"With the score tied halfway through the fourth quarter of Monday night's Game 4 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers, OKC's Ajay Mitchell sized up Marcus Smart in the left corner. The shot clock was rapidly draining and his teammates were all watched over closely, so it was up to the Belgian sophomore to cook the former Defensive Player of the Year. Mitchell gleefully obliged, crossing over so smoothly he sent Smart tumbling onto the hardwood, then crossing back over and leaping over Smart's prone body to finish in the lane."
"With their eventual 115-110 win, the Thunder survived the first close game they've had to play in these playoffs, and completed their second sweep in as many series. The Lakers lost the series by a total of 64 points, yet played about as well as could be expected of a misshapen team whose best player missed the entire series with a hamstring injury, second-best player was contending with an oblique injury, and third-best player is 41 years old. They kept it close through three quarters in most every game and, most impressively of all, held presumptive MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to a relatively unproductive quartet of games."
"The Lakers threw everything at Gilgeous-Alexander: early double-teams; hard traps; switches; even honest, vanilla pick-and-roll coverages. In aggregate the approach can be said to have worked, to the narrow extent that Gilgeous-Alexander posted middling counting stats and his post-series interview was mostly about how to battle rust. L.A.'s relative success at bottling SGA was qualified, however, and costly, as the front-end pressure opened stuff up for every other Thunder player, exposed the offensive glass, and exhausted the Lakers. They ran out of gas by the end of every single third quarter and, Game 4 aside, had to watch as the Thunder easily accelerated close games into blowouts."
With the game tied midway through the fourth quarter, Ajay Mitchell isolated Marcus Smart in the left corner and used smooth crossovers to break him down, forcing Smart to the floor and then finishing in the lane. Oklahoma City won 115-110, surviving a close playoff game and completing a second sweep in as many series. Los Angeles lost the series by 64 points but stayed competitive despite missing key contributors, including a hamstring injury to its best player and an oblique injury to its second-best player. The Lakers used double-teams, traps, switches, and pick-and-roll coverages to limit Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, producing only middling stats, but the pressure also created opportunities for other Thunder players, exposed offensive rebounding, and exhausted Los Angeles late in games.
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