Complementary player used to coming off the bench, Aaron Wiggins was clearly not the expected candidate for podium honors in the post-match press conference.
But, author of a copy with 16 points and 5 rebounds, it was he who embodied the great collective performance of the Thunder after its convincing victory in Game 1 against the Mavs (117-95), at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City . And who was logically entitled to the compliments of his coach, the coach of the year himself, Mark Daigneault.
“It was huge. He was really, really good on both ends of the pitch. But that’s what he’s done all season for us. He gave very good minutes in some interesting situations for us. We wanted to try different things and see what it could do. We played small at the end of the match, we tried different rotations to get samples and see what results it would produce. »
The bench responds
More generally, the Thunder bench shone for this Game 1 at home, with 42 points from the second knives including 11 units for Jaylen Williams, two pairs of 3-pointers for the Isaiah Joe – Cason Wallace duo, and even the first points in playoffs for Ousmane Dieng.
“I just stayed ready. I'm on the sidelines but I'm still preparing to come on,” said Aaron Wiggins after the victory. “To try to find the rhythm of the match and be comfortable as soon as I step on the pitch. And then, we have to play with confidence, play with a free mind, comfortable in our systems. I had some good positions and that got me going. »
Furthermore, and this is obviously not a coincidence, Oklahoma City quite simply achieved its franchise record for assists in the playoffs, with 29 offerings. Including 9 for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, in addition to his 29 points and 9 rebounds, and 5 for Jalen Williams, in addition to his 18 points and 5 rebounds.
The two young leaders of the Thunder attack responded in a hierarchy that is now well established and respected to the letter.
“It’s been like that all season. Each of the guys has their role”confirms SGA. “At the start of the season, we really insisted on the fact that we only control what we can control in our role, our effort, our energy. Everyone must focus on their role for the team to perform well. »
Effort and self-sacrifice
Back to back after the first quarter, the Thunder gradually took the upper hand thereafter, finishing the job with Jalen Williams still motivated, author of 10 of his 18 points in the final quarter. But not only…
“Diving on balls is something we talk about a lot, and just fighting. That's how good things happen. The more you fight on loose balls, especially in the playoffs where every possession is important, the more success you will have. It’s super important,” underlines J-Will. “There’s a 95% rule, which says you only have the ball in your hands 5% of the time. So what do you do the rest of the time? We managed to tighten our defense to make stops and secure the rebound. Our shots started to go in after that because we played the right way and we trusted each other. »
Now with five wins in a row in these 2024 playoffs, in which they appear as the No. 1 seed, the Thunder are still not weakening. Quite the contrary.
Despite their inexperience at this level of competition, Oklahoma City's young players continue to take big strides. Such as those of Chet Holmgren, also very solid on the court with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. But also in his head, more mature than his young age.
“Both teams came to play [hier] evening. It was an extremely physical match. It would be easy to see the result and be satisfied with it. But we know that it's a great team with two very good players, and good coaches around. We still have a lot of work to do! “, concludes Chet Holmgren. “They will offer us other systems in the next matches, compared to what we did in this first match. They will adapt after watching the video again, and they will be ready to fight in the next match. We must continue to do what we have been doing all year. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | 75 | 34.0 | 53.5 | 35.3 | 87.4 | 0.9 | 4.7 | 5.5 | 6.2 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 2.5 | 30.1 |
| Jalen Williams | 71 | 31.3 | 54.0 | 42.7 | 81.4 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 19.1 |
| Chet Holmgren | 82 | 29.4 | 53.0 | 37.0 | 79.3 | 1.6 | 6.3 | 7.9 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 16.5 |
| Josh Giddey | 80 | 25.1 | 47.5 | 33.7 | 80.6 | 1.4 | 5.0 | 6.4 | 4.8 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 12.3 |
| Luguentz Dort | 79 | 28.4 | 43.8 | 39.4 | 82.6 | 0.9 | 2.7 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 10.9 |
| Isaiah Joe | 78 | 18.5 | 45.8 | 41.6 | 86.5 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 8.2 |
| Aaron Wiggins | 78 | 15.7 | 56.2 | 49.2 | 78.9 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 6.9 |
| Cason Wallace | 82 | 20.6 | 49.1 | 41.9 | 78.4 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 6.8 |
| Gordon Hayward | 26 | 17.2 | 45.3 | 51.7 | 69.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 5.3 |
| Kenrich Williams | 69 | 14.9 | 46.8 | 39.7 | 50.0 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 4.7 |
| Ousmane Dieng | 33 | 11.1 | 42.2 | 30.0 | 87.5 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 4.0 |
| Jaylin Williams | 69 | 13.0 | 41.7 | 36.8 | 80.5 | 0.5 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 4.0 |
| Tre Mann | 13 | 9.2 | 50.0 | 42.1 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 3.8 |
| Lindy Waters III | 38 | 7.4 | 47.1 | 43.5 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 3.6 |
| Vasilije Micic | 30 | 12.0 | 40.7 | 24.4 | 73.7 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 3.3 |
| Davis Bertans | 15 | 6.1 | 38.5 | 41.7 | 93.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 2.9 |
| Olivier Sarr | 15 | 6.5 | 57.9 | 33.3 | 66.7 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 2.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 2.3 |
| Bismack Biyombo | 10 | 7.3 | 58.3 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.8 |
| Adam Flagler | 2 | 7.0 | 14.3 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 |
| Keyontae Johnson | 9 | 7.4 | 31.3 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| Aleksej Pokusevski | 10 | 6.0 | 25.0 | 18.2 | 50.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.2 |
| Mike Muscala | 16 | 5.7 | 36.4 | 9.1 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
