LOS ANGELES -- An astute bit of analysis from Los Angeles Lakers star guard Austin Reaves best summed up the Oklahoma City Thunder after the defending champions swept their second consecutive playoff series.
"They're really f---ing good," Reaves said after the Thunder's 115-110 comeback win in Monday's Game 4 eliminated the Lakers.
According to ESPN Research, the Thunder became the fourth defending champion to begin the playoffs with at least eight consecutive wins, and the first since LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017. Oklahoma City has gone 8-0 with an average margin of victory of 16.6 points, the fifth largest entering the conference finals since the playoffs expanded to the current 16-team format in 1983-84.
"We've done our job so far. That's all it really means," said Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored a series-high 35 points in Game 4. "We've gone out there, we've executed, we played at a high level, and we've been able to win eight top games against really good opponents. That's all it really means.
"Nothing's guaranteed. In the playoffs, no two games are the same, especially when you change opponents. The challenges are all coming up, I guess you could say. Everything that we've done so far is behind us. We still haven't reached our goal."
The Thunder hadn't trailed in the fourth quarter during this postseason until Monday, when the Lakers led by as many as five points. That was the margin when Gilgeous-Alexander checked back in with 8:37 remaining, more than two minutes ahead of his regular rotation, with the goal of getting extra rest by closing out the series.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored nine of his 35 points in the final quarter. Guard Ajay Mitchell, who starred in this series while filling in for Jalen Williams (hamstring) in the starting lineup, scored 10 of his playoff-career-high 28 points in the quarter. And power forward Chet Holmgren had half of his 16 points in the fourth, going 4-of-4 from the floor, including a dunk off a feed from center Isaiah Hartenstein with 33 seconds left that gave Oklahoma City the lead for good.
"We've been very, very good," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "I thought we had more lapses tonight than we had had in previous games. So we have to learn from that. Obviously we have to play better in more of the 48 minutes, but I also think the wind's going to be in your face in a playoff game for different reasons at different times and you've got to be able to recenter. I thought we did that exceptionally well tonight."
It was a difficult series for Gilgeous-Alexander despite the sweep because of how aggressively the Lakers schemed to slow him down. According to Daigneault, Gilgeous-Alexander was double-teamed more by the Lakers than in any other playoff series in his career.
As a result, Gilgeous-Alexander didn't have his normal scoring output in the first few games, averaging 21.0 points in the series entering Game 4, more than 10 points under his regular-season average.
"Hats off to my teammates," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "Obviously, their goal was to make my teammates beat them in the first three games, and my teammates did exactly that."
Gilgeous-Alexander said the patience he displayed in the series by giving up the ball when it was the right read against double-teams was evidence of his personal growth over the past year.
Daigneault emphasized that Gilgeous-Alexander's impact extended far beyond his box score statistics. The coach cited the attention the Lakers paid Gilgeous-Alexander as a factor in Oklahoma City's dominance in second halves (plus-55 in the series), the team's offensive rebounding success and other Thunder players' confidence.
"I think you look down and you see 18 points or 22 points and it's easy to rush to a conclusion on that," Daigneault said. "But if you are really evaluating total and global impact, even with 18 points, the domino effect of the double-teams are huge and him not fighting the game in those situations reeled back the double-teams. He kind of hid in the grass, and then tonight he went and closed that thing."