Each of Alex Caruso’s plucks and dives stripped something from the FedExForum crowd.
With his first steal, he took confidence. With his next, he took dignity, stripping the basketball from players with four or five inches on him. With the third, he robbed an entire arena of an overdue cue of “Whoop That Trick,” instead replaced by audible gasps. For his fourth and final trick, he helped snag history.
A chance at emphatic, signature getback from the Grizzlies was squandered. Caruso had already reminded the Thunder of its identity en route to helping it steal one of the largest comeback wins in NBA playoff history.
“We have a team of guys that feel a responsibility to each other,” coach Mark Daigneault said after Oklahoma City’s stunning 114-108 Game 3 win. “They’re gonna go down swinging.”
Caruso had seen this movie before. Fairly recently, too. OKC endured a scorching start from the Grizzlies in which it started Thursday night 10 for 19 from deep. Scotty Pippen Jr. had four early 3s. OKC, meanwhile, made just two of its first 15 attempts. Its early response felt, to him, similar to that of its April 6 loss to the Lakers.
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The Thunder’s largest deficit this season was 30 in a Nov. 10 loss versus the Warriors, the same game Chet Holmgren went down with a hip injury that sidelined him for much of this season. Its 29-point deficit on Thursday was tied for its second largest, matching that April 6 meeting with the Lakers.
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It was the biggest road deficit of its season. In a postseason setting, with yellow towels flanking both benches and Memphians itching to have some say in a one-sided series.
“In the moment,” All-Star Jalen Williams said, “it sucks. It’s not something that you want to make a habit of. But we also have extreme confidence in how we can play to kind of turn the tide.”
Somehow, down 26 at halftime — and with Memphis star Ja Morant out for the second half with a hip injury after colliding with Lu Dort — this Thunder team didn’t feel Game 3 was out of reach. A team that almost never needed late-game scenarios in the regular season, that almost never needed to live possession-to-possession, would have to get one out the mud from a deficit only two teams in league history had overcome.
No playoff team had ever overcome a 26-point halftime deficit.
“I was talking to guys in the locker room, just about getting it to low double digits — 10, 11, 12,” Caruso said. “From there, it felt like we could win the game.”
Added Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: “If they could build it, we can erase it.”
From there, plenty of trust was involved.
In Holmgren, 13 playoff games young, who carried just one point to his name at half on four attempts. In Williams, with the same amount of postseason experience under his belt. In Caruso, who played his most minutes of these playoffs, to act as a defensive catalyst and close the game. In a lineup that played less than a half’s worth of minutes all season.
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Caruso’s belief in Holmgren was unwavering. He often finds himself quietly chuckling during Holmgren’s pregame workouts.
Holmgren, a 7-foot-1 perfectionist with a rib cage for a torso and the touch of a harpist, can’t stand to string together several misses. Two misses might see him jerk his head in disgust. Three misses are likely to invite profanity.
“For me, it’s more about getting him out of his own way sometimes, when he gets a little too frustrated with himself, because it’s not a perfect game, it’s an imperfect game. We’re going to turn the ball over, you’re going to miss a shot, you’ll miss an assignment.”
He did all those things through a half. And in the next one, a 7-footer scorned became a 7-foot assassin. Holmgren erupted for a 16-point third quarter, with 23 of his 24 points coming in the second half.
“Credit to Mark for sticking with me,” Holmgren said. “Changed the trajectory of the game, trusting me and calling a play for me to bomb one out of half after that s— storm I put up in the first half.”
What changed?
“I kept shooting,” Holmgren said.
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He made four of his five 3-point attempts in the period, and drilled two of the free throws that helped the Thunder seal the comeback.
Williams posted eight points and five assists in the second half, a plus-30 in his 21 second-half minutes in a game OKC won by just a few possessions. He ended with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting, drilling timely shots to offset Gilgeous-Alexander’s continued inefficiency for his standards (31 points, 10 of 26).
Then there was the matter of the hairless, unchained, rabid dog that the Thunder extended in the fall. Caruso chased the ball like he was foaming at the mouth.
He finished Thursday with four steals and seven deflections, both team highs. All four of his steals came in the final 14 minutes. Two of them came on Jaren Jackson Jr., the 6-foot-10 All-Star forward Caruso was asked to scale up and defend late. His final steal came with 43 seconds to play, a clean strip of Pippen.
“If you’re going to Lifetime (Fitness), that’s that dude you pick first,” Holmgren said of Caruso.
The Grizzlies had more turnovers (13) than field goals (9) in the second half. The Thunder’s closing lineup, which featured Caruso, Dort, SGA, Williams and Holmgren — a lineup that only played 16 minutes together in the regular season — held Memphis scoreless in its 3:48 together.
“Our defense is our superpower,” Caruso said. “When we’re locked in on that side of the ball, we’re an unstoppable force.”
Memphis is well aware. Its souls have been repeatedly reaped upon, through a 50-point loss and an unfathomable comeback. Oklahoma City’s true superpower has been demoralization.
Joel Lorenzi covers the Thunder and NBA for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joel? He can be reached at [email protected] or on X/Twitter at @joelxlorenzi. Support Joel’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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