Ordinarily, this would have been a disaster. Oklahoma City had three starters combine to score seven points in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals on Friday night.
Few people probably noticed.
That’s how good the Thunder bench was — again.
They’ll give out an MVP award when these West finals are over, and if things keep going like this, it might be a good idea to cut it up into parts and just hand it out to those on Oklahoma City’s bench. OKC’s reserves outscored San Antonio’s bench 76-23 on Friday night, a huge reason why the Thunder beat the Spurs 123-108 for a 2-1 series lead.
Jared McCain scored 24 points for the Thunder; that’s a playoff career best. Jaylin Williams — the forward, with Thunder guard Jalen Williams out with hamstring issues again — hit five 3-pointers and scored 18; that was also a playoff career high. And Alex Caruso had 15 points, giving him 63 in this series; that’s the best three-game scoring span of his career.
“I like proving my support system right,” said McCain, a midseason pickup in a trade with Philadelphia. “The people who really believe in me, I like proving them right.”
Oh, they were right. And they had a lot to talk about Friday night.
“We talk about it a lot, in practice and throughout the whole playoffs: Be ready and stay ready,” McCain said. “Coaches have done a great job of that. … We all are hoopers and we all know what to do out there, especially this team. It’s a very mature team. Coming in, I just want to be as ready as I can, no matter what it is.”
He’s not alone. The entire OKC bench has been ready, throughout the whole series.
The Thunder got 50 points from their reserves in Game 1, then 57 in Game 2 — and on Friday, the bench mob struck again.
The 76 bench points were the most by a team in a conference finals game since the NBA went to the 16-team playoff format in 1984. The previous mark was 69 by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1985. Only two Thunder starters scored in double figures — MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and Chet Holmgren had 14.
Didn’t matter.
Down 15-0 not even three minutes into the game, coach Mark Daigneault went to his bench for the first time.
And everything changed in an instant, a harbinger of what was to come. Caruso, McCain, Williams and Cason Wallace combined to score 21 points in the remainder of that first quarter. The Spurs’ lead was down to five going into the second, and it didn’t take long for Oklahoma City to grab control.
“We assume the opponent’s always at their best and we need to be at ours and depth is a part of that. … It just needs to be one of our strengths that we rely on, regardless of circumstance,” Daigneault said.
Oklahoma City’s bench contributed 62% of the scoring for the Thunder in Game 3 — something no team had done in a winning effort during a conference finals game in the last four decades. And after being down 15 at the start, the Thunder won by 15 at the end.
For the series, the Thunder reserves have outscored the Spurs’ bench 183-64.
“We were ready,” McCain said.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
