Thunder respond to Game 4 loss with poise and urgency of a defending champion

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder have told themselves a season-long fib. They’ve tried to distance themselves from an experience as formative as an NBA championship. “Last year was last year,” they repeatedly scribbled in cursive on their chalk boards.

Of course, nothing about last June’s title run could aid their chase to return to another NBA Finals. Though what they mustered in a pivotal Game 5 of these Western Conference finals, a 127-114 win over the San Antonio Spurs as convincing as it seemed unlikely, felt conjured in part from past experience. A funky victory, with offbeat heroes, that felt familiar.

Because championship mettle, built beyond this regular season, isn’t always conventional. Oklahoma City knows where it subconsciously draws from to produce the level of connectivity it showed Tuesday night, mere days after laying a series-tying egg.

“The thing that you take from those experiences is the mental part of it,” center Isaiah Hartenstein said. “Not getting too high, not getting too low. Just going in there knowing you have to come with a certain sense of urgency. I think our group does a great job of not being too emotional with it. I think when you go into any playoff game and your emotions are too high or too low, that’s kind of when it doesn’t work for yourself.”

The Thunder know that because of Game 4 versus the Denver Nuggets a year ago. And Game 4 versus the Indiana Pacers soon after. The empathy isn’t conceptual. It’s no longer a TED talk from the title-tested lips of veteran Alex Caruso.

It’s helped the Thunder win games that feel a lot less formulaic. Not nearly as dependent on a turnover imbalance or MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s efficiency.

Following Sunday’s Game 4, coach Mark Daigneault noted that OKC’s global approach to offense, with ballhandlers Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell both sidelined, “didn’t benefit anyone.” They crumbled beneath the newly distributed offense, with creation required from five-man lineups and Aaron Wiggins suddenly significant.

“I don’t think we could have played any worse than Game 4, to be honest,” Hartenstein said.

The synergy and cohesion OKC lacked then reared their heads in Game 5. Hartenstein was a masterful screener, eventually finding SGA new angles to work with underneath Stephon Castle’s grasp. Jared McCain, orbiting around the big man, exhibited such confidence that he attempted as many shots (19) as Gilgeous-Alexander.

Caruso continued to straw poll for his Western Conference finals MVP candidacy, posting 22 points on 10 shots. He and Cason Wallace were symphonic defenders, with seven deflections between them. Caruso rotated and denied entry passes. Wallace eavesdropped near inbounds plays.

During their best stretches of offenses, that group moved on a string. Actions rarely paused long enough to get Castle’s input. The Thunder spaced in a way that required Victor Wembanyama to stretch himself thin.

Those five — McCain, Gilgeous-Alexander, Caruso, Wallace and Hartenstein — played 8 minutes, 5 seconds together: a plus-14, by far the game’s best lineup.

Most notably, they recaptured something: a firm pivot from Game 4. A return to something connective and continuous, unrelenting and decisive, necessary given their injuries.

Chet Holmgren, who previously seemed unhinged, hunted his shot in the game’s early minutes. He, too, felt emblematic of the nature of OKC’s win and the conviction that decided it. It’s never so simple against a defense as stingy as San Antonio’s, but the Thunder suggested that Tuesday night was a decision. A choice to lean into.

“We had a little disposition of how we wanted to play,” Caruso said. “Ball was moving. We didn’t just let them pressure us. After you lose a game, in general, you try to be more aggressive and try to come back. … At a certain point, you just try to correct the ship if you’re not in that spot to start the game.”

Gilgeous-Alexander, in the first quarter, embarked on what he called one of his worst starts of his career before finishing with 32 points and nine assists. He didn’t score a field goal until 31.2 seconds remained in the opening period. He coughed it up three times, half of his six turnovers for the game. As an initiator, under Castle’s pressure, he seemed wobbly at best.

“If it was five me’s out there, we would’ve been down 20,” he joked.

But the Thunder’s nucleus absorbed it. They didn’t need their superstar to combat these quick San Antonio starts. They tapped back into the same DNA that’s long drowned teams and triggered “Titanium” in the building. The avalanche is often piecemealed. A couple audacious moving 3s from McCain, an open one from Caruso as the Spurs dared him to shoot, a putback from Holmgren, the team-wide physicality that kept Wembanyama uninvolved.

The Thunder stomached difficult injuries and diagnosed quirky lineups all season long. They’ve experimented for several years. Winning and conducting reasonable offense, without their best initiators, is as much their makeup as it is miraculous.

To try to explain how OKC went from its putrid Game 4 to its impressive Game 5 victory is to try to explain the inconsistency of a series.

“I don’t know how — it’s a playoff series, you know? If you look at any playoff series that goes to six games, at least, there’s gonna be some tough games,” Daigneault said. “We had a tough game the other night. This team does a great job of coming back the next day, in a very neutral way, taking whatever the lessons are, applying them forward.”

It lies in Hartenstein’s bruising nature and presence on the glass. Or in McCain’s willingness to shoot. Or in SGA’s relentlessness. Or in Jaylin Williams’ capacity for eruption. Or in the patience of Kenrich Williams, a nonfactor in these playoffs but necessary in Game 5.

From the most unconventional corners of the roster, the Thunder can keep the turbine spinning long enough to transcend any lineup configuration or absence. They can lead Game 5 with McCain’s first playoff start. They create momentum from lineups that’ve rarely played together or seem ill-fitted. They start runs built on touch passes and precise rotations, as part of a machine that still apparently won’t be denied without Williams or Mitchell.

The Thunder conduct it with a poise that predates this run. The truth about their capabilities undeniably lies somewhere in their resume from last spring. They unquestionably built upon chemistry since September, fighting off dynastic discussions.

But in these spots, to know what is truly required, they need only to reach back 12 months.