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<\/p>\nBOSTON \u2014 Oklahoma City felt a tug at its heel Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Last season, when the Thunder sprinted to 68 regular-season wins and a 16-game lead over the Western Conference\u2019s second-seeded Houston Rockets, the breathing room came in abundance. Clinching the top seed with weeks remaining, the first directive was to exhale.<\/p>\n
But the West is wilder now. The extraterrestrial center in San Antonio expedited their timeline. Amid a tight race for the first seed, Oklahoma City got an early taste of the postseason this season \u2014 and what\u2019s at stake while they attempt to coalesce late.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally speaking, I like it,\u201d reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said after a 119-109 loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. \u201cLast year, I had too much time off before the playoffs, so I think I was a little bit rusty going to the playoffs. I just love to play, so I\u2019ll get a chance to go out there and play a few more games, which would be fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we were in a more fortunate situation to take rest. This year, San Antonio is close behind us, so we don\u2019t have that, I guess you can say, luxury, but we gotta use these opportunities to grow regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Wednesday was truly a playoff simulation, an old hindrance reared its head: shot variance.\u00a0Boston met Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s drives with two defenders at minimum, three for safety. They veered from the corner. They lurked from the opposite wing. And for much of the night, Gilgeous-Alexander found the best possible shots, often belonging to outside shooters.<\/p>\n
The superstar is known to make postseason deposits even earlier than this. Decisions that signify trust. The last meeting between Oklahoma City and Boston came during Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s week of go-ahead shots, and in a game in which he earned the right to decide things on his terms, he gave the final shot of a late, high-stakes possession to Alex Caruso.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Gilgeous-Alexander continued to relay trust.<\/p>\n
Caruso made 1 of 8 from deep, same as his last outing versus Boston. Since Feb. 27, he\u2019s made just six of his 38 3-pointers attempted. Cason Wallace made 1 of 4 from outside the arc. Outside of Gilgeous-Alexander, who made three of his four 3s, the Thunder were 6-for-25 on above-the-break 3s. On a night Gilgeous-Alexander tallied 33 points while shooting 10 for 12 from both the field and free-throw line, Oklahoma City shot 41.2 percent outside of him.<\/p>\n
His co-stars, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, the latter of whom remains on a minutes restriction since returning from a hamstring strain, combined for 17 points on 16 shots.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s deposits still trickled into postgame.<\/p>\n
\u201cOffensively, I don\u2019t know exactly what it is, but I probably have a big hand in it,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cMaking sure guys are more in rhythm and in flow out there. Guys like Dub (Williams), like Chet, I don\u2019t feel like they had a good pop to their game today. It\u2019s my job to make sure that those guys are flowing and in rhythm.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how good or bad my night is, that\u2019s something I can\u2019t waver. I think it\u2019s more, like, just them being in more positions to be successful. Like, cater to their game. That\u2019s the takeaway. So, I\u2019ll probably go look and see how I can help those guys out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 33 points and eight assists Wednesday night, but it wasn\u2019t enough against Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. (Winslow Townson \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
The Thunder haven\u2019t been this healthy all season. Their full rotation rests at their disposal. For an idea of the decisions that lie ahead game-to-game, as Oklahoma City attempts to untap lineup data and combinations before their title defense truly begins, look no further than Aaron Wiggins and Kenrich Williams\u2019 \u201cDNPs-Coach\u2019s Decision\u201d Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Approaching Jalen Williams\u2019 return to form will remain a priority. That includes working him into lineups he hasn\u2019t spent so much time in, and drilling his connections with players he could stand to gain more rhythm with.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s less concerned with the seed his Thunder begin the postseason with than the version of him that arrives in high-leverage games.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I\u2019m not dumb,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI know what the standings are, but wherever the chips fall, they fall. I think for me personally, it\u2019s like, how much better can I get back to myself in this and how much faster can I get back to normal and feeling really confident playing out there before we have to really win games. But, it\u2019s also a luxury.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spurs spent Wednesday walloping the tanking Memphis Grizzlies, a 25-point victory that trimmed the Thunder\u2019s lead for first place to two games. San Antonio is 13-1 since March 3.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander remains mindful of the playoff picture. He\u2019s eyeing the moving pieces more than he might usually let on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed Game 7 at home against Denver,\u201d he said when asked about the value of home-court advantage in the Thunder\u2019s title run. \u201cAnd then we needed it against Indiana to win a championship, so it\u2019s as important as everything. Every team in the NBA that makes the playoffs knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Thunder coach Mark Daigneault: \u201cYou\u2019d love to have home-court advantage in as many series as possible, but the question becomes, \u2018What do you do with that?\u2019 I\u2019m not sure focusing on it or focusing on the standings is the way to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to continue to build the habits and continue to improve through the season and continue to stay aggressive about learning your team. We\u2019d rather be playing our best basketball and be the fully formed version of ourselves at the end of the season. You look up and wherever you are on the standings at that point is where you are, and then you start playing from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Tankathon, the Thunder own the second-most difficult remaining strength of schedule in the NBA. By comparison, San Antonio\u2019s remaining strength of schedule ranks 20th.<\/p>\n
In these final three weeks, Oklahoma City will play the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons on a back-to-back and will have two more games against the third-seeded Los Angeles Lakers, at home on April 2 and then in a road game April 7 that starts a back-to-back with the LA Clippers the following day. Oklahoma City plays its final regular-season road game in Denver on April 10, then hosts the Phoenix Suns on April 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be in these games where winning really matters right now in order to get home-court advantage for the playoffs,\u201d Jalen Williams said. \u201cSo, there is some of that, but it\u2019s not like San Antonio-based. It\u2019s more like we\u2019re trying to see how many wins we can get, as well. That makes it fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buckle up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s the \u2018Wild, Wild West.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Oklahoma City felt a tug at its heel Wednesday night. Last season, when the Thunder sprinted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,6402,99],"class_list":["post-548302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}