Devin Booker will have his hands full trying to slow reigning Kia MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
This 1-8 first-round showdown was the last opening series to be settled, with Phoenix beating Golden State to regain a playoff berth and earn the toughest task facing any of the qualifying teams: somehow win four times against the defending champions, who are driven to be the first repeat Larry O’Brien winners since the 2017 & 2018 Warriors.
Series schedule
Here’s how to watch the Thunder vs. Suns series:
All times Eastern Standard Time
- Game 1: Phoenix at Oklahoma City | Sunday April 19 (3:30 ET, ABC)
- Game 2: Phoenix at Oklahoma City | Wednesday April 22 (9:30 ET, ESPN)
- Game 3: Oklahoma City at Phoenix | Saturday April 25 (3:30 ET, NBC)
- Game 4: Oklahoma City at Phoenix | Monday April 27
- Game 5: Phoenix at Oklahoma City | Wednesday April 29*
- Game 6: Oklahoma City at Phoenix | Friday May 1*
- Game 7: Phoenix at Oklahoma City | Sunday May 3*
* = If necessary
Regular-season results
- Nov. 28 (Emirates NBA Cup Group Play): Oklahoma City 123, Phoenix 119
- Dec. 10 (Emirates NBA Cup Group Play): Oklahoma City 138, Phoenix 89
- Jan. 4: Phoenix 108, Oklahoma City 105
- Feb. 11: Oklahoma City 136, Phoenix 109
- April 12: Phoenix 135, Oklahoma City 103
Top storyline
Are the Thunder ready for their close-up? By the time we get to Sunday’s series opener at the Paycom Center, it will be going on two weeks since we saw Oklahoma City in its conference-leading configuration. That came in their 128-110 beatdown of the Clippers on April 8. The two final games were left to its backups and deep reserves. That might suggest a rest vs. rhythm trade-off for the Thunder, except their machine hummed along all season despite significant rotation guys’ absences. Chet Holmgren missed 13 games, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 14, Alex Caruso 26, Isaiah Hartenstein 35 and Jalen Williams 49, yet there was virtually no slippage. A 3-5 hiccup in January/February took OKC from 37-8 to 40-13, and that was as shaky as things ever got.
Keep your eyes on
Slowing SGA. It hasn’t happened a lot in Devin Booker’s career that there’s been a backcourt weapon on the opposing team more dangerous than him. But that’s the situation in which Booker and Phoenix find themselves as they try to cope with Gilgeous-Alexander’s multi-faceted offensive attack. The Suns have Dillon Brooks as a feisty defender and possible irritant, along with Ryan Dunn and Jordan Goodwin. They crafted the NBA’s ninth-most efficient defense this season. But the pressure SGA puts on every opponent, and any individual defender, is relentless, and he has myriad options for spraying the ball. Plus there’s always that path he wears to the foul line.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.0 points and 7.3 assists vs. the Suns this season, while shooting a robust 50.9% overall and 50% from the arc. Phoenix does take pride in its 3-point defense (34.7%) but its underbelly was a little soft – opponents shot 55.6% inside the arc, a category in which the Suns ranked 19th. Booker certainly can keep up as a scorer, but he’ll have to do it against the league’s top defense. And he doesn’t have at his disposal the secondary and tertiary scorers SGA does.
One more thing to watch for each team
For Thunder: Even a defense as stingy as theirs can’t take away everything. OKC’s 25th place ranking in 3-point defense is a potential flaw the Suns can exploit. Phoenix took and made the fifth-most 3-pointers in the league, setting a franchise record along the way by knocking down 1,210. The 36.1% accuracy of its long-distance shooters ranked 12th. Still, OKC doesn’t leave many openings elsewhere. Its overall defensive field-goal percentage (43.87%) was the NBA’s best. So were its 20.7 deflections and 22.0 points off turnovers. Forcing turnovers, the Thunder ranked second, same as in steals. That’s chaos on a stick when OKC dials up to playoff intensity.
For Suns: Finding reliable scorers besides Booker against the Thunders’ physical, disruptive defense was looking like a challenge. Consider: Ten Suns averaged 10+ points against OKC in the season series but only point guard Jamaree Bouyea participated in all five meetings. And only three more played in four. But that was before Jalen Green blew up in Play-In week. He went for 35 in the loss to Portland, then topped that with 36 in eliminating Golden State. Green didn’t face OKC at all this season while playing in an injury-hobbled 32 games. He has long been a streaky but potent 20-point man over four seasons with Houston before his trade to Phoenix. The trick will be getting Green and Booker going at the same time.
One key number to know
7.4 — The Suns averaged 3.1 more shot opportunities (field-goal attempts or trips to the line) than their opponents in the regular season. That was the league’s third best differential and an improvement of 7.4 per game from last season, when they averaged 4.3 fewer than their opponents.
In Jordan Ott’s first season as head coach, the Suns saw an incredible improvement in the possession game. They saw the league’s biggest jumps in both offensive rebounding percentage and opponent turnover rate. They made up for sub-par shooting by getting more shots.
The Thunder saw the league’s fourth biggest drop in shot-opportunity differential, from plus-4.3 per game (second) last season to plus-1.3 (11th) this season. They didn’t force quite as many turnovers as they did a year ago, and they saw the third biggest drop in offensive rebounding percentage. The Suns had the slight edge over the five head-to-head meetings, though the biggest differential in those five games (Phoenix +5) came on the last day of the regular season, when both teams rested their regulars.
— John Schuhmann
The pick
Thunder in five. Phoenix came to camp with 14 new faces, a rookie coach in Ott and a brand new staff. Seven Suns players set career highs in scoring, while the team ranked fourth in steals and held foes to 111.1 points per game, its lowest in four years. But the overachievement stops here. Even with Green’s sizzling week to help his team get here, Phoenix’s offense will face a heightened level of stymying against OKC. Its squadron of defenders such as Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Chet Holmgren and more doesn’t just hold teams down – it frustrates, bruises and occasionally bloodies them. At this early stage of the postseason, the Thunder are measuring themselves against, well, themselves. The lengthy timeline of the first round – or the extra off-days if they make quick work of Phoenix – will enable OKC to fashion its rotation to something more reliable than how it patched together the first 82.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
