NEW ORLEANS — Moments removed from the Thunder’s first playoff series win in eight seasons, OKC coach Mark Daigneault sat upon the postgame platform in the Smoothie King Center’s cafeteria turned visiting media room, taking questions while droplets of water trickled from his hair.
Being drenched by his players in cold water was a tolerable reality considering what led to it, a 97-89 Game 4 win and sweep of the Pelicans. And that same bath was a fitting reality, soaked the way college coaches are after an NCAA Tournament win. Most of his team is young enough to still be in college.
“Our players are idiots,” he said jokingly.
Perhaps the young Thunder is foolish, though, in a sense of naivete. Not knowing what was waiting for it on the other side of a 57-win season. Oklahoma City was young. Inexperienced. Oblivious to the ways the postseason forces teams to shapeshift.
None of which seemingly mattered during its first-round series.
The Thunder became the youngest team to win a playoff series in NBA history.
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Now OKC awaits the winner of the Mavericks-Clippers series — currently tied at two games — with Game 1 set for Sunday or next Tuesday at Paycom Center.
By the end of OKC’s postseason run, its biggest mistake might be not trademarking the phrase “youngest to.”
Its youth has been endlessly linked to it — by pundits, by critics, by NBA history. Seemingly everyone but the team itself.
“We don’t see it as youth or being young,” forward Jalen Williams said. “We haven’t used that excuse all year. We didn’t use it last year. … It’s been brought up, it’s just something that everybody needs to talk about, and we kinda just leave it out there.”
Monday’s win marked Oklahoma City’s first playoff series win since the 2015-16 season, perhaps the last time Thunder fans were brimming with this level of hope. With dreams of contention.
That’s eight seasons, five trips to the postseason, three eras of Thunder basketball, a kiss goodbye to the rough pair of rebuilding seasons that jump-started this team, and one arrival — not appearance — that general manager Sam Presti was hoping for.
A mark of where this young Thunder squad stands, it did it without an overwhelming performance from its MVP candidate.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who tweaked his ankle near the end of the first quarter after seemingly stepping on a pair of teammates’ ankles, had his least efficient output of the series. He shot just 8 for 21 from the field and missed six free throws, adding 24 points.
In possibly the ugliest game of the series (and Game 1 happened), it was Josh Giddey and Jalen Williams who delivered with shotmaking. Giddey, who scored 14 points and made four 3-pointers, hasn’t been short on confidence since March. Each of his three fourth-quarter 3s were gutsy and necessary.
Williams tallied 24 points on 17 shots, following Giddey with a couple daring shots that all but sealed New Orleans’ fate.
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Ugliness aside, the Pelicans appeared like a team with the desperation that comes with playing in a season-ending game. Jose Alvarado’s on-court theft was more apparent than any game. Naji Marshall aimed to be a hero, drilling four 3s. Jonas Valanciunas spent most of the night in the post, playing 14 more minutes than he did in Game 3.
But ugly is ugly. There wasn’t any capable makeup to dress up the 37.6% shooting OKC held New Orleans to from the field, or the 8 for 34 (23.5%) mark on 3s. The Pelicans never scored more than 92 points in the series.
The Thunder is young. It hasn’t run from that. Chet Holmgren admittedly doesn’t know who Bruce Springsteen is. Players jumped and howled through the Smoothie King halls like kids awake past their bedtime, bringing life to the hallway leading to the locker room that’d been left silent otherwise.
The wisdom to complete Sunday’s feat is institutional. Nick Collison was on the floor pregame and standing right before the hall that Thunder players frolicked in. Other former players like Eric Maynor and D.J. White are present, scattered throughout the organization.
Even before it knew what the postseason felt like — the heightened thrill behind a sea of fans, the sensation of cold water — this Thunder team had crutches everywhere.
“More so than explicit advice, I think it’s just the presence of everybody in their job that creates a very consistent environment,” Daigneault said.
As an organization, it’s known who it’s been even before the season began. As a team, it had the resources to figure out who it was early. The youngest first-round winners in NBA history, turning its head at the sight of its credentials being checked.
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Historical clamps
If you felt like the scoring for some of the Pelicans and Thunder series was a call back to the 2000s and early 2010s, you were right. Just maybe for the wrong reasons.
The low scores — provided more often by New Orleans — went beyond the recent changes in officiating and the nature of postseason basketball. The Pelicans delivered a 93.5 offensive rating through the four games, the worst offensive rating from a playoff team since the 2015-16 Memphis Grizzlies.
Being offensively linked to a team coined the “Grit and Grind” Grizzlies probably isn’t ideal in 2024. It gets deeper, though.
Per ESPN’s tracking data, New Orleans shot just 9 for 35 (25.7%) on shots within 5 feet of the rim and contested by Holmgren throughout the series. The Pelicans shot higher than 38.5% in just one of the four games. They only shot 28.2% or lower from 3 each game.
Pels forward Brandon Ingram, banished to a life sentence in the most public display of the Dorture Chamber yet, was defended by Thunder guard Lu Dort for 35:09 across the series. Dort held him to 28 points on 11-for-33 shooting with four turnovers. Monday was Ingram’s worst night yet, making just two of his 14 attempts.
CJ McCollum, also thrust higher on the totem pole with Zion Williamson’s injury-related absence, similarly struggled. With Williams defending him, he made just 40% of his 20 shots. Holmgren, via switch on the perimeter or around the rim, limited him to 37.5% on 16 attempts.
The young Thunder grinded the Pelicans to an offensively-challenged pulp.
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