The Athletic: Like Alex Caruso and the Thunder Defense Game 7 grabbed

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Oklahoma City – As an assembly of Oklahoma City Thunder players, who broke up with the coach Mark Daignault during an early time on Sunday, the veteran guard Alex Caruso – a white towel – was separated from the pack and approached the court.

Daignault had some worrying signs of his players-especially in the energy propivation-although the game was only 8-4 in Denver Nuggets for less than three minutes. But when the rest of the team discussed how to avoid mistakes in the game 6, Caruso aggressively shot his feet under the basket, almost as if he were again in the design in the shuttle run.

“I can only be myself,” said Caruso, who ended with 11 points, three templates and three steals in the strong victory of the thunder with 125: 93. “I thrive there, go out and play my game what brought me to this point. The reason why they made the trade for me last summer was that they recognized what I was in and encouraged the players around me.

When Caruso checked the game in the middle of the first quarter, he sewed in Nikola Jokić's bag. In the first six games in the series, the thunder had experimented with a few different areas about the three -time MVP and achieved some success at an early stage. But in his last two games – when Jokić achieved 29 and 44 points on efficient excursions – it was clear that the cerebral Serbian had found out what Oklahoma City did.

So Daignault went with Caruso, his most trustworthy defender to try to slow down Jokić. Although Carusos 6 inches are shorter and gave up more than 100 pounds, the thunder in game 7 trusted him as they did all season. In his eight seasons, Caruso recorded thousands of minutes to pursue all kinds of players. (According to cleaning the glass, his teams were also better on the floor with him.) And to be clear, there is no Jokić stopper, but Daignault just had to push enough juice out of Caruso's knees for another night.

The task of refusing Jokić is a big one and not for the faint of heart. In the best case, Jokić is the school yard, which penetrates himself the most aggressive children. But Caruso, an accomplished, accomplished defender, is the annoying, arrogant child who is not afraid of bullying. According to basketball index, Caruso is in the 95th percentile in the defense position, the 72nd rim scanning, 93. In marginal points, saved and spent 62. Simply put, it is more than able to deal with the challenge.

The miracle about the possessions mentioned above is not only in the fact that Caruso Jokić was flooded twice twice in a few seconds. It is the case that ownership in the best possible result for thunder, a Russell Westbrook wing 3, ended. If he makes the shot, you tap your hat.

Even as a Denver tried to run Highscreen with Jokić and Jamal Murray, Oklahoma City had an answer. Cason Wallace, which recorded two steals and a flood of defensive activities, is an underestimated screen navigator with which Caruso can stay on Jokić as long as possible. Watch how to work together in the second half of the possession, Caruso can wipe Murray down and be fast enough to hinder jokić entry fun.

“Today's volume was a result of how effective it was,” said Daignault. “But it was a priority that was in the foreground today and he did an incredible job. If you set a 6: 5 wachmann to such a player, you need relentless help and pressure on the entry-level passes, and everything works together.

But what Caruso's efforts made so magical and contemporary was the impact on the team. His spirit was contagious, up and down with aggressiveness. During the regular season, thunder was the number 1 of the league in forced enemy sales (according to NBA.com purity details). In game 7 they rediscovered their essence. Oklahoma City plunged in all of Denver and forced 23 sales and turned them into a whopping 37 points at the other end.

“I thought our pressure was a differential maker in the game today,” said Daignault. “We accessed this at different times in this series, but today we made it consistent for 48 minutes. It was a catalyst for us – the pressure, distractions, sales. Even if they got shots, I thought, which pressure and helped to disturb the rhythm of these shots.

In game 7 Jokić finished 20 points, but only scored five field goals to achieve five sales. Caruso's attention to detail made Jokić almost impossible to find an appearance of the rhythm and helped the thunder to slowly build a commanding lead. If you don't take anything else, take a look at Caruso below. This is like the chewing gum that you simply cannot climb from the bottom of your shoe. Relentless.

“It is obviously a lot of hard work,” said Caruso. “But he is a difficult matchup because he does so many different things to involve others and influence the game. With my energy to be relentless, the efforts to make it hard. The boys around me have done a good job to help and rave because I don't do it alone.

The thunder will now appear in almost a decade of their first conference final, against a lively Minnesota Timberwolves team full of confidence that the Golden State Warriors sold in five games. And despite the positive signs for Oklahoma City-Jalen Williams' outbreak from his slump in goal, another monster game for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-Werd the core of the upcoming final of the Western Conference, whether the thunder have the defensive tools to slow Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle. There is an argument that Caruso, who will most likely see his fair proportion against Edwards and Randle, should be inserted into the starting line -up. But regardless of Caruso's role, his number is mentioned.

“He is a player who works on this occasion,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “He is a player who understands a moment that controls what he can control, and does this at a very high level. Nobody with whom I have ever played makes it at a higher level. He always finds out how to change the game and the team is better. It doesn't matter whether it is a Tuesday in February in New Orleans or a game 7 tonight.

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Kelly Iko is an employee who covers the Houston Rockets and the NBA for athletic. Before that, he worked for USA Today and Espn Houston. Follow Kelly on X @Kellyiko