The OKC Thunder Are One Win Away From the NBA Finals | HOOPS, 5/27/26
Plus: Celtics' Joe Mazzulla wins Coach of the Year and more.
The Tip-Off: Kenny Atkinson to Remain Cavs’ Coach
Despite the Cavaliers being swept out of the Eastern Conference Finals by the New York Knicks, ESPN’s Shams Charania is reporting that the team will be bringing back head coach Kenny Atkinson for a third season.
In his first year as coach, the team went 64-18 and lost in round two of the playoffs vs. the Pacers. While the team had a worse record in the regular season this year (52-30) they did make the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since LeBron James was on the roster.
With Atkinson’s status seemingly confirmed, the Cavs will now turn their attention towards the roster where questions loom about extensions for Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, and any potential moves they could be looking to make.
OKC’s Bench Depth Helps Them Take Game 5 vs. Spurs
Despite trailing 3-2 in the series, San Antonio’s defense has been pretty good against reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (32pts/9a/6TO, 7-19 FG on Tuesday). While he was able to score half his points at the free throw line on Tuesday (16-17 FT), he did have a bit of a slower start than normal, something that the Thunder’s depth was ready for. Jared McCain (20pts/3r) got the start in place of the injured Ajay Mitchell and Jalen Williams and seemingly made big plays at every turn while three other Thunder players also scored in double-digits including Alex Caruso (22pts/6a/3stl) who knocked in four more threes off the bench.
This game wasn’t quite as exciting as earlier ones in the series though as it turned into a war of attrition by the second quarter, which saw the teams make a combined 29 free throws in the second quarter alone.1
Between all the fouls (51 combined), free throws (70 combined attempts), and turnovers (31 combined), it felt like you could see fatigue beginning to set in between these two teams.
San Antonio trailed by as many as 20 in the second half and while they were able to cut it down to single digits for a moment, they just couldn’t pull off the comeback and will now have to win Game 6 back home to avoid elimination.
The Spurs have to be focused on making sure Victor Wembanyama (20pts/6r/3blk, 4-15 FG) gets as much rest as possible as another 38 minutes played Tuesday had him looking extremely tired in stretches. And with De’Aaron Fox (9pts/8a, 4-15 FG) and Devin Vassell (6pts, 2-11 FG) struggling in the starting lineup, they’re going to absolutely need Wemby to be at his best if they hope to push the series to a Game 7.
Boston’s Joe Mazzulla Named NBA Coach of the Year
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has won Coach of the Year for the first time, beating out Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff and Spurs’ rookie coach Mitch Johnson to claim the prize.2
Despite Boston’s disappointing playoff exit it’s important to remember that this is a regular season award and Mazzulla absolutely deserved it after guiding the team to a 56-26 record despite Jayson Tatum missing almost the entire season as he recovered from an Achilles’ injury. It is Mazzulla’s fourth straight 50-win season since being named the Celtics’ coach.
Please enjoy Joe Mazz’s interview on NBA Showtime moments after winning.
I also want to shoutout Tiaggo Splitter who was thrust into the role of Blazers’ coach after Chauncey Billups was indicted by the FBI for helping the mob run rigged poker games and yet, the team was able to clinch a playoff birth and net Splitter a few COTY votes of his own despite it being his first chance as a head coach.3
At the Buzzer
- The Sidetalk following the Knicks’ Finals birth is exactly as chaotic as you’d expect
- New Pelicans coach Jamahl Mosley wants to “unlock” Zion Williamson’s playmaking
- Yahoo’s Tom Haberstroh did a full deep-dive into SGA falling on shot attempts
Next Game - WCF Game 6 on Thursday, 5/28
Thunder at Spurs (OKC leads 3-2, 8:30pm est/5:30pm pst on Peacock/NBC)
Thank you so much for reading and hanging out, there won’t be a newsletter tomorrow (Thursday) since the next game is Thursday night but I’ll be back here Friday morning recapping the game and everything else you need to know for the weekend. Please consider subscribing for free so you don’t miss a post but more importantly, I hope everyone reading this is doing well and enjoying their week so far. Hang in there, take care.
That is the most made free throws in a second quarter since the NBA Bubble back during Covid. San Antonio went 15-17 in the quarter and OKC was 14-14.
Did this need to wait until the end of May to hand it out? It feels like everyone has definitely already forgotten how good Boston was in the regular season and how surprising it was because the last thing we saw was them blow a 3-1 series lead to the 76ers while Joe Mazz refused to change the team’s gameplan of “shoot tons of threes, they have to go in at some point.” I just don’t understand why these aren’t being announced the first week of the playoffs at the latest.
The fact that new Blazers’ owner Tom Dundon is going to cheap out and not pay him is a crock. I will say it as many chances as I can, that fanbase deserves a lot better.