Oklahoma City swept the Lakers to open the playoffs 8-0, becoming the fourth defending champion to pull that off.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are the NBA’s defending champs, and they’ve played just like that through the playoffs as they swept their second consecutive playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, with Austin Reaves’ blunt postgame assessment of the Thunder’s dominance that’s seen them go 8-0 in the playoffs. OKC will now move on to the Western Conference finals and became the fourth defending champs to open the playoffs with at least that many wins.
It was a Game 4 defined by a fourth quarter comeback for the Thunder, as they trailed by five in the fourth, which was their first deficit in that quarter all postseason. That’s when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander really turned it on, scoring 9 of his 35 points – a series high – in that quarter. Ajay Mitchell, also with a playoff-career-high 28 points, scored 10 of his in the fourth quarter, while Chet Holmgren also added 8 of his 16 in the fourth in a complete takeover in the end.
SGA finally broke out after being double-teamed by the Lakers more than ever in his career throughout this series, and it was effective, holding him to 21 points per game ahead of Monday’s contest. SGA let his teammates take over for the first three games before really delivering when it mattered.
To read more about the dominant series sweep, here is the full story from Thunder Roundtable writer Nick Crain.
OKC will now await the finals against either the San Antonio Spurs or Minnesota Timberwolves. But they do so with an 8-0 postseason record and an average margin of victory of 16.6 points. A storyline to watch will be Jalen Williams and his hamstring, who Mitchell filled in for in the Game 4 victory.