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When the Oklahoma City Thunder acquired Alex Caruso in a trade that required them to give up Josh Giddey, they envisioned how much of a wrecking ball Caruso could be for their defense, especially come playoff time. Caruso, as no one would soon forget, played such a huge role in the Los Angeles Lakers' championship run in 2020 thanks to his penchant for being at the right place at the right time on the defensive end — which is exactly where he was in the first half of Game 1 of the Thunder's second-round matchup against the Denver Nuggets.
It's no secret that the Nuggets love to go out in transition and get easy two points to make up for their lack of three-point shooting. Jamal Murray got the ball on a fastbreak opportunity and may have thought that he was going one-on-one against another excellent defender in his own right in Cason Wallace. Little did Murray know that Caruso was trailing the play the whole way and the Thunder guard, much like his former teammate on the Lakers, LeBron James, timed his chasedown block beautifully and smacked Murray's layup attempt against the glass.
Alex Caruso with the chasedown BLOCK on Jamal Murray ❌pic.twitter.com/usMeknsYJy
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 6, 2025
These are the intangibles that make Caruso such a special player. He never gives up on the play and is willing to risk life and limb just to get defensive stops for his team. There's a reason why the Thunder were so willing to give up someone who was once a part of their promising young core in Giddey to bring Caruso in via trade. He simply typifies winning basketball.
The bulk of Caruso's impact doesn't show up on the box score, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't record some very impressive stat lines. At the time of writing, Caruso has five steals and two blocks to his name, showing what a defensive force he is when he's at his best.
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Thunder have league's most disruptive defense for a reason
This Thunder squad won 68 games for a reason; they arguably have the deepest team in the league and they have so many excellent defenders up and down the roster, making it difficult to pick against them in any seven-game series.
And when the shots are falling for their excellent defenders, such as Alex Caruso, Luguentz Dort, and Cason Wallace (just to name a few), then any team, even the Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets, stands little to no chance of beating them over seven games.
