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.

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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)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)