Julius Randle compares Thunder's high-pressure defense to Rick Pitino's '13-14 Louisville team

The Oklahoma City Thunder has produced one of the more lethal defenses we’ve seen in modern NBA history. OKC’s ability to suffocate opposing offenses through an endless rotation of elite on-ball defenders and insane length at every position is a primary reason the franchise is back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012.

Well, that and having the league’s Most Valuable Player, former Kentucky guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, running the show. That helps a bit.

But defense has been the Thunder’s calling card during the 2024-25 season. OKC finished tops in the league in defensive rating. What the Thunder was able to do on that end of the floor to Anthony Edwards, another former Wildcat in Julius Randle, and the rest of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals is why that series lasted only five games.

“They’ve completely formed a championship-caliber team based off of their defense, No. 1, but even more so, it’s how they play defense,” Randle said, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “They’re not just a defense that bogs you down and stops you from scoring. Their identity is creating points off of turnovers and high pressure, which is different. You don’t really see high-pressure defenses in the NBA.”

Through the first two rounds of this year’s NBA Playoffs, Randle was excellent. The 6-foot-9 power forward averaged 23.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.9 assists while shooting 50.9 percent from the field. Minnesota won both series in five games as Randle shook off the narrative of being a playoff struggler.

But then he — and the rest of his Minnesota teammates — ran into the Thunder.

After scoring at least 16 points in every game through the first two rounds, Randle had two games of six or fewer points against OKC. He turned the ball over four or more times in four of those five games. The shooting numbers didn’t fall off too much, but in Games 2 and 4 — when he combined for just 11 points in a pair of losses — there was little he could do to make an impact.

Why? Because OKC can throw so many different options at you. They get in your face and push you around. No one seems to run out of gas. And when they do, one elite wing defender is replaced with another. Randle was used to being quicker than most defenders early in the postseason, but life proved difficult when 6-foot-6 menaces were immediately double-teaming him on every post-up or drive.

It reminded Randle of his lone college season at Kentucky, when he faced a similar defense: Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals.

“You see that (aggressive style of defense) more in college and stuff like that,” Randle added. “I remember being in college and playing Louisville and they used to press and trap and all those different types of things. … It’s a different kind of team, obviously, than I’ve played in my career.”

To Randle’s credit, he handled those Louisville defenses much better than he did OKC’s. During the 2013-14 regular season, he went for 17 points on 7-8 shooting in a win against the Cards. A few months later, in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, his stat line consisted of 15 points and 12 rebounds on 5-11 shooting. That was a pretty talented UL squad, too, finishing 31-6 on the season before losing to the ‘Cats in that tournament battle.

Pitino, who now coaches at St. John’s and will face Kentucky in the 2025-26 season, even took to social media to discuss how impressed he’s been with the Thunder defense this postseason.

On Thursday, shortly after OKC wrapped up the series against Randle and Co., he wrote, “It’s interesting, in my 40+ years I’ve never shown clips to my teams of NBA defense. Offensive sets and individual moves, but never defense. Until this past season. We watched the Thunder at least 3x a week. Their switching, loading up to help, and rotations are awesome. And they are still so young!!!”