The first round NBA playoff series between the Phoenix Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder in a lot of ways was over before it even started.
The Suns had to play two play-in tournament games for the pleasure of ultimately getting swept by OKC, so it’s certainly possible fatigue was a factor. That doesn’t even factor in that both starting center Mark Williams, Dan Majerle Hustle Award winner Jordan Goodwin and sharpshooting guard Grayson Allen were sidelined for the bulk of the series with injuries.
But NBA sophomore Oso Ighodaro revealed yet another reason why the Thunder had their way with the Suns.
Oso Ighodaro reveals Thunder players knew Suns’ playbook
“One thing I noticed about OKC is they were calling out every single one of our plays,” Ighodaro said, per PHNX Sports on X (formerly Twitter). “Like, immediately.”
Given the league’s broader commitment to scouting, watching tape and game-planning for every opponent, it’s not exactly unusual for opposing players to recognize specific plays or actions being run by an opposing team’s offense — especially in the playoffs. But for Ighodaro to say OKC was “calling out every single one” of the Suns’ plays as they happened really pulls back the curtain on just how dominant the Thunder were in the four-game sweep.
Ighodaro added that he had gone through OKC’s playbook and “knew, pretty much, their actions.” But the preparation of the Thunder’s players and staff left Phoenix totally overmatched in the series.
“The level at which they knew our plays was definitely different,” Ighodaro said. “You could tell that that’s something that they, through experience, have learned.”
Ighodaro likewise gave props to the Thunder’s defense, which ranked No. 1 in the league by defensive rating throughout the regular season. He said by the end of the series he started to figure out good ways to attack what was the league’s best defense by the metrics, but obviously very little that the Suns tried provided them much success.
“I learned a lot through that series,” he said.
As demoralizing as it must be for the Suns and their fans to know OKC wasn’t surprised by much (if anything) that Jordan Ott’s offense was running, the experience a young player like Ighodaro gained from playing the defending champs is invaluable.
Getting swept was obviously not how Phoenix wanted its season to end, but many prognosticators didn’t think the Suns had a snowball’s chance in Phoenix of making the playoffs at all.
Ighodaro and the other younger Suns players can only learn from this experience and put their best foot forward toward 2026-27.
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