\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Oklahoma City Thunder dominated on the court on Sunday, beating up on the visiting Phoenix Suns 119-84 during Game 1 of the Western Conference playoffs at the Paycom Center. Game 1 Dominance Reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers with 25 points while only playing 29 minutes in Game 1. Jalen Williams added 22 points, and Chet Holmgren scored 16 points. Following the victory and last season’s historic NBA Finals victory, Williams said the team is focused on bringing home another championship. “Everybody’s kind of been saying like, whatever happened last year already happened,” Williams said after the Game 1 victory. “And now, it’s about this totally new series. Like I said, we haven’t seen the Suns completely healthy like we have today.” NBA Awards Finalists Off the court, Thunder stars learned that they are finalists for some major NBA awards. Gilgeous-Alexander is a finalist for MVP once again, this time against fellow finalists Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) and Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs). He’s also up for Clutch Player of the Year against Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves) and Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets). Video Below: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander reflects on Oklahoma City bombing anniversaryChet Holmgren also is a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year against Ausar Thompson (Detroit Pistons) and Wembanyama, and Jaylin Williams is a finalist for the Teammate of the Year award. The NBA will announce the winners later this week. Thunder-Suns Game 2 Now, the Thunder and fans are looking forward to Game 2, which tips off at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Paycom Center. The game will be televised on ESPN. Video Below: Thunder fans bring excitement to 2026 Western Conference playoff opener against Suns\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tOKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Oklahoma City Thunder dominated on the court on Sunday, beating up on the visiting Phoenix Suns 119-84 during Game 1 of the Western Conference playoffs at the Paycom Center. <\/p>\n
Game 1 Dominance <\/p>\n
Reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers with 25 points while only playing 29 minutes in Game 1. Jalen Williams added 22 points, and Chet Holmgren scored 16 points. <\/p>\n
Following the victory and last season’s historic NBA Finals victory, Williams said the team is focused on bringing home another championship. <\/p>\n
“Everybody’s kind of been saying like, whatever happened last year already happened,” Williams said after the Game 1 victory. “And now, it’s about this totally new series. Like I said, we haven’t seen the Suns completely healthy like we have today.” <\/p>\n
NBA Awards Finalists <\/p>\n
Off the court, Thunder stars learned that they are finalists for some major NBA awards. <\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander is a finalist for MVP once again, this time against fellow finalists Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) and Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs). He’s also up for Clutch Player of the Year against Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves) and Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets). <\/p>\n
Video Below: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander reflects on Oklahoma City bombing anniversary<\/p>\n
Chet Holmgren also is a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year against Ausar Thompson (Detroit Pistons) and Wembanyama, and Jaylin Williams is a finalist for the Teammate of the Year award. <\/p>\n
The NBA will announce the winners later this week. <\/p>\n
Thunder-Suns Game 2 <\/p>\n
Now, the Thunder and fans are looking forward to Game 2, which tips off at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Paycom Center. The game will be televised on ESPN. <\/p>\n
Video Below: Thunder fans bring excitement to 2026 Western Conference playoff opener against Suns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder dominated on the court on Sunday, beating up on the visiting Phoenix Suns 119-84…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[3173,7,366,187,142,623,89098,364,2954,6,179,2065,472,4045,65,604,312,693,1564,7536],"class_list":{"0":"post-714661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-award","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-chet-holmgren","11":"tag-denver-nuggets","12":"tag-game","13":"tag-gilgeous-alexander","14":"tag-holmgren-finalist","15":"tag-jalen-williams","16":"tag-last-year","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","19":"tag-phoenix","20":"tag-phoenix-suns","21":"tag-phoenixsuns","22":"tag-point","23":"tag-suns","24":"tag-thunder","25":"tag-victor-wembanyama","26":"tag-victory","27":"tag-video-below"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116437807545398753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714661","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=714661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}