Gilgeous-Alexander, No. 1 seed Thunder look to take another step against Grizzlies

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two years ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder were a feelgood story -- a young team that improved dramatically and accelerated general manager Sam Presti’s rebuild by reaching the Play-In Tournament.

Last season, Oklahoma City earned the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and Mark Daigneault was the Coach of the Year. That Thunder squad lost to Dallas in the conference semifinals, but it wasn’t a cause for alarm because the squad arrived on the stage early.

This year seems different. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the runner-up in the MVP race last season, is again a candidate for the honor after topping the league with 32.7 points per game. He led the Thunder to a 68-14 record -- one of the best regular seasons of all-time. With all that success, fans are clamoring for a championship as the Thunder open this year’s playoffs at home Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Gilgeous-Alexander said that while the Thunder don't worry about outside expectations, they have worked hard and are well-positioned to succeed. He said the team sees opportunity rather than pressure.

“I think guys on the team are as confident as they’ve ever been, as excited as they’ve ever been," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "And that’s all you can ask for.”

Memphis counters with Ja Morant. He averages 23.2 points and 7.3 assists. Jaren Jackson Jr. averages 22.2 points and Desmond Bane chips in 19.2.

The Thunder not only swept Memphis, taking each of the four games this season by double digits, but the closest the Grizzlies got was a 13-point loss in the teams’ second meeting.

“A big challenge,” Morant said. “Obviously, we’ve all seen them over this season. A very well-rounded team. I feel like they have a potential MVP in Shai over there that’s leading the charge. We just have to be very sound defensively, very disciplined and just play our type of basketball, man.”

Oklahoma City had to wait until Friday to learn its playoff opponent, but the Thunder were in the same boat last year because they earned the top seed. The Thunder ended up sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans 4-0 in the first round.

Daigneault said the team learned from last season’s experience. He also said it was an advantage that they clinched the No. 1 seed a long time ago, which helped them start preparation for the potential play-in teams early.

Daigneault said it helps that his players learn and adjust quickly.

“I don’t know if we’re ready for everything, but we’re ready for a lot," he said.

Oklahoma City has a second All-Star in Jalen Williams and a third with All-Star talent in Chet Holmgren.

Williams averaged 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists as a strong second option.

Holmgren can do it all. On offense, he’s a threat in the paint and beyond the 3-point line. On defense, he is an elite rim protector who can switch easily onto guards. He averaged 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocks.

The Thunder lost Holmgren for 50 games and Williams for 13, yet had the league's best record. That’s because they boast a deep roster that Daigneault manages well. They have seven players who average double figures and 14 players who averaged at least 10 minutes in a minimum of 32 games this season.

Oklahoma City has several of the league’s best perimeter defenders. Lu Dort and Alex Caruso are the headliners on a unit that led the league in defensive rating.

Williams wore a T-shirt at practice on Wednesday proclaiming Dort should be Defensive Player of the Year. Caruso, acquired in an offseason trade with Chicago, was first-team All-Defense in 2023 and a second-team selection last season.

Neither of them lead the team in steals. That honor goes to second-year guard Cason Wallace, who ranks third in the league with 1.8 steals per game. Gilgeous-Alexander is close behind with 1.7 and Williams averages 1.6.

They'll be challenged. The Grizzlies come into the series as the NBA’s second-best scoring team with 121.7 points per game. Still, that average dipped to 106.3 against Oklahoma City during the regular season.

The Grizzlies became the first No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in a seven-game series back in 2011, when Memphis ousted the San Antonio Spurs in six games. Now, Memphis can try to add some more history. How? No franchise has been a No. 8 seed and knocked out a conference’s top seed twice in the NBA.

Simply beating a No. 1 seed has been challenging with Memphis among only six franchises to manage that feat. Denver did it in 1994 against Seattle and the New York Knicks in 1999 against Miami — back when the first round was five games. Golden State beat Dallas in 2007, Memphis topped San Antonio in 2011, Philadelphia beat Chicago in 2012 and Miami defeated Milwaukee in 2023.

If Memphis does it this time, it will be extra impressive. The Grizzlies fired coach Taylor Jenkins late in the season and enter the playoffs with interim coach in Tuomas Iisalo, who has no NBA playoff head coaching experience, leading the way.

Morant played through a sprained right ankle Friday night in the play-in game to clinch the eighth and final seed in the Western Conference.

Still, the Grizzlies will be without two key players. Rookie Jaylen Wells broke his right wrist April 9 in a win at Charlotte, where he was taken off the court on a stretcher. A second-round draft pick out of Washington State, Wells started 74 of 79 games for Memphis.

The Grizzlies also lost key reserve Brandon Clarke to a sprained right knee March 19 in a loss at Portland.

AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker contributed to this report.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) celebrates the team's win after an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks, Friday, April 18, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane, center, shoots the ball past Dallas Mavericks defenders during the first half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game Friday, April 18, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis, right, dunks the ball past Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (12) during the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game Friday, April 18, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, left, shoots the ball over Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. Washington (25) during the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game Friday, April 18, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) shoots over Phoenix Suns forward Ryan Dunn during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams, left, shoots over Los Angeles Lakers forward Dorian Finney-Smith, right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams, left, drives past Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, right, drives past Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic, left, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, middle, drives past Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Goodwin, left, and forward LeBron James, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Dozens of homeless people who have been living in a national forest in central Oregon for years were being evicted Thursday by the U.S. Forest Service, as it closed the area for a wildfire prevention project that will involve removing smaller trees, clearing debris and setting controlled burns over thousands of acres.

