Caruso sets 79-year NBA record and becomes the first person in history

On May 6, the NBA playoffs continued, and the first matchup of the Western Conference semi-finals was held. The Thunder, who was waiting to work, faced the Nuggets, who were fighting for battle at home. After experiencing the tug-of-war in the first quarter, the Thunder began to open the score with a deeper bench lineup in the second quarter, especially Caruso's strength was full on both ends of offense and defense. He made 2 of 2 shots in a single quarter and contributed 6 points, 2 assists, 1 breaking and 1 blocking, helping the team lead to 10 points in a wave of 2. Entering the third quarter, the Thunder's firepower remained unabated, and once widened the gap to 14 points. However, in the last four minutes of this quarter, Jokic, Gordon, Westbrook and others went on to launch a counterattack attack one after another, narrowing the gap to single digits. In the last quarter, the head coach of the Thunder decisively adopted a penalty kick tactic when facing the Nuggets' fierce counterattack, but the one who had the problem with the penalty kick first was himself. At the last moment, Homgren missed two free throws, Westbrook received the ball in the middle and went straight to the basket, attracting Gordon, who was in a defense and passed the ball open at the bottom corner. The latter fulfilled his mission and completed a three-pointer final kill, and the Nuggets reversed the Thunder 121-119.

Although the Thunder lost a good game in this game, Caruso, who came on as a substitute, gave everyone a big surprise. He, who has always been known for his defense, not only completed the defensive tasks assigned by the team in this game, he also became the team's second scorer, second only to Alexander in the whole game. If Caruso hadn't performed efficiently on the offense and defensive end this time, the Thunder would have been overtaken by the Nuggets long ago, and there would have been no need to leave it until the last moment. Caruso made 7 of 12 shots in the whole game, including 5 of 9 three-pointers, scoring 20 points, 1 rebound, 6 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks. He became the first player in NBA history in 1979 to give 5+ steals and 2 blocks in a single game of the playoffs and hit 5+ three-pointers.

In addition, Caruso is also the sixth player in NBA history to score at least 20 points + 5 assists + 5 steals in a single game in the playoffs and hit 5+ three-pointers. The first five are: Doncic (2024/33 points, 5 assists, 5 steals, 5 three-pointers), Middleton (2021/38 points, 5 assists, 5 steals, 5 three-pointers), Oladipo (2020/25 points, 5 assists, 5 steals, 5 three-pointers), Mike Bibby (2004/36 points, 8 assists, 5 steals, 6 three-pointers), Tim Hardaway (1997/38 points, 7 assists, 5 steals, 6 three-pointers). Today's Caruso is really bald and strong!