Oklahoma City did not need a Game 5. The defending champions closed out Phoenix 131-122 on Monday night to complete a four-game sweep, the third consecutive first-round sweep for this Thunder core and a familiar restatement of the gap between the West's top seed and the rest of the conference.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished the series as the player most observers expected him to be. But the version of him at the postgame podium spent more time discussing Dillon Brooks than himself.
Brooks, the former Memphis villain who has been Gilgeous-Alexander's teammate on Canada's national team since 2023, averaged 26 points across the four games and produced the most efficient scoring stretch of his career. Gilgeous-Alexander, asked what stood out, kept returning to the years rather than the numbers.
"Hats off to him," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "It's impressive to redefine yourself this late into a career. Very impressive. Usually you see young guys, like for myself it was like my second year I got to redefine who I was as a basketball player. To do so this late is pretty impressive. But it just goes to show the work he puts in. He's a worker. He is always in the gym."
The series was not without complications. Jalen Williams suffered a left-side hamstring strain mid-series, an injury distinct from the right-hamstring issue he managed all season. Gilgeous-Alexander said the team had already lived through those kinds of disruptions during the regular season.
"Obviously with Dub going down midway through the series, it was a little wrinkle in our lineup and our chemistry," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "But this group's had that all year and we knew how to handle it. We handled it well. This group is special."
What Gilgeous-Alexander returned to most often, though, was the same word coach Mark Daigneault has been pushing all year: the formula.
"We have a formula that we try to play with and we try to impose that every night," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "The more we do so, the better off we'll be. There's just a respect level. We know how good of a team they were and how capable they are as players. They're a dangerous team if you let them be and we just knew that going into the series."
The sweep also gave Gilgeous-Alexander something he values almost as much as the win itself: rest. Asked about the satisfaction of taking yet another four-game first round, he framed it almost entirely in terms of the second round.
"It is a really good feeling," he said. "Confidence-wise as a group, it's good to get the playoff run started off that way. It's important to get out to a good foot. You never know what can happen, and the later you go the better the teams. So you want to give yourself as many days that you can rest, and the more you can sweep the better off and the more days you have to rest."
For a Thunder team that ran an MVP race, a Defensive Player of the Year campaign for Chet Holmgren, and a 64-win regular season, the next assignment is the survivor of Lakers vs Rockets. Gilgeous-Alexander said he has already started doing his homework.
"I've already been watching all the Laker and Houston series, so just continue to do so," he said. "Watch both teams, see their strengths and weaknesses. Both of them are obviously in the West. We played them a few times this year, so we know what they look like, but ultimately we got to get better with the days in between our next opponent."
Three straight first-round sweeps. The defending champions have not slowed down.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/thunder-sweep-suns-game-4-sga-dillon-brooks-western-semis-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
