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The Oklahoma City Thunder are one one of the most dominant, two-year runs in NBA history, and the dominance continued with a 121-109 victory in Game 3 of their first round series with the Phoenix Suns on Saturday afternoon.

The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who suffered a hamstring strain three days earlier. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t need much help.

The reigning MVP scored a career-playoff-high 42 points, shooting an amazing 15-for-18 from the field and 11-for-12 from the free throw line, adding eight assists. The Thunder continue to score efficiently against what was a top-10 defense in the regular season, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance was just the seventh 40-point playoff game in NBA history where the player had a true shooting percentage over 90%.

Playing at home for the first time, the Suns led by nine points late in the first quarter. But the Thunder closed the period on an 18-4 run and were in control most of the way after that.

Here are some notes, numbers and film as the champs improved to 11-0 in first-round games over the last three years:

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1. Gilgeous-Alexander is too much from mid-range

Even when he won the Kia MVP award last season, Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t as good of a mid-range shooter as he was this year, when he shot an incredible 197-for-359 (54.9%) between the paint and the 3-point line. That was the fourth-best mark for a player with at least 300 mid-range attempts in the 29 seasons for which we have shot-location data; the only three better ones are held by Kevin Durant.

On Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander was 6-for-7 from mid-range, and his best work was done over the last six minutes of the second quarter, when the Thunder took full control of Game 3.

Collin Gillespie has been Gilgeous-Alexander’s primary defender for most of this series, but he was getting the business. So the Suns actually assigned starting center Oso Ighodaro to the MVP for a stretch late in the second.

Gilgeous-Alexander proceeded to target Devin Booker in the pick-and-roll, getting to his mid-range pull-up:

On the next possession, he rejected a screen, beat Ighodaro off the dribble, and drew a foul on Booker. Then, attacking Booker again, he got an open 3 for Jaylin Williams.

Grayson Allen made his series debut on Saturday and was not spared. Gilgeous-Alexander attacked him to generate a layup for Alex Caruso and to get to another mid-range pull-up:

Finally, the Suns sent a double-team at Gilgeous-Alexander in the middle of the floor. The result was an open corner 3 for Caruso.

Again, the Suns ranked ninth defensively, and the Thunder have scored at least 120 points per 100 possessions in all three games of this series. Overall, they’ve scored 10.9 per 100 more than Phoenix allowed in the regular season.

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2. Thunder handle the pressure

The biggest strength of the Suns’ defense was forcing turnovers. They ranked third in opponent turnover rate, forcing 16.5 per 100 possessions, having seen the biggest jump (by a wide margin) from last season.

But now they’re facing the team that has committed the fewest turnovers per 100 possessions in each of the last two seasons. And the Thunder have been even better at taking care of the ball in this series.

Over the three games, the champs have committed just 8.9 turnovers per 100 possessions, what would be tied for the third-lowest rate for any team in any playoff series in the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data. They’ve taken their opponents’ biggest strength and turned it into a major weakness.

According to tracking data, the Suns rank fourth in these playoffs in average pick-up distance, so they’re applying pressure. But it’s not working on the Thunder, who had just two live-ball turnovers in Game 3 on Saturday.

Shooting is the most important thing in this game, but you there are other ways to boost your efficiency and the Thunder have done it by taking care of the ball.

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3. Best bench in basketball

It was a little bit of a surprise that Ajay Mitchell started in place of Jalen Williams on Saturday, given that Cason Wallace started 42 more games than Mitchell (58-16) in the regular season. Mitchell was the Thunder’s second leading scorer (15 points) in Game 3, but shot just 5-for-20, forcing some tough shots along the way.

The Thunder’s new starting lineup had played just 37 total minutes (over seven games) together in the regular season and was outscored by four points on Saturday. But the champs outscored the Suns by 16 points with at least one reserve on the floor.

Even without Williams to run the second-unit offense, the Thunder outscored the Suns by two points (20-18) in Gilgeous-Alexander’s 10 minutes on the bench. The shooting wasn’t great (8-for-22, including 1-for-7 from 3-point range), but they didn’t commit any turnovers when the MVP sat.

They used the same five-man unit (Mitchell, Wallace, Jared McCain, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein) for those entire 10 minutes. Mitchell scored seven of his 15 points and McCain scored all of his seven in those no-SGA minutes, with a couple of SGA-esque buckets included.

The Thunder have had the league’s No. 1 bench in each of the last two seasons, and though their versatility is a little compromised with the absence of Williams, they’re never dependent on the success of any particular lineup. Still, it will be interesting to see if Mitchell remains the starter going forward.

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4. Booker still can’t get going

Dillon Brooks (33 points) and Jalen Green (26) were again the Suns’ leading scorers on Saturday, and that’s by the Thunder’s design. The league’s No. 1 defense has made Devin Booker its No. 1 priority, making sure he plays in a crowd and has a hard time finding open shots.

For this entire series, Booker’s best looks at the basket have come in transition or after offensive rebounds.

When he’s used a ball-screen, he hasn’t seen any kind of advantage for himself:

The Suns have bee able to leverage the attention on Booker to get good shots for his teammates. Early in the third quarter on Saturday, there was no weak-side help on an Ighodaro roll to the rim, because Dort stayed attached to Booker in the corner:

But the Suns haven’t been able to find enough of those kinds of openings to keep up with the Thunder. And at 20.3 points per game, this is the lowest-scoring playoff series of Booker’s career. His true shooting percentage of 55.1% would be his third worst mark of the 10 series that he’s played in.

