The Oklahoma City Thunder easily sailed past the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, earning their spot in the Western Conference Finals.
A huge part of the team’s success during Game 7 was due to Alex Caruso, who was tasked with defending NBA icon Nikola Jokic.
Caruso did a terrific job and spoke about guarding Jokic after the game.
“Obviously, he’s a phenomenal player,” Caruso said to ESPN. “His résumé speaks for itself, but he’s a difficult matchup because he just does so many different things to get others involved and to influence the game. So, for me, it’s just about competing … being relentless with my energy, the effort to make it tough on him, and obviously the guys around me did a good job of helping and swarming that because I’m not doing that on my own.”
Even though Caruso is 6-foot-5, his job was to slow down and stop Jokic, who stands at 6-foot-11.
Despite that size difference, Caruso was all over Jokic and was hounding him throughout the game.
That seemed to do the trick, and Jokic scored 20 points, going 5-of-9 from the field and attempting only two three-pointers.
The fact that Caruso did a good job defending Jokic is great news for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it led to OKC’s win, and now they are headed to the Western Conference Finals after a very impressive season.
Secondly, it shows that the Thunder could beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, whom they face in the next round.
Like the Nuggets, the Timberwolves are bigger than the Thunder.
But if Oklahoma City was able to stop Denver, they can do it with Minnesota, too.
This is the latest strong performance from Caruso, who has been a defensive hero since entering the league.
What will he do in the next round against the T-Wolves?
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