![\"Thunder](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/429827bf8392efc2d2926cb16a760142.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nThe Oklahoma City Thunder enjoyed a sweep over the Memphis Grizzlies.<\/p>\n
Once they were back in Memphis, the final two games of the series were competitive, following consecutive blowouts in the first two.<\/p>\n
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It’s possible that fans of both teams knew the series was over after the Thunder dismantled the Grizzlies on Easter Sunday by an astounding 51 points.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) spins toward the basket against the Grizzlies.Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Charles Barkley sends Thunder warning<\/p>\n
Perhaps most importantly, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got going late in the series.<\/p>\n
After the Thunder essentially didn’t need him in Game 1, scoring a season-low 15 points.<\/p>\n
But in the closeout game, Gilgeous-Alexander put on a performance most are used to seeing by now, scoring 38 points in a 117-115 win.<\/p>\n
The Thunder advance to take on the Denver Nuggets, a team that looked quite strong and energetic in the seven-game series.<\/p>\n
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Ahead of Game 1 against the Nuggets, TNT’s Charles Barkley offered his prediction on the series and was far from shy about it.<\/p>\n
“I’m not leaning, I’m going OKC,” Barkley said. “I have not seen anything in the Western Conference to make me think anybody can beat OKC.<\/p>\n
“You’re going to see this for the first time. Denver has not done anything with their bench. Oklahoma City probably has the best bench in the NBA. I think that’s going to be a huge [difference] in this series.”<\/p>\n
While the Thunder dominated this season, they split the regular-season series with the Nuggets 2-2.<\/p>\n
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The Nuggets defeated the Thunder the last time the two teams met on March 10, allowing Jokic to score 35 points and grab 18 rebounds.<\/p>\n
However, it’s unlikely the Nuggets would be able to replicate that game for an entire series, especially considering that they shot 56% from three in that game.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander has a 40-point game against the Nuggets this season, so it will be interesting to see how Denver guards him out of the gate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder enjoyed a sweep over the Memphis Grizzlies. Once they were back in Memphis, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,2001,187,294,914,293,177,4070,6,475,179,209,1415],"class_list":{"0":"post-9494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-memphis-grizzlies","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charles-barkley","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-grizzlies","12":"tag-jokic","13":"tag-memphis","14":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","15":"tag-memphisgrizzlies","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-oklahoma-city","18":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","19":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","20":"tag-the-nuggets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114452897852387061","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9494","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=9494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}