MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — With Oklahoma City clutching a four-point lead, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drove into the line and smacked into triple coverage — doing the splits as he stopped and desperately tried to find a safe place for the ball.
Somehow, as he lost his balance and fell toward the court, he found space to fling it between the legs of Minnesota's Jaden McDaniels — and straight to a wide-open Jalen Williams behind the arc with 1:21 to go.
Swish. Game. Maybe even the series.
The Thunder saw that seven-point lead shrink back to one in the closing seconds, but they staved off the late push with a parade to the free-throw line and pulled out a 128-126 victory in Game 4 that gave them a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
Even the NBA MVP needs a wing man, and Gilgeous-Alexander has two. Williams and Chet Holmgren were so good in their own ways that a 40-point, 10-assist, nine-rebound performance by Gilgeous-Alexander on Monday night was somehow overshadowed.
Williams had 13 of his 34 points in the first quarter to give the Thunder the scoring to match their tenacious start after a 42-point loss in Game 3. He shot 13 for 24, including 6 for 9 from 3-point range, and pitched in three of the team's 14 steals.
“From start to finish, he picked his spots great, he was aggressive, stepped into everything," Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was who he is. He’s gotten all these awards this year for a good reason, and he proved it tonight. He’s a really good basketball player. It’s crazy to think he’s so young and what he has already achieved.”
Holmgren had nine of his 21 points in the fourth quarter. He went 9 for 14 from the floor, grabbed four of his seven rebounds on the offensive end and blocked three shots — including a highlight-reel rejection of McDaniels in the final minute in a five-point game.
After McDaniels followed his hard drive right with a slick spin move to beat him to the basket for a left-side layup attempt, Holmgren never lost his footing despite the change in direction and swiftly slid to his right before a perfectly timed jump to swat the ball without fouling as the clock dropped under the 40-second mark.
“On both ends of the floor, he affects the game at such a high level,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And it’s crazy because he’s out there just running around right now. We rarely call plays for him. He rarely gets anything set for him. He’s just out there playing off of feel and affecting the game at a high level, whether it’s making open shots, blocking shots, offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding.
"He’s just a winning player.”
Though the Timberwolves regained possession after a charging foul on Gilgeous-Alexander, precious more time went by before they scored again on a 3-pointer by McDaniels with 23 seconds left.
Gilgeous-Alexander helped ice the game at the line, and Williams eventually grabbed a desperation inbounds pass by the Timberwolves from half-court with 0.3 seconds left.
Holmgren, the second overall pick in the 2022 draft who missed his entire rookie season with a foot injury and 50 games this season following a pelvic fracture from a hard fall, happily left his hometown with a statement performance that put him and his teammates within one win of reaching the NBA Finals.
“When you have really good players that the other team needs to stop, they’re going to have to help recover from somewhere,” Holmgren said. "So just understanding that we have to make them pay for that and just try to be aggressive, try to make the right play, too. It’s not always score. Sometimes it’s make the extra pass, sometimes it’s find the next action, whatever it is, just try to leave fingerprints on the game and make winning plays.”
Despite playing in one of the league's smallest markets, the trio already has its own commercial, a humorous spot for AT&T highlighting the importance of communication when they all show up for a red-carpet event in the exact same outfits.
The camaraderie isn't an act.
“We’re all really cool with each other, to be honest,” said Williams, the 12th overall pick in the 2022 draft who made his first All-Star team this season. "Off-the-court chemistry seeps into on the court. We’ve just grown up together. Obviously Shai’s a little bit older than us, but we’ve been through a lot of experiences in a short amount of time that have either forced us to trust each other or grow apart, and we’ve grown closer to each other.
"That’s just kind of how we play — live and die by trusting each other, and whatever happens from there happens.”
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