The Suns first chance to avoid a sweep is Game 4 on Monday (9:30 ET, Peacock).

* * *

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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The Oklahoma City Thunder are one one of the most dominant, two-year runs in NBA history, and the dominance continued with a 121-109 victory in Game 3 of their first round series with the Phoenix Suns on Saturday afternoon.

The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who suffered a hamstring strain three days earlier. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t need much help.

The reigning MVP scored a career-playoff-high 42 points, shooting an amazing 15-for-18 from the field and 11-for-12 from the free throw line, adding eight assists. The Thunder continue to score efficiently against what was a top-10 defense in the regular season, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance was just the seventh 40-point playoff game in NBA history where the player had a true shooting percentage over 90%.

Playing at home for the first time, the Suns led by nine points late in the first quarter. But the Thunder closed the period on an 18-4 run and were in control most of the way after that.

Here are some notes, numbers and film as the champs improved to 11-0 in first-round games over the last three years:

---

1. Gilgeous-Alexander is too much from mid-range

Even when he won the Kia MVP award last season, Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t as good of a mid-range shooter as he was this year, when he shot an incredible 197-for-359 (54.9%) between the paint and the 3-point line. That was the fourth-best mark for a player with at least 300 mid-range attempts in the 29 seasons for which we have shot-location data; the only three better ones are held by Kevin Durant.

On Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander was 6-for-7 from mid-range, and his best work was done over the last six minutes of the second quarter, when the Thunder took full control of Game 3.

Collin Gillespie has been Gilgeous-Alexander’s primary defender for most of this series, but he was getting the business. So the Suns actually assigned starting center Oso Ighodaro to the MVP for a stretch late in the second.

Gilgeous-Alexander proceeded to target Devin Booker in the pick-and-roll, getting to his mid-range pull-up:

On the next possession, he rejected a screen, beat Ighodaro off the dribble, and drew a foul on Booker. Then, attacking Booker again, he got an open 3 for Jaylin Williams.

Grayson Allen made his series debut on Saturday and was not spared. Gilgeous-Alexander attacked him to generate a layup for Alex Caruso and to get to another mid-range pull-up:

Finally, the Suns sent a double-team at Gilgeous-Alexander in the middle of the floor. The result was an open corner 3 for Caruso.

Again, the Suns ranked ninth defensively, and the Thunder have scored at least 120 points per 100 possessions in all three games of this series. Overall, they’ve scored 10.9 per 100 more than Phoenix allowed in the regular season.

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2. Thunder handle the pressure

The biggest strength of the Suns’ defense was forcing turnovers. They ranked third in opponent turnover rate, forcing 16.5 per 100 possessions, having seen the biggest jump (by a wide margin) from last season.

But now they’re facing the team that has committed the fewest turnovers per 100 possessions in each of the last two seasons. And the Thunder have been even better at taking care of the ball in this series.

Over the three games, the champs have committed just 8.9 turnovers per 100 possessions, what would be tied for the third-lowest rate for any team in any playoff series in the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data. They’ve taken their opponents’ biggest strength and turned it into a major weakness.

According to tracking data, the Suns rank fourth in these playoffs in average pick-up distance, so they’re applying pressure. But it’s not working on the Thunder, who had just two live-ball turnovers in Game 3 on Saturday.

Shooting is the most important thing in this game, but you there are other ways to boost your efficiency and the Thunder have done it by taking care of the ball.

---

3. Best bench in basketball

It was a little bit of a surprise that Ajay Mitchell started in place of Jalen Williams on Saturday, given that Cason Wallace started 42 more games than Mitchell (58-16) in the regular season. Mitchell was the Thunder’s second leading scorer (15 points) in Game 3, but shot just 5-for-20, forcing some tough shots along the way.

The Thunder’s new starting lineup had played just 37 total minutes (over seven games) together in the regular season and was outscored by four points on Saturday. But the champs outscored the Suns by 16 points with at least one reserve on the floor.

Even without Williams to run the second-unit offense, the Thunder outscored the Suns by two points (20-18) in Gilgeous-Alexander’s 10 minutes on the bench. The shooting wasn’t great (8-for-22, including 1-for-7 from 3-point range), but they didn’t commit any turnovers when the MVP sat.

They used the same five-man unit (Mitchell, Wallace, Jared McCain, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein) for those entire 10 minutes. Mitchell scored seven of his 15 points and McCain scored all of his seven in those no-SGA minutes, with a couple of SGA-esque buckets included.

The Thunder have had the league’s No. 1 bench in each of the last two seasons, and though their versatility is a little compromised with the absence of Williams, they’re never dependent on the success of any particular lineup. Still, it will be interesting to see if Mitchell remains the starter going forward.

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4. Booker still can’t get going

Dillon Brooks (33 points) and Jalen Green (26) were again the Suns’ leading scorers on Saturday, and that’s by the Thunder’s design. The league’s No. 1 defense has made Devin Booker its No. 1 priority, making sure he plays in a crowd and has a hard time finding open shots.

For this entire series, Booker’s best looks at the basket have come in transition or after offensive rebounds.

