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 2025 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…
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