The Thunder took care of business against the Suns and earned themselves extended rest before the next round. Mark Daigneault and the coaching staff are without a doubt watching film from the Suns series in order to identify actionable information moving forward. 

Here are three positive trends from the first-round sweep. 

The non-Gilgeous-Alexander minutes were inconsistent during the regular season, and the outlook for these minutes became suspect once Jalen Williams strained his hamstring in Game 2. 

After Williams’ injury, Daigneault decided to play Ajay Mitchell, Cason Wallace, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein along with either Jared McCain or Alex Caruso during the non-Gilgeous-Alexander minutes. He seemingly prioritized size, rebounding and defensive playmaking in order to win the possession battle. It’s a logical strategy because Oklahoma City needs more bites at the apple on offense without Gilgeous-Alexander’s robotic scoring. 

What were the results? Excluding garbage time, the Thunder outscored the Suns by 54.1 points per 100 possessions across the 20 minutes when Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams were both off the court. If the champs continue to dominate without their MVP, then they have an excellent chance to win the title. 

Mitchell is the Thunder’s best ball handler and creator outside of Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams. The sophomore excels at navigating traffic off the dribble and generating paint touches. His downhill pressure is largely why the non-Gilgeous-Alexander minutes were functional offensively. 

But the most exciting part about Mitchell’s emergence is his pairing with Gilgeous-Alexander. Oklahoma City has a surplus of rim pressure and self-created scoring when they share the court, which makes it extremely difficult for opponents to get stops. Defenses are punished for loading up on the reigning MVP because Mitchell can attack off the catch. 

During the 77 minutes against Phoenix that they played together, Oklahoma City scored 136.1 points per 100 possessions, and Gilgeous-Alexander scored 45 points per 75 possessions on 82.1% true shooting.  

Whether it was early deficits, Williams’ injury or a noisy road crowd, Oklahoma City remained calm and collected throughout the series. The championship experience of this squad shined brightly. 

Oklahoma City’s mindset is a key reason behind its success. The team never becomes complacent and always seeks to find lessons in everything. Daigneault summed it up perfectly during an interview with the media after Game 4 – “The pursuit of being great fundamentally is never ending. Even if you’re really good you gotta do it the next time.”

Suns center Oso Ighodaro also heaped praise on the Thunder’s level of preparation during a post-game interview following Game 4 – “One thing I noticed about OKC is they were calling out every single one of our plays immediately. I had run through their playbook and knew pretty much their actions, but the level at which they knew our plays was definitely different. You could tell that that’s something that they’ve through experience have learned.” 

Overall, the champs’ mentality will help them persevere through the ups and downs of their remaining playoff series.