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Whenever you consider the OKC Thunder’s rise this season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren most likely come to thoughts first.
However quietly, and these days, not-so-quietly, it’s been Alex Caruso doing a bit little bit of all the pieces. Protection, playmaking, well timed buckets, ground spacing, vocal management, and now… extra minutes.
Caruso logged simply two video games over half-hour in his first 72 appearances this season. Since Recreation 3 of the Finals? He’s cracked that mark twice in back-to-back video games.
“There are not any coincidences,” he mentioned after OKC’s Recreation 2 win. “A few of that’s I play a reasonably erratic fashion… I don’t know how one can play at 75 p.c.”
It’s that all-gas, no-brakes mindset that’s turned Caruso right into a postseason X-factor for a Thunder crew teetering on the sting of a championship breakthrough.
14 factors, 4 boards, 2 dimes, 3.5 steals per recreation throughout Video games 3 and 4. However the numbers don’t do justice to the texture, the fixed speak, the palms in each passing lane, the physicality which you could’t coach. Shai nailed it after Recreation 4.
“He has instincts which can be particular. I don’t assume you possibly can train issues like that.”
Caruso’s all the time had that motor, however now he’s including offensive gravity too. Extra touches than anybody on OKC not named Shai or Jalen Williams in Recreation 4. Extra passes thrown than both of them. He’s additionally hitting at a 43.2 p.c clip this postseason.
“I’m a whole basketball participant,” Caruso mentioned Sunday. “There’s numerous issues that I do actually, actually good.”
That confidence didn’t come out of nowhere. Years of missed playoff runs meant years of offseason work. And it’s paying off now, on the largest stage.
If Daigneault decides to up his minutes once more, that distinction could possibly be the rationale OKC hangs its first banner.
READ MORE: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Says No Excuses as Pacers Tear Him Down in Recreation 3 Loss
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