When he’s used a ball-screen, he hasn’t seen any kind of advantage for himself:

The Suns have bee able to leverage the attention on Booker to get good shots for his teammates. Early in the third quarter on Saturday, there was no weak-side help on an Ighodaro roll to the rim, because Dort stayed attached to Booker in the corner:

But the Suns haven’t been able to find enough of those kinds of openings to keep up with the Thunder. And at 20.3 points per game, this is the lowest-scoring playoff series of Booker’s career. His true shooting percentage of 55.1% would be his third worst mark of the 10 series that he’s played in.

The Suns first chance to avoid a sweep is Game 4 on Monday (9:30 ET, Peacock).

* * *

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.

Forty-plus points on 75+% shooting. Twice in one day.

For the first time in NBA Playoff history, two players have achieved this feat on the same day.

One, the reigning Kia MVP. The other, the first bench player to drop 40 in the Playoffs in 10 years.

Read on for history from SGA & Ayo, along with big Ws for the Knicks & Magic and 4 more showdowns today across NBC/Peacock & ESPN.

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5 STORIES IN TODAY’S EDITION 🏀

“The Ayo Game”: Dosunmu erupts for career-high 43 and 3-1 lead, after Ant & Donte exit

Thunder Up 3-0: Shai’s efficient 40-ball puts Thunder in control of Suns series

East Answers: Magic survive Cade’s late rally for 2-1 edge, KAT’s triple-double gets Knicks even

West Game 4s: LeBron’s experience key to series clinch, while Spurs lead with youth

East Game 4s: Tatum prepped for Playoff challenges on long road to return; Barnes-Mobley rivalry in focus

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BUT FIRST … ⏰

Sunday’s four Game 4s…

The NBA Playoffs continue today with four Game 4s and one potential sweep:

• ESPN Doubleheader: No. 4 Cleveland at No. 5 Toronto (1 ET | Tap To Watch), followed by No. 2 San Antonio at No. 7 Portland (3:30 ET | Tap To Watch)
• Sunday Night Basketball On NBC & Peacock: No. 2 Boston at No. 7 Philly (7 ET | Tap To Watch), before the No. 4 Lakers look to advance vs. No. 5 Houston (9:30 ET | Tap To Watch)

Durant’s Game 4 Status: Rockets coach Ime Udoka said on Saturday KD is receiving treatment on his sprained left ankle “around the clock” but his status is still unclear.

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1. DOSUNMU STEPS UP FOR INJURED WOLVES WITH CAREER-HIGH 43

Minnesota’s deadline-addition 6th man Ayo Dosunmu aced Thursday’s Game 3 with 25 big points off the bench.

Saturday in Game 4, he went full superstar mode – and the Wolves needed every point.

Wolves 112, Nuggets 96: Dosunmu (13-17, 76.5 FG%) struck for a career-high 43 points with five made 3s, after Minnesota lost Donte DiVincenzo (lower leg) and Anthony Edwards (knee) to injuries. The Wolves took their third straight game in the series to move within one win of advancing.

Jamal Murray (30 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast) and Nikola Jokić (24 pts, 15 reb, 9 ast) led Denver but combined for just six made field goals in the 2nd half, as the Nuggets head home for Game 5 facing elimination. | Recap

• Pick-Up Points: Dosunmu scored the first bucket after Ant left the game with 2:36 to go in the 1st half, and ignited for 29 of his 43 from there
• Team Tribute: The Wolves rallied as a unit after that moment, outscoring Denver by 21 the rest of the way and holding the Nuggets to 42 2nd-half points

“I was heartbroken. This is for them: Ant, Donte,” Dosunmu said postgame. “They mean so much to the organization… This game, personally, was for them.”

• Ayo’s 43 – a high for him across pro and college level – are the 2nd-most points off the bench in NBA Playoff history, behind Fred Brown’s 45 for Seattle in 1976
• Instant Legend: Dosunmu came within one point of Edwards’ franchise Playoff-high of 44 points, recording just the third 40+ point Playoff game in Wolves history
• “He makes big shots. He’s not afraid,” coach Chris Finch said of Dosunmu. “Just was going to ride him until he collapsed, really.”

“This definitely ranks No. 1,” Dosunmu said when asked where this performance ranks in his basketball life. “You play the game for moments like this… It’s a dream [I had] as a kid.”

Minnesota can advance with a win in Denver Monday (10:30 ET, NBC & Peacock). Check NBA.com and the NBA App for official injury updates on Edwards and DiVincenzo as available.

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2. SGA’S 42 POINTS PUT THUNDER UP 3-0 IN PHOENIX

Last year, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander totaled 15 30+ point games in OKC’s championship run – tied for 2nd-most in any Playoff run in league history.

This year, SGA’s back at it, following up Game 2’s 37 points with a 40-ball.

And the Thunder as a whole? Off to a second straight 3-0 postseason start.

Thunder 121, Suns 109: Shai piled up 42 points and shot 15-of-18 from the field (83.3 FG%) to lead OKC without Jalen Williams (hamstring), as the Thunder go up 3-0 and can clinch the series in Game 4 on Monday.

