How the Thunder defense — ‘guys who do the little work’ — continues to overwhelm

OKLAHOMA CITY — With the Oklahoma City Thunder reaching the halfway mark of one of the great regular seasons in NBA history, it’s only natural that they compare themselves to majestic creatures.

“The world is seeing all of what we call the roaches in our locker room, the roaches and the hyenas,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was masterful in sliding his way to 40 points through three quarters of Thursday’s 134-114 declaration. win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “The guys who do the little work, who don’t get the most games, who don’t average 30, but their part of our season, our victory, is just as big.

“I’m glad people got to see that we’re not just one or two guys; we are 15 guys.”

The 15 guys force turnover after turnover while breaking opposing offenses and will in equal measure this season. That was the formula against the Cavaliers in a game that quickly turned into a rout thanks to a mammoth 30-2 run in the first half. Oklahoma City forced 21 turnovers and built a 42-point lead late in the third quarter en route to the victory.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s metaphor is apt because so many quality defensemen are featured on this list. Get through the first and another elite ballhawks awaits. The hands are all over the place, somehow only counting up to 10 even though it looks like 20. Oklahoma City is forcing turnovers on 16.2 percent of opponents’ possessions compared to the league average of 13.0 percent. Relative to the league average, that’s the highest forced turnover since 2019-20.

Tonight, it wasn’t just Gilgeous-Alexander or his talented sidekick Jalen Williams. It was Alex Caruso with three steals, and Lu Dort’s physicality and screen navigation, and Cason Wallace’s quickness and hands, and even 10-day Branden Carlson, who turned a surprising first-quarter turnover into multiple stands against Cleveland’s likely All-Star Evan Mobley.

The marauding swarms added to Cleveland’s frustration as the game wore on and the lead rumbled, first by forcing the bigger Cavs to go small to match them, then by wearing them down with waves of defenders and hands.

For Cleveland, it was death by a thousand cuts. The Thunder capped that 30-2 run with back-to-back pick-six turnovers — with the demoralized Cavs barely bothering to jog back on the second — shortly after a technical foul on Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson for snagging a referee on sideline and yelled “Call the f-ing foul!”

While the Cavs stewed, it was a cathartic result for the winners after the Thunder felt they made several defensive mistakes in losing to the Cavs eight days earlier in Cleveland. The two sides now have identical 34-6 records on the season, the best marks in the NBA.

It was also the cherry on top of the sundae that is the first half of Oklahoma City’s season. Heading into the midseason with their 41st game in Dallas on Friday, the Thunder are having one of the greatest half-seasons in NBA history, a fact that gets strangely little attention. The Thunder are coming off a 70-win season with both the largest scoring margin in NBA history and the greatest defensive rating against league average in NBA history.

It’s the defense in particular that has this team pushing for a spot on the list of all-time great regular seasons. (We’ll see about the playoffs when we get there; for now, can we just enjoy the ride?)

The scary thing is that they’ve done it while the top two defensemen on the roster have barely played. Flyscreen center Chet Holmgren has played in just 10 games after an early-season hip fracture, but has begun to take steps toward a possible return. And Caruso, acquired in the offseason for Josh Giddey (and somehow, nothing else), has played just 416 minutes while missing time with multiple injuries.

On this night, Caruso’s 13 minutes were huge in helping bottle up Cleveland’s powerful backcourt; he grabbed three steals and his presence also allowed Williams to move to the frontcourt.

Williams, in particular, has been crucial in allowing the Thunder to survive numerous frontcourt injuries. With Holmgren and offseason pickup Isaiah Hartenstein out, the 6-foot-6 Williams has seen extended shifts at center and the defense hasn’t missed a beat when he’s played there. In fact, Oklahoma City’s small units have proven as or more devastating than the traditional lineups.

Gilgeous-Alexander sang his teammate’s praises after the game, perhaps with a little embellishment, while sharing the podium with Williams.

“‘Dub’ does so many things on the field for us every night,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Defensively he, at 6-4 …”

“Come on, 6-6,” Williams interjected. “Don’t lower my height.”

“On 6-4“, continued Gilgeous-Alexander, “he is capable of guarding all five positions on the basketball court. Just like tonight, he guarded a 7-footer. I never could. A lot of guys our size never could. Those kinds of things have a direct impact on winning, and we’re definitely winning basketball games.”

“Six-six though,” Williams added.

So quickly did the game turn into a turnover that the closest thing to real drama came when Atkinson appeared to take exception to Dort celebrating a 3-pointer that put the Thunder up 36 midway through the third. He ended up in a conversation with Gilgeous-Alexander coming out of a timeout, with Gilgeous-Alexander at one point asking, “Can’t we enjoy the game?”

“He didn’t like the celebration, thought it was a little bit of taunting. But I didn’t think it was,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It wasn’t for their team, their players, their coaches. It was just us and our fans having a good time.”

If the Cavs want revenge, they will have to wait until a potential NBA Finals meeting. Cleveland and Oklahoma City will not play each other for the rest of the season, but could play the second half on their respective schedules to determine home field advantage for a series in June.

That might be the only drama left between now and May for this Thunder team, which already leads the Western Conference by seven games and seems virtually certain to be the top seed for the second straight season. Well, that and see if this group can really break the all-time defensive rating record.

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(Photo by Donovan Mitchell and Alex Caruso: Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)