The dominance continues for the Oklahoma City Thunder in this 2025 NBA Playoffs.
After kicking off their postseason opener in an overpowering fashion, the upward trend remains the same for the league’s best as they dismantled the Memphis Grizzlies for Game 2.
With a 118-99 wire-to-wire victory, the Oklahoma City Thunder hammered a commanding 2-0 lead in first-round series, which now shifts to Memphis.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 27 points, and the 2024-25 MVP frontrunner was heavily supported by his co-stars in Jalen Williams who had 24 markers and Chet Holmgren going off for 20 points and 11 boards.
Ja Morant vowed that the Grizzlies wouldn’t play as bad as in Game 1, but his 23-point performance still was not enough to lift Memphis against the title favorites.
While it was the trio of Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, and Holmgren who mainly starred for the Thunder’s massive Game 2 win, it was actually Alex Caruso who intriguingly emerged and stole the show.
Caruso, the OKC’s prolific veteran, performed tremendously off the bench as he tallied 13 points, 4 boards, and 3 assists in 22 productive minutes.
The 31-year-old’s impact on the defensive end was stupendous, registering 3 steals and a block. He also rotated and helped the Thunder in clamping several of the Grizzlies’ top perimeter players shooting from Morant (10-25), Desmond Bane (7-17), as well as Scotty Pippen Jr. (4-12), and even going up against the imposing frame of Jaren Jackson Jr. for several instances of the matchup.
Kendrick Perkins claimed that Caruso will be pivotal in OKC’s title hunt, and it truly materialized this April 22 as Mark Daigneault can only be impressed by the undrafted swingman.
“He’s just such a unique player,” Daigneault said in his postgame conference.
“You can put him on Morant. You can put him on Jackson. You can also put him on somebody else and he can be a really disruptive help defender, which he got into the game a couple times with the block on Morant, the jump ball on the Jackson’s post up.
“He was just unbelievable.”
The Oklahoma City’s coveted offseason trade pick-up from last year, Caruso was an instrumental piece in the team’s historic season, averaging 7.1 points, 2.9 boards, 2.5 assists, and 1.6 steals for 19.3 minutes in 54 games.
He hammered his long-term commitment to the franchise earlier this 2024-25, inking a a four-year, $81 million extension.
Lately, there were plenty of murmurs if the Thunder made a mistake by letting Josh Giddey go to the Chicago Bulls just to acquire Caruso.
But at this time of the year, the entire Thunder would proudly say that they couldn’t be happier about having the All-Defensive star at their side as they get a step ahead for the 2025 NBA championship.
“This time of year, with the attention to detail, the level of competition, I feel like I’m one of the great competitors in this league,” Caruso said after the game.
“I might not be in the top-half or quarter talent-wise. But as far as competing, putting it all out there, and trying to win, I’m in the elite group.
“I’m ready to just go out there and do what it takes to win.”