Dillon Brooks (33 pts, 7 reb) and Jalen Green (26 pts, 5 reb, 6 ast) logged big nights to pace the Suns, who must extend the series with a win at home Monday. | Recap

• Special Start: Shai started out hitting his first nine shots on the way to a 17-point 1st half, with 25 more coming after halftime, helping OKC overcome an early 24-15 hole
• SGA became just the fifth player in NBA history to collect 40+ points on 80% shooting in a Playoff game, joining Elton Brand, Dirk Nowitzki, Terry Porter and his opponent Devin Booker
• D-Book’s Counter: Booker (16 pts, 7 ast) dealt with an ankle injury in the 3rd, returning to the game with five quick points to pull the Suns within six at 75-69
• But OKC responded again, draining the next six points to pull away into a 4th quarter where they never trailed
• Feeling It: Shai didn’t miss a shot until the 8:19 mark of the 3rd quarter, and missed only one attempt inside the arc all game

“We did a good job of just staying true to who we are,” Shai said. “Through the adversity, through the crowd, through a really good team, on the road… and we came out of here with a W.”

• OKC’s Finest: SGA joins Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as the only OKC players with multiple 40+ point Playoff games – and the first to do it on 80% shooting
• “Just trying to let the game come to me,” Shai said of his approach. “Use my teammates out there as weapons… making the defense have to pick their poison.”
• “He’s the MVP for a reason,” Alex Caruso said postgame. “That’s what he does. He leads us every night.”

“We looked pretty good out there.” – Shai.

OKC can end the series on the road Monday night (9:30 ET, Peacock & NBCSN).

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3. EAST ANSWERS: MAGIC SURVIVE LATE, KNICKS GET EVEN

Up by 17, the 8-seed Magic were 8:42 away from a 2-1 lead over the 1-seed Pistons.

But with 2:52 to go, they found themselves down 1.

Then, Franz and Paolo came to the rescue.

Magic 113, Pistons 105: Franz Wagner (17 ps, 5 reb, 6 ast) sank two quick shots to go back up for good, and Paolo Banchero (25 pts, 12 reb, 9 ast, 3 stl) dropped a high-bouncing dagger 3 as Orlando recovered with a 9-0 closeout to take Game 3 at home. | Recap

• Focal Point: After 10 1st-half lead changes, Orlando controlled until late, holding Cade Cunningham to 5-of-17 shooting and 15 points through 3 quarters
• Cade Breaks Loose: Cunningham (27 pts, 5 reb, 9 ast) pushed back in the 4th for 12 points, driving the Pistons’ 26-8 rally for the late lead
• Orlando Answers: The pair of big 3s from Wagner and Banchero in the 9-0 run ignited the home crowd, lifting the Magic to a 7-1 mark in their last eight postseason home games
• “This is super great,” Banchero said postgame. “Early afternoon game here in Orlando, you can hear the crowd… Excited to get back here in front of these fans…
• One dime shy of a triple double, Banchero’s 9 assists were a Playoff career-high, and Desmond Bane (25 pts, 7 reb, 7 3s) tied Dennis Scott’s record for most 3s in a Magic postseason game

“We’re looking forward to Monday. These fans are awesome.”

Orlando is just the third 8-seed in the last decade to take a 2-1 series lead over the 1-seed, going for 3-1 in Game 5 (8 ET, NBC & Peacock).

109-108, 107-106.

After back-to-back one-point losses, the Knicks made sure Game 4 had some breathing room.

Knicks 114, Hawks 98: Karl-Anthony Towns (20 pts, 10 reb, 10 ast) collected his first-career Playoff triple-double and OG Anunoby (22 pts, 10 reb) led all scorers as New York never trailed past 6 minutes in to even the series 2-2.

CJ McCollum (17 pts) led six Hawks in double-figures, but the Knicks D prevented him from making any 3s (0-4) after he hit nine in the series’ first three games. | Recap

• “My teammates made it happen,” Towns said of his triple-double. “Great cuts by OG and curls and all those things that allowed me to playmake. I was aggressive in my playmaking today.”
• “It’s one of the coolest things that I’ll always remember when I’m done playing,” Jalen Brunson (19 pts) said of the Knicks’ traveling fans, who got loud in the 4th with a 20+ point lead
• Most Improved History: Newly-named Kia Most Improved Player Nickeil Alexander-Walker (15 pts, 5 3s) made history in the second-ever starting lineup to feature three MIP Award winners, with Dyson Daniels and McCollum

New York brings the 2-2 series back to its home fans on Tuesday (8 ET, NBC & Peacock).

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4. WEST GAME 4s: LEBRON, LAKERS CAN ADVANCE, SPURS LEAD WITH YOUTH

The first-timers… and the first to get there 19 times.

Today’s West series leaders are proving postseason wins can come from opposite ends of the experience spectrum:

• Historic Youth: In driving San Antonio’s Game 3 win, Stephon Castle (21y, 174d) and Dylan Harper (20y, 53d) became the youngest duo in NBA history to each score 25+ points in a postseason game
• Historically Seasoned: Having scored more postseason points than anyone in NBA history, LeBron James added two more clutch Playoff field goals in L.A.’s Game 3 win to his all-time lead in that category as well (151)

Sunday brings another chance for each to make a statement against time.

Lakers at Rockets (9:30 ET, NBC & Peacock): Up 3-0, the 4-seed Lakers are on the cusp of the West Semis for the first time since the 2022-23 season.

This season’s best team in the Clutch (22-8) struck again Friday, as L.A. became just the second Playoff team since 1997-98 to win after trailing by 6+ with 30 seconds left in regulation.

The quick-strike comeback required quicker thinking and floor awareness, two signature traits of one the most cerebral players the game has ever known.

LeBron’s playmaking and basketball IQ have been on full display in this series:

Houston was 30 seconds away from a 2-1 series. Now, facing elimination with KD’s status (ankle) unclear, the hosts have a near-win Game 3 rally they can take a few keys from.

