Depth was the talk. And in this series? It’s been the truth.
Coming off the Memphis series, most folks leaned toward Denver as the more favorable second-round matchup. The logic? The Nuggets don’t have the depth. That part held true.
What wasn’t expected was how shaky OKC’s role players would look in two of the first three games. Game 4 in Denver started off with that same eerie vibe — no Thunder player could get it going offensively, even though they held the Nuggets to an NBA playoff record 8.1% shooting in the first quarter.
Luckily, with plenty of moms in the house for Sunday’s Mother’s Day matinee, the bench mob showed up right on cue. Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, and Alex Caruso all delivered when it counted.
Cason’s defense? Never in question. He lives for chaos, lives to disrupt. But what separates great defenders from great players is knowing when to turn it on offensively. Wallace figured it out in Game 4. After OKC coughed up a 20-8 run and limped to the end of the third, it was Cason who opened the fourth with a momentum-shifting three, jumpstarting a 15-5 run that gave the Thunder a six-point cushion with under four to play. He finished with six in the final quarter — not a ton, but all guts.
Wiggins made his mark in the third, playing the role of the playoff-caliber glue guy: timely buckets, steady energy, and a knack for killing momentum. He scored eight of his 11 points in the final 4:47 of that quarter, keeping Denver’s push from turning into a tidal wave.
And then there’s Caruso — the vet, the “unc,” the emotional thermostat for this youthful No. 1 seed. Slowing down Nikola Jokic is never a one-man task, but Caruso’s physicality set the tone. Undersized? Sure. But his IQ and toughness tilted the edge. He’s been here before, and it shows.
Now it’s 2-2. And all the growing pains, the ugly stretches, the lineup tweaks — they weren’t wasted. Game 4 was a gut check, and OKC answered.
Two of the next three are in Oklahoma City. The vibes just shifted.
