{"id":1585,"date":"2025-04-26T23:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T23:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/1585\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T23:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T23:25:07","slug":"okc-thunder-fends-off-memphis-grizzlies-completes-nba-playoff-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/1585\/","title":{"rendered":"OKC Thunder fends off Memphis Grizzlies, completes NBA playoff sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"

The OKC Thunder<\/a> completed a sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

OKC escaped with a 117-115 road win over Memphis<\/a> in Game 4 of the first-round NBA playoff<\/a> series. It’ll now advance to the Western Conference semifinals, where it’ll face either the Denver Nuggets<\/a> and the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are five takeaways from the game:<\/p>\n

More: Thunder vs Grizzlies score, live updates: OKC goes for sweep of Memphis in NBA Playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander helped OKC start and finish strong<\/p>\n

Zach Edey<\/a> was at the mercy of an apex predator.<\/p>\n

The 7-foot-4 center found himself alone on the perimeter with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> early in the first quarter. And as Gilgeous-Alexander rocked the ball side to side, planning his attack, all Edey could do was slowly retreat.<\/p>\n

It only took three dribbles and a stepback for Gilgeous-Alexander to free up some space, and he drilled a mid-range jumper over his helpless defender.<\/p>\n

Edey wasn’t the only one at Gilgeous-Alexander’s mercy early on. The superstar guard erupted for 16 points on 7-for-7 shooting from the field in the first quarter to give OKC a 34-31 lead.<\/p>\n

And after getting off to a hot start, Gilgeous-Alexander also finished strong. He sank another stepback shot with 11.1 seconds left in the contest to extend OKC’s lead to 116-111, and that proved to be the dagger.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander ended the day with a game-high 38 points on 13-for-24 shooting from the field (54.1%). He also recorded six assists and five rebounds.<\/p>\n

More: Ja Morant injury update: Grizzlies star out vs OKC Thunder for Game 4 of NBA Playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n

Thunder attacked the rim amid 3-point struggles<\/p>\n

Chet Holmgren<\/a> is more than capable of knocking it down from deep.<\/p>\n

But as the big man came off of a screen midway through the second quarter and caught a pass on the perimeter, he opted not to let it fly. Instead, Holmgren attacked the rim and euro-stepped around a defender for a two-handed slam.<\/p>\n

OKC found far more success from close range Saturday. The Thunder went 34 for 59 on 2-pointers (57.6%) and just 7 for 35 (20%) on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

More: Kenrich Williams relishes facing former TCU teammate Desmond Bane in NBA Playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n

Jalen Williams stepped up once again<\/p>\n

When Jalen Williams<\/a> is driving, defenders become bugs in the windshield.<\/p>\n

Scotty Pippen Jr.<\/a> learned that the hard way in the fourth quarter when he attempted to cut off OKC’s All-Star forward on a fastbreak. Williams brushed the undersized defender off with ease, sending him flying, before he stopped on a dime for a 3-pointer that found the bottom of the net.<\/p>\n

The bucket gave the Thunder a 10-point lead with 5:44 remaining, and it ultimately secured the win to complete the series sweep. Williams finished with 23 points on 10-for-21 shooting from the field (47.6%).<\/p>\n

Williams was OKC’s most consistent scorer throughout the series. He averaged 23.3 points per game, and he scored at least 20 points in each contest.<\/p>\n

More: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander may be the next MVP, but can he be the face of the NBA his way?<\/a><\/p>\n

Memphis didn’t have Ja Morant<\/a>, who suffered a left hip contusion in Game 3<\/a>, but it still battled with its season on the line.<\/p>\n

Pippen led the charge as the Grizzlies’ lead ball handler in the absence of Morant. He tied for a career-high 30 points to go along with 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Santi Aldama also shined in his first start of the series. He recorded 23 points and nine rebounds.<\/p>\n

But it wasn’t enough for the Grizzlies, who fell short in heartbreaking fashion on their home floor. Desmond Bane intentionally missed a free throw with hopes of getting a putback as Memphis trailed 117-115 with 0.2 seconds remaining, and time expired.<\/p>\n

More: OKC Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein takes matters into own hands with NBA playoff shirts<\/a><\/p>\n

With the win, the Thunder now advances to the Western Conference semifinals for the second straight season.<\/p>\n

OKC will face the winner of the No. 4-seeded Denver Nuggets and the No. 5-seeded Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers held a 2-1 lead in that series heading into Saturday night’s Game 4.<\/p>\n

OKC split its four-game series against Denver in the regular season. It won all four of its meetings against Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

More: How Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein is trying to be crutch he had for next generation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The OKC Thunder completed a sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. OKC escaped with a 117-115 road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1182,299,837,7,618,366,311,559,777,840,301,187,836,497,1184,623,294,619,834,178,625,832,364,624,496,106,71,842,298,135,293,177,54,79,835,70,85,6,11,841,62,67,302,310,179,61,81,621,34,65,1181,1185,620,627,622,209,66,83,55,64,312,63,82,831,833,1183,1083],"class_list":{"0":"post-1585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-aldama","9":"tag-angeles","10":"tag-bane","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-chet","13":"tag-chet-holmgren","14":"tag-city","15":"tag-clippers","16":"tag-conference","17":"tag-connect","18":"tag-denver","19":"tag-denver-nuggets","20":"tag-desmond","21":"tag-desmond-bane","22":"tag-edey","23":"tag-gilgeous-alexander","24":"tag-grizzlies","25":"tag-holmgren","26":"tag-ja","27":"tag-ja-morant","28":"tag-jackson","29":"tag-jalen","30":"tag-jalen-williams","31":"tag-jaren","32":"tag-jaren-jackson-jr","33":"tag-jr","34":"tag-local","35":"tag-local-connect","36":"tag-los","37":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","38":"tag-memphis","39":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","40":"tag-modular","41":"tag-modular-story","42":"tag-morant","43":"tag-national","44":"tag-national-sports","45":"tag-nba","46":"tag-nba-playoffs","47":"tag-nba-western-conference","48":"tag-neutral","49":"tag-news","50":"tag-nuggets","51":"tag-oklahoma","52":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","53":"tag-overall","54":"tag-overall-neutral","55":"tag-pippen","56":"tag-playoffs","57":"tag-point","58":"tag-santi","59":"tag-santi-aldama","60":"tag-scotty","61":"tag-scotty-pippen-jr","62":"tag-shai","63":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","64":"tag-sports","65":"tag-sports-news","66":"tag-story","67":"tag-the","68":"tag-thunder","69":"tag-to","70":"tag-to-the-point","71":"tag-western","72":"tag-williams","73":"tag-zach","74":"tag-zach-edey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}