OKC Thunder Guard Owns an Unique Trait

Throughout the OKC Thunder's championship run last season, one glaring fact was clear: Alex Caruso is a postseason performer. On both offense and defense, Caruso shone bright, despite dealing with injury concerns throughout the regular season.

Caruso was a top-five player on the Thunder en route to winning his second NBA title, the Thunder's first. He was the Swiss Army Knife for the team, ranging from scoring over 20 points in the Finals to guarding Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in the Second Round.

Just by listing off those facts, you would never expect him to be limited to only 54 regular-season games and 19.3 minutes per game. The Thunder were extra cautious with Caruso and it paid off in the end.

Caruso jumped from 19.3 to 24.4 minutes per game in the playoffs, while putting his body on the line every possession. He jumped from 7.1 to 9.2 points per game as well, raising his game as the stakes grew, too.

Caruso's shooting improved as well; he increased his three-point percentage from 35.3% on 3.1 attempts per game in the regular season to 41.1% on 3.9 attempts per game in the playoffs. His mark of 41.1% was the Thunder's best three-point percentage of all qualified shooters, tied with Isaiah Joe.

In the NBA Finals, Caruso made history as he scored 20 points or more in Games 2 and 4 of that series. He became the first player in NBA history to score 20 points in the finals twice after scoring 20 or more not a single time in the regular season.

His known ability to perform in the biggest moments was the main reason general manager Sam Presti made the offseason trade to acquire Caruso for young guard Josh Giddey. A veteran presence that the previous Thunder team lacked.

Throughout Caruso's four seasons and 54 games of playoff basketball, he is averaging 7.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game. He's shot 35.5% from three-point range on 3.4 attempts per game.

Throughout the regular season, the Thunder tried their hardest to ensure Caruso would be 100% when the playoffs came. They made sure that any time he would feel a slight bit of pain or soreness, he would rest for as long as it took for the feeling to go away.

This allowed the 30-year-old to play in his peak defensive form throughout the 23-game playoff campaign.

Caruso dove for every loose ball, guarded every position and played at full effort every minute on the floor. Head coach Mark Daigneault's adjustment of putting him on Jokic was exactly the spark the Thunder needed in Game 7 of the Second Round.

No matter what he does in the regular season, one fact is true: Caurso will step up when the stakes are the highest.