OKLAHOMA CITY — Through the first seven and a half months of this NBA season, Alex Caruso had only topped 30 minutes in a game twice.
The first: a late-March meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers, when injuries to Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren pressed him into duty in the Thunder’s starting lineup. The second: Game 4 of the 2024 Western Conference finals, when the veteran super-sub skittered all over the court, guarding Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and every Timberwolf in between in a hard-fought 128-126 win that drew Oklahoma City within one win of the 2025 NBA Finals.
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Now that the Thunder are actually in the 2025 NBA Finals, though? Caruso has played 30-plus twice in four Finals games — the last two, now that you mention it.
As the philosopher once said, “There are no coincidences.”
That philosopher’s name? Alex Caruso.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso has risen to the occasion in the NBA Finals. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Caruso cracking 30 minutes just twice in his first 72 appearances this regular and postseason was emblematic of the Thunder’s big-picture plan of attack for a player they’d targeted in a key trade last summer to be the missing piece of a hoped-for championship puzzle … but also a player whose now-legendary relentlessness had led to multiple injuries that cost him significant time over the course of his seven-year NBA career.
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“Yeah, I mean, it’s a double-edged sword,” Caruso said after Oklahoma City’s Game 2 win. “Some of that is I play a pretty erratic style regardless if it’s Game 1 [of the season] or if it’s Game 2 of the Finals. I just only have one gear — I don’t know how to play at 75%. Some of that was keeping me out of my own way, out of harm’s way. I don’t do a good job of that on my own.”
Some of it, though, came down to Oklahoma City being friggin’ awesome, with a ton of dudes capable of contributing when given the chance.
“We won 68 games in the regular season,” Caruso said after Game 2.” We had a 12-, 13-man rotation through the year, depending on who was hurt, different teams we played. That just comes with the nature of having a really good, deep team.”
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The Finals have a way of winnowing down a team’s depth, though — of erasing the opportunities to see what a precocious rookie might be able to provide you, of rendering more limited contributors particularly vulnerable and thus unviable, of paring a team down to its most essential elements.
“It’s the ultimate effort, endeavor, whatever you want to call it,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said after Game 4. “I mean, it’s long. It’s arduous. But it’s the greatest opportunity going. … It’s really hard, and it’s supposed to be hard.”
It’s a crucible: a 24/7 stress test that spotlights and punishes weakness, and that rewards versatility and skill, a game without holes, and an iron constitution.
In other words: It’s a series built for Caruso, and that Caruso is built for.
“Yeah, you know, I’m a complete basketball player,” he said Sunday. “There’s a lot of things that I do really, really good.”
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Caruso showcased the diversity of his skill set in Game 4. Everybody knows, at this point, that he’s one of the best defenders on the planet, equally adept at chasing jitterbug guards around screens and aggressively bodying up Nikola Jokić in the post. What many might not have been aware of, though, was that he’s also a more-than-capable initiator of Oklahoma City’s offense, with more touches and time of possession than any Thunderer besides Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams in Game 4, and with more passes thrown than even OKC’s two on-ball All-Stars.
Or that, when the moment calls for it, he’s got enough shake to his handle to be able to get from Point A to Point B off the bounce and make something happen once he gets there:
“Over my career, my abilities have gotten better through some work ethic and a little bit of confidence and understanding the moment and having success in the moment,” Caruso said after Game 4. “… This series — this playoffs, really — teams are forcing me to try and score the ball. That’s something that I’ve been working on for the last three, four years of my offseason. It’s been long offseasons not in the playoffs, so I’ve had a lot of time to work and prepare.”
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That preparation, combined with countless catch-and-shoot reps that have turned him into a 43.2% marksman from 3-point range in this postseason, makes Caruso a legitimate complementary offensive threat playing off the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Chet Holmgren. And that, combined with his ability to defend all across the positional spectrum — and his propensity for wreaking havoc while doing so, in the form of steals, deflections, blocked shots and blown-up possessions — makes him an exceptionally additive player in just about any context you could conjure.
“He is a gamer — you plug him in anywhere, any lineup, feels like any group, he makes a difference,” Gilgeous-Alexander said Sunday. “Makes everyone else around him better. He is always talking. He always knows where we’re supposed to be, where the other team is supposed to be. He has instincts that are special. I don’t think you can teach things like that. He just knows where the ball is going, where a rebound is bouncing to, how to get a deflection, timely steals.”
That all-around difference was palpable late in Game 4. Caruso contributed a little…
Dan Devine