The project has been on the books for years, and the decision to remove the encampment in the Deschutes National Forest comes two months after the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal agencies to increase timber production and forest management projects aimed at reducing wildfire risk. It wasn’t immediately clear if the evictions were a result of that order, but homeless advocates seized on the timing on Thursday, as U.S. Forest Service officers blocked the access road.

“The fact that they are doing this with such vigor shortly after they announced that the forests would be opened up for logging I don’t think is a coincidence," said Jesse Rabinowitz, spokesperson for the National Homelessness Law Center.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, and the service’s Pacific Northwest Region did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

“The closure does not target any specific user group and will restrict all access, including day use and overnight camping, while crews operate heavy machinery, conduct prescribed burns, and clean up hazardous materials,” Deschutes National Forest spokesperson Kaitlyn Webb said in an email. “It’s not safe for the public to be in the area while heavy machinery is operating, trees are being felled, mowing operations are active, and prescribed burning is occurring.”

Campers who had set up trailers, recreational vehicles and tents amidst the ponderosa pines in the Deschutes National Forest scrambled in the darkness Wednesday night to pack up and get their engines working again. Authorities closed the two-lane road in the early hours of Thursday morning, and it wasn’t immediately clear how many people were left in the forest by the afternoon, though some were unable to leave.

The U.S. Forest Service has been working for years on plans to close part of the Deschutes National Forest near Bend for forest restoration and wildfire mitigation. But the number of people living in that part of the forest has grown, with many losing homes during the coronavirus pandemic due to job losses and high housing costs, Rabinowitz said.

President Donald Trump’s administration has acted to roll back environmental safeguards around future logging projects on more than half of U.S. national forests, under an emergency designation that cites dangers from wildfires.

Whether the administration's move will boost lumber supplies as Trump envisioned in an executive order he signed in March remains to be seen. Former President Joe Biden’s administration also sought more logging in public forests to combat fires, which have become more intense amid drier and hotter conditions linked to climate change, yet U.S. Forest Service timber sales stayed relatively flat under his tenure.

The Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project, a wildfire mitigation treatment on some 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares), is prompting the closures in the Deschutes National Forest.

The goal of the work is to reduce wildfire risk and restore damaged habitats where development encroaches on natural areas near Bend, Deschutes National Forest officials said in a statement. Recreation sites and trails in that area will be closed through April next year.

Multiple U.S. Forest Service officials and vehicles were stationed at the Deschutes National Forest road closure on Thursday. A sign on the metal gate blocking the road said the temporary emergency closure will last at least one year.

Violators could face up six months in jail, fines up to $5,000, or both.

On Wednesday night, Mandy Bryant, who said she had lived in the encampment for about three years, was cleaning up her site and trying to get a trailer to start so she could move it.

“You could feel the heaviness in the air and just the stress and depression that people are feeling,” she told The Associated Press. “We’re up there on the list of groups of people that society doesn’t really care for.”

Four people living in the encampment including Bryant, along with two homeless advocates, filed for a restraining order to stop the closure earlier this month. The claim argued it would cause irreparable harm to more than 100 people who were living there, many of whom have disabilities.

The government responded in court filings that U.S. Forest Service staff in January began notifying homeless people living in the area of the upcoming closure. Original plans for the project were published in 2019 and were authorized by the U.S. Forest Service in 2023, the court filings said.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane denied the restraining order on Tuesday and issued a written opinion on Thursday.

“The public’s significant interest in restoring natural habitats, preventing catastrophic wildfires, and preserving the overall health of Deschutes National Forest is not outweighed by the interest of 150 or so individuals in residing on this particular plot of land," he wrote in his ruling.

Webb, a Deschutes National Forest spokesperson, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the government’s goal is “voluntary compliance,” but Forest Service officers and staff will patrol and “enforce the closure and ensure public safety.”

__

Rush reported from Portland, Oregon.

A trucking and logging vehicle, at left, drives past trailers lining China Hat Road as leaves an area that was closed off in Deschutes National Forest, Thursday, May 1, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Jessica Gamble, who started the nonprofit Home More Network in 2022, right, looks on after reading text messages she received when a road to a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest was closed on Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A person talks to a U.S. Forest Service official about getting through a road barrier to collect their belongings at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Nick Campbell vapes at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A flashlight from Mandy Bryant's shines on chairs propped up by trees at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A tiara rests on a seat as a woman writes in a journal at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A string of lights hangs on a tree above a memorial at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Greg Bishop works to get an RV to start at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Mike Shelton works to attach a hitch to a vehicle as he loads up his belongings at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Nick Campbell looks up while talking to a volunteer at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Greg Bishop works to get an RV to start at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Trailers and RVs are seen at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A woman looks up from writing in a notebook with the words "to be a princess" seen near the top of the page and a tiara next to her inside a trailer as her father works to get it to start, at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Chris Daggett works to get an RV to start so that it can be moved at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Mandy Bryant holds her dog as she talks with a neighbor at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Mike Shelton works to attach a hitch to a vehicle as he loads up his belongings at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest Wednesday, April 30, 2025 near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Mandy Bryant walks to help Mike Shelton with his trailer as they load up their belongings at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A person walks to a tent at a homeless encampment in Deschutes National Forest, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, near Bend, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)