The Oklahoma City Thunder are not just defending their title. They are sprinting toward another one. Monday night’s 115-110 win in Game 4 sealed a clean sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers and pushed OKC to a perfect 8-0 record in this postseason.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 35. Chet Holmgren threw down a tiebreaking dunk with 32.8 seconds left that effectively ended any Lakers hopes. Ajay Mitchell added 28 off the bench and Jared McCain chipped in 13. This was a team win against a Lakers squad that had no real answer for OKC’s depth, athleticism, or pace.
The Thunder are now the fourth defending champion to win their first eight games of a postseason. The previous three teams all reached the NBA Finals, and only one of them, the 2001 Lakers, finished the job by winning a title. That is the company OKC is keeping right now.
Here is the wild part. The Thunder won the first two games of this series by 18 points each. They cruised in Game 3, 131-108. Only Game 4 was decided by single digits, and even that one was never in serious doubt down the stretch. LeBron James and Luka Doncic kept fighting, but the Lakers were simply outmanned.
Mark Daigneault has built a monster. The Thunder switch everything defensively, run a wave of bodies at you, and never seem to take a possession off. Lu Dort harassed Doncic. Holmgren protected the rim and stretched the floor. Jalen Williams kept making the right plays. And SGA, the reigning MVP, just keeps cashing in the most efficient mid-range shots in the league.
What is scary is how much room this group still has to grow. Holmgren missed significant chunks of last season and is still finding his rhythm. Williams has not even hit his theoretical ceiling yet. McCain looks like a steal at this point in his career. And Daigneault is only 40 years old. OKC is not just good now. They are going to be good for a long time.
The Lakers, on the other hand, have some serious questions to answer. LeBron is 41 and the supporting cast still feels a piece short. Doncic was brilliant in stretches but could not carry the team for four straight games against this kind of defense. JJ Redick has a coaching decision to make this summer about what kind of team he actually wants to build around two ball-dominant stars.
Up next for OKC is the winner of the Spurs and Timberwolves series. San Antonio leads 3-2 after Victor Wembanyama dropped 27 points and 17 rebounds in Game 5. The Wolves face elimination on Friday night in Minneapolis.
Neither matchup is easy for OKC, but neither is scary either. The Thunder are playing a brand of basketball that nobody in the West has been able to match all season. The Spurs would bring the most fascinating matchup because of Wembanyama, but San Antonio is still a year away from being a real threat to win a series of this magnitude.
The 2026 NBA Finals start Wednesday, June 3. OKC is the favorite to be there, and after the way they steamrolled the Lakers, they should be the favorite to win it. Eight games in, this Thunder run feels less like a defense and more like a coronation tour.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