• The Climb Back: Rallying from a 15-point deficit, the Rockets won the 2nd half 49-38, holding the Lakers to fewer points than they scored in the 1st quarter (39)
• Clutch Candidate: Alperen Sengun stepped up to fill KD’s closer role with 12 of his 33 points in the 4th, rattling off 8 in a row for the late two-possession lead
• Built To Bother: Houston’s length and athleticism forced LeBron, L.A.’s primary playmaker, into four 4th-quarter turnovers, including two in the final minute — before Bron helped ignite the historic comeback

In Sunday’s other West series, the Spurs are buzzing from the Game 3 play of their breakout backcourt, whose combined age equals LeBron’s 41 years.

Spurs at Blazers (3:30 ET, ESPN): With Wemby (concussion protocol) questionable, San Antonio has shown it can win multiple ways, looking for a commanding 3-1 edge, while Portland can still channel homecourt advantage to reset the series.

• Game 3’s two-man takeover made Castle the youngest Spur to ever score 30+ points in a postseason game,
• At the same time, Harper became the second-youngest player ever to score 20+ off the bench in the postseason, behind Kobe Bryant
• Portland’s Tandem: Jrue Holiday (29 pts) provided a scoring lift while San Antonio keyed on Deni Avdija (3-15 FG) with double-teams
• Focus On Finishing: After winning the 1st half, the Blazers were up 82-67 with 17 minutes to go, before the Spurs closed Game 3 with a 53-26 sprint to victory

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5. EAST GAME 4s: TATUM DELIVERING IN TIGHT SERIES, BARNES & MOBLEY’S RIVALRY

What’s more thrilling than draining a Playoff dagger 3 on the road for a Game 3 win?

For Jayson Tatum, 51 days into his NBA return, it’s a thrill just to be on the court.

Celtics at Sixers (7 ET, NBC & Peacock): With Boston leading 2-1, Game 4 marks the 120th head-to-head postseason matchup between these rivals, with an all-time average margin of victory of just 3.4 points.

• Close finishes have been this matchup’s theme all season, and Game 3 was a 1-point contest with under 2 to play when Tatum called game
• In his 19th career Playoff game against Philly, Tatum hit two clutch 3s in 90 seconds and crossed the 3,000 career Playoff-point mark, joining Larry Bird, John Havlicek and Kevin McHale as the only Celtics to do so in the postseason

In his 19th game back from his Achilles injury (21.9 ppg in 19 games), Tatum said he’s kept that journey top-of-mind throughout his comeback.

• “I’ve been able to do a really good job of just keeping things in perspective,” Tatum said. “It was a very very long time for me not to be doing what I love… Just being out there with my teammates is all I can think about.”
• Just weeks away from the one-year mark since his injury, Tatum matched season minutes leader Tyrese Maxey (38.0 mpg) with 42 minutes played in Game 3
• “I’ve been here before,” Tatum said with a grin after being asked about meeting the moment on the road in Game 3

Defense will be a key for Maxey (27.0 ppg this series) and the Sixers in Game 4, who’ve held the Celtics under 100 points once in this series; their Game 2 win.

In The North, the Raptors look to even a 2-1 series that may have just found its next breakout star.

Cavaliers at Raptors (1 ET, ESPN): After Scottie Barnes went wild in front of Jurassic Park with a Playoff career-high 33 points in a Game 3 win, Cleveland will turn to last season’s Kia Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley to prevent a repeat.

From Under-19 World Cup teammates for Team USA in 2019, to draft neighbors, Rookie of the Year Award rivals, and now, First Round opponents, Barnes and Mobley seem constantly linked in basketball.

As Eric Koreen writes for The Athletic and NBA.com, the first one to break away – and break through, on the heightened Playoffs stage – could win this series for his team:

“Their careers, dating back to the draft in 2021, have lined up nicely. Mobley went third in the draft, while Barnes went fourth. Barnes edged out Mobley for Rookie of the Year in one of the closest votes for the award ever [2022].

‘Scottie was boisterous. He was talking.’ said Bruce Weber… head coach for that Under-19 team.

‘You knew when Scottie came into the building,’ Weber said. ‘Evan could sneak in, even at 6-10, 6-11. He could sneak in quietly, and you wouldn’t even know he’s there.’

‘I said, ‘That’s what it had to look like when Wilt (Chamberlain) played,’’ said LeVelle Moten, an assistant coach on that team… ‘That’s how dominant he was.’” | Read More

Toronto can send the series back to Cleveland tied, while the Cavs go for a commanding 3-1 series lead.

 

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The Oklahoma City Thunder are one one of the most dominant, two-year runs in NBA history, and the dominance continued with a 121-109 victory in Game 3 of their first round series with the Phoenix Suns on Saturday afternoon.

The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who suffered a hamstring strain three days earlier. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t need much help.

The reigning MVP scored a career-playoff-high 42 points, shooting an amazing 15-for-18 from the field and 11-for-12 from the free throw line, adding eight assists. The Thunder continue to score efficiently against what was a top-10 defense in the regular season, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance was just the seventh 40-point playoff game in NBA history where the player had a true shooting percentage over 90%.

Playing at home for the first time, the Suns led by nine points late in the first quarter. But the Thunder closed the period on an 18-4 run and were in control most of the way after that.

