For much of the season, Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has downplayed his team’s accomplishments, even as the team ran away with the best record in the Western Conference.
Oklahoma City needs to prove itself in the postseason, Gilgeous-Alexander said. Starting Sunday, the top-seeded Thunder get the chance to start doing that when they open their first-round playoff series with the No. 8 seed Memphis Grizzlies at home.
“I think guys are as confident as they’ve ever been, as excited as they’ve ever been,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s leading scorer and Most Valuable Player favorite. “That’s all you can ask for.”
Oklahoma City swept the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round last season after finishing atop the Western Conference but fell in six games to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round.
Early on in the season, the Thunder and Grizzlies looked worthy of reaching the Western Conference finals.
But after a 35-16 start, Memphis went just 13-18 down the stretch, leading to the firing of head coach Taylor Jenkins on March 28. The Grizzlies ended up falling into the play-in tournament.
Memphis fell its play-in opener at Golden State on Tuesday before winning at home against Dallas on Friday. Their reward was to meet Oklahoma City.
Grizzlies star Ja Morant was injured in the loss to the Warriors, but fought through a sprained ankle — thanks in part to a pair of pain-killing injections — to score 22 points with nine assists in the 120-106 win over the Mavericks on Friday.
“I’ve learned not to doubt him too much,” Grizzlies interim coach Tuomas Iisalo said of his point guard. “He comes up with some stuff that I’m not sure there’s any other human being on the planet that they can do stuff like that.”
Gilgeous-Alexander has heard the talk that the Thunder, the youngest team in the NBA, aren’t feared around the league despite their 68-14 regular-season record.
“I don’t care if teams fear us,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “If we win games, I don’t care how much they fear us, like us. None of your feelings toward us matter.”
The Thunder swept the season series against the Grizzlies, winning four times by an average of 18.8 points per game. None of the games were decided by fewer than 13 points.
Morant played in just two of those games.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 36.3 points in the four meetings with Memphis.
Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. said despite the Thunder’s success against Memphis — and most every other team this season — that his team won’t back down.
“A series is a series,” Jackson said. “You’ve got to stay level-headed. Whether you win a game or lose a game, it really doesn’t matter until it’s over.”
The Grizzlies are looking to become the third play-in team to win a playoff series and join the 2023 Miami Heat and 2023 Los Angeles Lakers.
Overall, the Thunder have won nine consecutive games against the Grizzlies, whose last win in the series came in December 2022.
The teams last met in the playoffs in 2014 in the first round, a seven-game series won by Oklahoma City which featured four consecutive overtime games.
The Thunder have won two of the three playoff series between the teams since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City.
–Field Level Media
