball to Green and was open again when he got it back, but drove into the paint himself and was stripped by Cason Wallace …
Dunn was 0-for-3 from 3-point range in his 25 minutes off the bench on Sunday, mostly ignored by the Thunder and sometimes ignored by his own teammates.
It would be nice if the Suns could replace Dunn with Grayson Allen, who missed Game 1 with a hamstring issue and was listed as questionable on the initial injury report for Game 2. Allen is a career 40% shooter from beyond the arc and would obviously be a huge boost to the Phoenix offense.
Like Allen, Mark Williams (left foot stress reaction) missed Game 1 and was listed as questionable for Game 2.
He can’t help with the 3-point shooting, but he would help on the glass, with Game 1 having been the Thunder’s sixth-best offensive rebounding game of the season. The Suns need to win the possession game, and that means rebounding better and not committing 11 more turnovers than the champs.
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John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
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