Here are some notes, numbers and film as the champs improved to 11-0 in first-round games over the last three years:

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1. Gilgeous-Alexander is too much from mid-range

Even when he won the Kia MVP award last season, Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t as good of a mid-range shooter as he was this year, when he shot an incredible 197-for-359 (54.9%) between the paint and the 3-point line. That was the fourth-best mark for a player with at least 300 mid-range attempts in the 29 seasons for which we have shot-location data; the only three better ones are held by Kevin Durant.

On Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander was 6-for-7 from mid-range, and his best work was done over the last six minutes of the second quarter, when the Thunder took full control of Game 3.

Collin Gillespie has been Gilgeous-Alexander’s primary defender for most of this series, but he was getting the business. So the Suns actually assigned starting center Oso Ighodaro to the MVP for a stretch late in the second.

Gilgeous-Alexander proceeded to target Devin Booker in the pick-and-roll, getting to his mid-range pull-up:

On the next possession, he rejected a screen, beat Ighodaro off the dribble, and drew a foul on Booker. Then, attacking Booker again, he got an open 3 for Jaylin Williams.

Grayson Allen made his series debut on Saturday and was not spared. Gilgeous-Alexander attacked him to generate a layup for Alex Caruso and to get to another mid-range pull-up:

Finally, the Suns sent a double-team at Gilgeous-Alexander in the middle of the floor. The result was an open corner 3 for Caruso.

Again, the Suns ranked ninth defensively, and the Thunder have scored at least 120 points per 100 possessions in all three games of this series. Overall, they’ve scored 10.9 per 100 more than Phoenix allowed in the regular season.

---

2. Thunder handle the pressure

The biggest strength of the Suns’ defense was forcing turnovers. They ranked third in opponent turnover rate, forcing 16.5 per 100 possessions, having seen the biggest jump (by a wide margin) from last season.

But now they’re facing the team that has committed the fewest turnovers per 100 possessions in each of the last two seasons. And the Thunder have been even better at taking care of the ball in this series.

Over the three games, the champs have committed just 8.9 turnovers per 100 possessions, what would be tied for the third-lowest rate for any team in any playoff series in the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data. They’ve taken their opponents’ biggest strength and turned it into a major weakness.

According to tracking data, the Suns rank fourth in these playoffs in average pick-up distance, so they’re applying pressure. But it’s not working on the Thunder, who had just two live-ball turnovers in Game 3 on Saturday.

Shooting is the most important thing in this game, but you there are other ways to boost your efficiency and the Thunder have done it by taking care of the ball.

---

3. Best bench in basketball

It was a little bit of a surprise that Ajay Mitchell started in place of Jalen Williams on Saturday, given that Cason Wallace started 42 more games than Mitchell (58-16) in the regular season. Mitchell was the Thunder’s second leading scorer (15 points) in Game 3, but shot just 5-for-20, forcing some tough shots along the way.

The Thunder’s new starting lineup had played just 37 total minutes (over seven games) together in the regular season and was outscored by four points on Saturday. But the champs outscored the Suns by 16 points with at least one reserve on the floor.

Even without Williams to run the second-unit offense, the Thunder outscored the Suns by two points (20-18) in Gilgeous-Alexander’s 10 minutes on the bench. The shooting wasn’t great (8-for-22, including 1-for-7 from 3-point range), but they didn’t commit any turnovers when the MVP sat.

They used the same five-man unit (Mitchell, Wallace, Jared McCain, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein) for those entire 10 minutes. Mitchell scored seven of his 15 points and McCain scored all of his seven in those no-SGA minutes, with a couple of SGA-esque buckets included.

The Thunder have had the league’s No. 1 bench in each of the last two seasons, and though their versatility is a little compromised with the absence of Williams, they’re never dependent on the success of any particular lineup. Still, it will be interesting to see if Mitchell remains the starter going forward.

---

4. Booker still can’t get going

Dillon Brooks (33 points) and Jalen Green (26) were again the Suns’ leading scorers on Saturday, and that’s by the Thunder’s design. The league’s No. 1 defense has made Devin Booker its No. 1 priority, making sure he plays in a crowd and has a hard time finding open shots.

For this entire series, Booker’s best looks at the basket have come in transition or after offensive rebounds.

When he’s used a ball-screen, he hasn’t seen any kind of advantage for himself:

The Suns have bee able to leverage the attention on Booker to get good shots for his teammates. Early in the third quarter on Saturday, there was no weak-side help on an Ighodaro roll to the rim, because Dort stayed attached to Booker in the corner:

But the Suns haven’t been able to find enough of those kinds of openings to keep up with the Thunder. And at 20.3 points per game, this is the lowest-scoring playoff series of Booker’s career. His true shooting percentage of 55.1% would be his third worst mark of the 10 series that he’s played in.

The Suns first chance to avoid a sweep is Game 4 on Monday (9:30 ET, Peacock).

* * *

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.

• Download the NBA App

The Oklahoma City Thunder are one one of the most dominant, two-year runs in NBA history, and the dominance continued with a 121-109 victory in Game 3 of their first round series with the Phoenix Suns on Saturday afternoon.

The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who suffered a hamstring strain three days earlier. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t need much help.

The reigning MVP scored a career-playoff-high 42 points, shooting an amazing 15-for-18 from the field and 11-for-12 from the free throw line, adding eight assists. The Thunder continue to score efficiently against what was a top-10 defense in the regular season, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance was just the seventh 40-point playoff game in NBA history where the player had a true shooting percentage over 90%.

