{"id":662204,"date":"2026-05-10T17:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T17:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/662204\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T17:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T17:12:08","slug":"thunder-notes-mitchell-sga-wallace-joe-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/662204\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder Notes: Mitchell, SGA, Wallace, Joe, Lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Lakers holding reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> in check, a new star is emerging for the Thunder, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN<\/a>. Second-year guard Ajay Mitchell<\/a>, who wasn\u2019t part of OKC\u2019s rotation during its march to the title last season, had 24 points, 10 assists and no turnovers on Saturday as his team grabbed a 3-0 series lead with another dominant victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing for me was just going out there and being confident,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cI know what I can do. When I go out there, I just want to compete and help this team win and play freely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell, who finished fifth in the Sixth Man of the Year voting, is only starting because Jalen Williams<\/a> is sidelined with a Grade 1 hamstring strain. He has been a difference-maker in the first three games of the series, averaging 20.7 points, 6.7 assists and 1.0 turnovers while connecting at 53.3% from the field. He has also been the primary defender on Austin Reaves<\/a>, who hasn\u2019t shot well for most of the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just finding his footing,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously his first run in the playoffs. It\u2019s obviously a different ballgame. He\u2019s just getting more and more comfortable as the game goes on, as the series goes on. I said this before, he had a rough [Game 2 in Phoenix], but he was so confident out there. I was never worried that he was going to figure it out, and he\u2019s showing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on the Thunder:<\/p>\n

L.A.\u2019s focus on controlling Gilgeous-Alexander has been effective, even though Oklahoma City is finding other ways to win, MacMahon adds. SGA finished with 23 points in Game 3, but was uncharacteristically inefficient, making just seven of his 20 shots. The Lakers are using former Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart<\/a> to deny him the ball and then employing double teams whenever it does come to him. \u201cObviously, I haven\u2019t been my best in performances, but I think I\u2019ve been able to help the team win and that\u2019s most important,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cAs long as we win. If the rest of the playoff run or the rest of my career look like what it looked like the past few games, I\u2019d be OK with it because we won games.\u201d
\nMitchell could become one of the league\u2019s biggest bargains over the next couple of years, notes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman<\/a>. As the 38th pick in the 2024 draft, he\u2019s already the lowest-paid player on the roster at $3MM, and his salary falls to $2.85MM next season with a team option for the same amount for 2027\/28. He\u2019ll be extension-eligible by that point, and Mussatto expects the Thunder to reward him with a long-term contract that\u2019s more in line with his production.
\nCason Wallace<\/a>, who posted the highest-scoring playoff performance of his career with 12 points in Game 2, nearly exceeded it in the first quarter on Saturday, notes Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman<\/a>. The third-year guard scored 11 points in the quarter by hitting all four of his shots, including three from beyond the arc, before finishing with 16. Isaiah Joe<\/a>, who was losing playing time to Jared McCain<\/a> earlier in the series, added 12 points and went 4-of-6 from three-point range.
\nThe Thunder, who already have the deepest roster in the league, could get even better with some lottery luck Sunday afternoon. They own the Clippers\u2019 selection at No. 12, giving them a 1.5% chance to land the top overall pick and a 7.1% chance to finish in the top four, as we outlined in our lottery primer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Lakers holding reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in check, a new star is emerging for the Thunder,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[12993,64,30097,63,726,149503,149502,12831,9034,12841,85],"class_list":["post-662204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-ajay-mitchell","tag-au","tag-austin-reaves","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-cason-wallace","tag-isaiah-joe","tag-jalen-williams","tag-marcus-smart","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}