Suns-Thunder takeaways: There doesn’t appear to be an answer for SGA

The No. 1 seed in the West did No. 1 seed things.

The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Phoenix Suns 120-107 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

The Thunder led by as many as 26, but the Suns — powered by 30 points from Dillon Brooks — cut the lead to 10 late in the fourth quarter. But that’s how good OKC is. The lead stayed double-digits despite the team losing Jalen Williams to a hamstring injury and the game was never really in doubt as OKC closed things out.

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Here are the key takeaways for a Thunder win in which they look very tough to beat:

SGA remains a difficult puzzle to solve

It’s apparent the Suns’ primary, secondary and tertiary defensive order of operations are centered around slowing down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The reigning league and Finals MVP, one of the most efficient scorers in recent NBA history, is seeing a swarm of bodies on seemingly every turn and catch of the ball.

Phoenix, one of the league’s most proficient turnover-causing teams, displayed a number of different defensive approaches on SGA — switching, pressuring and even reverting to a box-and-1 — in attempts to keep Gilgeous-Alexander’s scoring at bay, but it was to no avail. Outside of a few early misses, the bulk of which were good looks, Gilgeous-Alexander had his way with the Suns, using his random, jittery motion to keep Phoenix off-balance and finishing with a game-high 37 points.

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The Suns’ best chance at guarding SGA, Dillon Brooks, was routinely switched off. courtesy of smart and timely Thunder screens. It’s hard enough slowing down a juggernaut like the Thunder even when their best player is struggling, like he was in Game 1. If he’s able to maintain a scoring rhythm like he did in Game 2, this series won’t last much longer.

A ‘big’ problem

Simply put, the Suns need more from Oso Ighodaro in this series. With starting center Mark Williams sidelined with a foot injury, head coach Jordan Ott called upon the second-year big to fill the void — but the lights appeared to be too bright for the 23-year-old.

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In the opening minutes…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/suns-thunder-takeaways-there-doesnt-appear-to-be-an-answer-for-sga-045921823.html

Author : Kelly Iko

Publish date : 2026-04-23 04:59:00

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