Playing at home for the first time, the Suns led by nine points late in the first quarter. But the Thunder closed the period on an 18-4 run and were in control most of the way after that.

Here are some notes, numbers and film as the champs improved to 11-0 in first-round games over the last three years:

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1. Gilgeous-Alexander is too much from mid-range

Even when he won the Kia MVP award last season, Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t as good of a mid-range shooter as he was this year, when he shot an incredible 197-for-359 (54.9%) between the paint and the 3-point line. That was the fourth-best mark for a player with at least 300 mid-range attempts in the 29 seasons for which we have shot-location data; the only three better ones are held by Kevin Durant.

On Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander was 6-for-7 from mid-range, and his best work was done over the last six minutes of the second quarter, when the Thunder took full control of Game 3.

Collin Gillespie has been Gilgeous-Alexander’s primary defender for most of this series, but he was getting the business. So the Suns actually assigned starting center Oso Ighodaro to the MVP for a stretch late in the second.

Gilgeous-Alexander proceeded to target Devin Booker in the pick-and-roll, getting to his mid-range pull-up:

On the next possession, he rejected a screen, beat Ighodaro off the dribble, and drew a foul on Booker. Then, attacking Booker again, he got an open 3 for Jaylin Williams.

Grayson Allen made his series debut on Saturday and was not spared. Gilgeous-Alexander attacked him to generate a layup for Alex Caruso and to get to another mid-range pull-up:

Finally, the Suns sent a double-team at Gilgeous-Alexander in the middle of the floor. The result was an open corner 3 for Caruso.

Again, the Suns ranked ninth defensively, and the Thunder have scored at least 120 points per 100 possessions in all three games of this series. Overall, they’ve scored 10.9 per 100 more than Phoenix allowed in the regular season.

---

2. Thunder handle the pressure

The biggest strength of the Suns’ defense was forcing turnovers. They ranked third in opponent turnover rate, forcing 16.5 per 100 possessions, having seen the biggest jump (by a wide margin) from last season.

But now they’re facing the team that has committed the fewest turnovers per 100 possessions in each of the last two seasons. And the Thunder have been even better at taking care of the ball in this series.

Over the three games, the champs have committed just 8.9 turnovers per 100 possessions, what would be tied for the third-lowest rate for any team in any playoff series in the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data. They’ve taken their opponents’ biggest strength and turned it into a major weakness.

According to tracking data, the Suns rank fourth in these playoffs in average pick-up distance, so they’re applying pressure. But it’s not working on the Thunder, who had just two live-ball turnovers in Game 3 on Saturday.

Shooting is the most important thing in this game, but you there are other ways to boost your efficiency and the Thunder have done it by taking care of the ball.

---

3. Best bench in basketball

It was a little bit of a surprise that Ajay Mitchell started in place of Jalen Williams on Saturday, given that Cason Wallace started 42 more games than Mitchell (58-16) in the regular season. Mitchell was the Thunder’s second leading scorer (15 points) in Game 3, but shot just 5-for-20, forcing some tough shots along the way.

The Thunder’s new starting lineup had played just 37 total minutes (over seven games) together in the regular season and was outscored by four points on Saturday. But the champs outscored the Suns by 16 points with at least one reserve on the floor.

Even without Williams to run the second-unit offense, the Thunder outscored the Suns by two points (20-18) in Gilgeous-Alexander’s 10 minutes on the bench. The shooting wasn’t great (8-for-22, including 1-for-7 from 3-point range), but they didn’t commit any turnovers when the MVP sat.

They used the same five-man unit (Mitchell, Wallace, Jared McCain, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein) for those entire 10 minutes. Mitchell scored seven of his 15 points and McCain scored all of his seven in those no-SGA minutes, with a couple of SGA-esque buckets included.

The Thunder have had the league’s No. 1 bench in each of the last two seasons, and though their versatility is a little compromised with the absence of Williams, they’re never dependent on the success of any particular lineup. Still, it will be interesting to see if Mitchell remains the starter going forward.

---

4. Booker still can’t get going

Dillon Brooks (33 points) and Jalen Green (26) were again the Suns’ leading scorers on Saturday, and that’s by the Thunder’s design. The league’s No. 1 defense has made Devin Booker its No. 1 priority, making sure he plays in a crowd and has a hard time finding open shots.

For this entire series, Booker’s best looks at the basket have come in transition or after offensive rebounds.

When he’s used a ball-screen, he hasn’t seen any kind of advantage for himself:

The Suns have bee able to leverage the attention on Booker to get good shots for his teammates. Early in the third quarter on Saturday, there was no weak-side help on an Ighodaro roll to the rim, because Dort stayed attached to Booker in the corner:

But the Suns haven’t been able to find enough of those kinds of openings to keep up with the Thunder. And at 20.3 points per game, this is the lowest-scoring playoff series of Booker’s career. His true shooting percentage of 55.1% would be his third worst mark of the 10 series that he’s played in.

The Suns first chance to avoid a sweep is Game 4 on Monday (9:30 ET, Peacock).

* * *

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.

• Download the NBA App

The Oklahoma City Thunder are one one of the most dominant, two-year runs in NBA history, and the dominance continued with a 121-109 victory in Game 3 of their first round series with the Phoenix Suns on Saturday afternoon.

The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who suffered a hamstring strain three days earlier. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t need much help.

