It will be the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals, barring the most shocking comeback in the history of the NBA.

With a 131-108 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, the Thunder took a 3-0 lead on Saturday and remain undefeated through seven postseason games. They are 27-1 since the start of February in games Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has played.

They go for the sweep on Monday in Los Angeles (10:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video). No team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit.

The Lakers at least put up a fight for the first half in front of their home crowd, going back-and-forth and entering halftime with a two-point lead. They lost control when OKC opened the third quarter with a 21-6 run, got the deficit back down to five points late in the third, and then the Thunder hit the gear only the Thunder are capable of hitting.

L.A. simply looked gassed by the end, as if they have been playing the best team in the NBA without their most important player for three straight games. They waved the white flag by emptying their bench with 3:38 remaining in the game.

The Thunder outscored them 74-49 in the second half.

Once again, the Lakers succeeded in preventing an otherworldly game from Gilgeous-Alexander (23 points on 7-of-20 shooting), but OKC’s deep supporting cast again made that a non-issue. Six other players scored in double figures, and the team collectively shot 56.4% from the field and 44.7% from deep, with nine total turnovers.

There’s no telling how this series would have gone down had Luka Dončić been healthy (or Thunder star Jalen Williams for that matter), but the actual result has been as expected. The Lakers have pushed the Thunder at times, but never enough across an entire game. Every loss has been by double-digits.

As Lakers head coach JJ Redick put it with reporters after the game:

“They’ve kicked our ass three straight games.”

Counting the regular season, the Lakers are now 0-7 against the Thunder this season with an average scoring margin of 25.4 points. The closest loss has been by nine points. The only game in which the Lakers were actually healthy at the start of the game was the April 2 date when Dončić and Austin Reaves both got hurt.

Maybe there’s a turnaround still to come. The way the Lakers looked in the fourth quarter didn’t inspire confidence.

Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals saw plenty of tension between the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves. It also saw the top ref get into it with Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch.

Crew chief Tony Brothers was seen confronting Finch and needing to be held back during the fourth quarter of the Spurs’ 115-108 win. An NBA official getting this heated on the court is a rare sight.

Finch gave his side of the story after the game, claiming Brothers had ignored an attempt to call timeout and then got incensed when Finch made a comment about it:

"I wanted the timeout and I said I want my 3 seconds back. He clearly heard me. He looked my way and ignored me, went on with the play, almost cost us a turnover. He lost it. Then I went to ask him where the ball was going to be taken in and he was screaming at me for that. So completely unprofessional behavior by him"

Meanwhile, Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards shrugged off the incident:

“It’s competition at the highest level. We want to win. Finchy want to win. Tony Brothers is Tony Brothers. We all love him, so it’s all good here.”

Brothers has been an NBA official since the 1994-95 season, with experience that includes 19 NBA Finals games, per the National Basketball Referees Association. Game 3 was the first time he’s worked in this series and only the second time he’s overseen a Timberwolves game this postseason.

With the first pitch of his start against the New York Yankees on Friday, Milwaukee Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski reared back and threw a 102.4 mph fastball for a called strike.

It was the slowest pitch he’d throw that inning.

MLB’s hardest-throwing pitcher lived up to his reputation on Friday and then some, firing 36 pitches measured by Statcast at 100 mph or faster. Ten of them came in the first inning, when he blew away the top of the Yankees order.

Per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, the previous fastest pitch ever record by a starting pitcher was Jordan Hicks with a 103.2 mph fastball on July 12, 2022 (with data going back to 2008). Misiorowski threw seven pitches harder than that on Friday.

The results matched the velocity, as he struck out 11 Yankees in 6 scoreless innings while allowing only 2 hits and 2 walks. That’s a strikeout for every letter in his last name.

For those curious, the overall fastest pitch ever tracked by MLB is 105.8 mph from Aroldis Chapman (Sept. 24, 2010).

The most cruel moment came in the second inning. Friday marked the MLB debut of Yankees prospect Spencer Jones, who has many fans excited about a power-speed combination that saw him post 11 homers and 7 stolen bases at Triple-A before his call-up.

Here is what Misiorowski did to him in his first big-league plate appearance: 103.6 mph up and in for a called strike, 102.3 mph up and in for a swinging strike, 103.6 mph up and in fouled off, 89 mph curveball in the zone for a foul-tip strikeout.

It’s like the Yankees outsourced his rookie hazing.

To Jones’ credit, he did better next time, drawing a walk in the fifth inning.

Misiorowski was already well-known as a flamethrower — Friday just represented his peak (so far) when it comes to velocity. His actual results have been up and down through about a full year in MLB, but he’s been absolutely terrifying for most of 2026. He leads all qualified MLB starters with a 39.5% strikeout rate through Friday, plus a 2.43 ERA and 0.95 WHIP.

Munetaka Murakami knows how to make a first impression.

In the first inning of the Chicago White Sox’s game against the Seattle Mariners on Friday, Murakami crushed an opposite-field homer off starting pitcher Emerson Hancock. It’s his 15th homer of the season, tying Aaron Judge for the MLB lead.

The Statcast numbers: 106.2 mph off the bad, 380 feet traveled.

Friday was the series opener between the White Sox and Mariners, which is relevant because MLB notes that Murakami has now homered in eight straight series openers. That’s a new MLB record, breaking a mark previously held by Eddie Murray in 1987.

Granted, it’s a very specific record, but it’s not as though Murakami lucked into it. The streak goes back to April 14 against the Tampa Bay Rays, a stretch of time in which he was hitting .288/.400/.675 entering Friday.

Murakami’s homer continues one of the most surprising MLB performances of the young season. The slugger famously had to settle for a two-year, $34 million deal with the White Sox after years of hype as the next great Japanese slugger, mostly due to concerns about how an already high swing-and-miss rate would play after the transition from Japan to MLB.

The answer has so far been a ton of strikeouts — Murakami led the American League with 55 entering Friday — but more than enough power and plate discipline to make him an effective hitter. It remains to be seen if he will keep it for an entire season (or MLB career), but it’s certainly been fun to watch.