The reigning MVP scored a career-playoff-high 42 points, shooting an amazing 15-for-18 from the field and 11-for-12 from the free throw line, adding eight assists. The Thunder continue to score efficiently against what was a top-10 defense in the regular season, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance was just the seventh 40-point playoff game in NBA history where the player had a true shooting percentage over 90%.

Playing at home for the first time, the Suns led by nine points late in the first quarter. But the Thunder closed the period on an 18-4 run and were in control most of the way after that.

Here are some notes, numbers and film as the champs improved to 11-0 in first-round games over the last three years:

---

1. Gilgeous-Alexander is too much from mid-range

Even when he won the Kia MVP award last season, Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t as good of a mid-range shooter as he was this year, when he shot an incredible 197-for-359 (54.9%) between the paint and the 3-point line. That was the fourth-best mark for a player with at least 300 mid-range attempts in the 29 seasons for which we have shot-location data; the only three better ones are held by Kevin Durant.

On Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander was 6-for-7 from mid-range, and his best work was done over the last six minutes of the second quarter, when the Thunder took full control of Game 3.

Collin Gillespie has been Gilgeous-Alexander’s primary defender for most of this series, but he was getting the business. So the Suns actually assigned starting center Oso Ighodaro to the MVP for a stretch late in the second.

Gilgeous-Alexander proceeded to target Devin Booker in the pick-and-roll, getting to his mid-range pull-up:

On the next possession, he rejected a screen, beat Ighodaro off the dribble, and drew a foul on Booker. Then, attacking Booker again, he got an open 3 for Jaylin Williams.

Grayson Allen made his series debut on Saturday and was not spared. Gilgeous-Alexander attacked him to generate a layup for Alex Caruso and to get to another mid-range pull-up:

Finally, the Suns sent a double-team at Gilgeous-Alexander in the middle of the floor. The result was an open corner 3 for Caruso.

Again, the Suns ranked ninth defensively, and the Thunder have scored at least 120 points per 100 possessions in all three games of this series. Overall, they’ve scored 10.9 per 100 more than Phoenix allowed in the regular season.

---

2. Thunder handle the pressure

The biggest strength of the Suns’ defense was forcing turnovers. They ranked third in opponent turnover rate, forcing 16.5 per 100 possessions, having seen the biggest jump (by a wide margin) from last season.

But now they’re facing the team that has committed the fewest turnovers per 100 possessions in each of the last two seasons. And the Thunder have been even better at taking care of the ball in this series.

Over the three games, the champs have committed just 8.9 turnovers per 100 possessions, what would be tied for the third-lowest rate for any team in any playoff series in the 30 years for which we have play-by-play data. They’ve taken their opponents’ biggest strength and turned it into a major weakness.

According to tracking data, the Suns rank fourth in these playoffs in average pick-up distance, so they’re applying pressure. But it’s not working on the Thunder, who had just two live-ball turnovers in Game 3 on Saturday.

Shooting is the most important thing in this game, but you there are other ways to boost your efficiency and the Thunder have done it by taking care of the ball.

---

3. Best bench in basketball

It was a little bit of a surprise that Ajay Mitchell started in place of Jalen Williams on Saturday, given that Cason Wallace started 42 more games than Mitchell (58-16) in the regular season. Mitchell was the Thunder’s second leading scorer (15 points) in Game 3, but shot just 5-for-20, forcing some tough shots along the way.

The Thunder’s new starting lineup had played just 37 total minutes (over seven games) together in the regular season and was outscored by four points on Saturday. But the champs outscored the Suns by 16 points with at least one reserve on the floor.

Even without Williams to run the second-unit offense, the Thunder outscored the Suns by two points (20-18) in Gilgeous-Alexander’s 10 minutes on the bench. The shooting wasn’t great (8-for-22, including 1-for-7 from 3-point range), but they didn’t commit any turnovers when the MVP sat.

They used the same five-man unit (Mitchell, Wallace, Jared McCain, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein) for those entire 10 minutes. Mitchell scored seven of his 15 points and McCain scored all of his seven in those no-SGA minutes, with a couple of SGA-esque buckets included.

The Thunder have had the league’s No. 1 bench in each of the last two seasons, and though their versatility is a little compromised with the absence of Williams, they’re never dependent on the success of any particular lineup. Still, it will be interesting to see if Mitchell remains the starter going forward.

---

4. Booker still can’t get going

Dillon Brooks (33 points) and Jalen Green (26) were again the Suns’ leading scorers on Saturday, and that’s by the Thunder’s design. The league’s No. 1 defense has made Devin Booker its No. 1 priority, making sure he plays in a crowd and has a hard time finding open shots.

For this entire series, Booker’s best looks at the basket have come in transition or after offensive rebounds.

When he’s used a ball-screen, he hasn’t seen any kind of advantage for himself:

The Suns have bee able to leverage the attention on Booker to get good shots for his teammates. Early in the third quarter on Saturday, there was no weak-side help on an Ighodaro roll to the rim, because Dort stayed attached to Booker in the corner:

But the Suns haven’t been able to find enough of those kinds of openings to keep up with the Thunder. And at 20.3 points per game, this is the lowest-scoring playoff series of Booker’s career. His true shooting percentage of 55.1% would be his third worst mark of the 10 series that he’s played in.

The Suns first chance to avoid a sweep is Game 4 on Monday (9:30 ET, Peacock).

* * *

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.