Egging on Isaiah Joe to break an unwritten rule to score in garbage time, the most activity Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did in the fourth quarter was standing up. It was another night where the reigning MVP was able to clock out earlier than scheduled. Make that four of the last five games where he didn’t play the final frame.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 30 points on 12-of-20 shooting, three assists and one rebound. He shot 2-of-6 from 3 and went 4-of-4 on free throws. He also had two steals and one block.
The Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the Sacramento Kings in a 132-101 win on Friday. They open up the 2025 NBA Cup West Group A play with quite a strong statement.
And just like that, they sit alone at the top of the net rating leaderboard. Everything eventually evens out. Despite Jalen Williams being out and juggling other injuries, the Thunder have remained the NBA’s best team.
After a little bit of a slow start, Gilgeous-Alexander got into the flow of things. He rediscovered his mid-range jumper. Hoping to avoid taxing his legs even further, that’s what he relied on to get to his 30 points. The drive-heavy scorer didn’t need to get deep into the teeth of Sacramento’s nonexistent defense.
Wanting to put this one away early, Gilgeous-Alexander took over in the third quarter. That’s typically his money frame. His pull-up jumper was automatic as the Thunder saw their lead balloon. He scored 15 points in the frame to put this one away and give his teammates a head start at the start of the fourth quarter to go on a laughable run.
Just another textbook performance. At this point, 30 points is the expectation. Even when it feels like Gilgeous-Alexander is off to a weird start, he manages to cross that territory. This is what the peak of one of the greatest scorers looks like. He can nonchalantly get to his spots and knock down jumpers.
In a surprisingly down mood, Gilgeous-Alexander acted in his postgame interview as if the Thunder had lost. He was a man of few words. A little off-beat considering it was another blowout, but it just shows how ridiculously high he holds himself. He even self-criticized his playoff run last year that led to an NBA championship when asked about it.
“Honestly speaking, I didn’t like the way we won, if that makes sense. I didn’t think we won an NBA championship playing our best basketball,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That was the first time being that far in the playoffs, so it was a learning experience for us. It takes another level of focus, discipline, assertiveness, aggression to be who we were in the regular season and be who we are in the postseason. We were definitely more dominant in the regular season than the postseason.”
Now, that’s quite the retrospective thought process. Gilgeous-Alexander clearly isn’t satisfied with just one championship ring. Even though he’s on his way to average 30-plus points for a ridiculous fourth straight season, he still feels far away from his ceiling. He named Rajon Rondo as somebody opposing coaches feared with his saviness on the court. He wants to get to that level of unstoppable intangibles.
“There’s just so many angles and ways you can give your team an edge to win a basketball possession, quarter and ultimately a game. Until I get a grip on all of those, which will probably be a very long time, I’d say pretty far away,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I just felt like we could be better. We could’ve been better. Obviously, we were good enough. But I always go back to being good enough is never what I picked up a basketball for. I never wanted just to be good enough to make the AAU team, make the college take to get a scholarship. I wanted to be great.”
Sitting at 9-1, there are zero signs of a championship hangover for the Thunder. It probably helps that most of the roster doesn’t drink. Heck, their title celebration was spoiled when none of them knew how to pop a champagne bottle in the locker room.
Maybe Gilgeous-Alexander and the rest will get a do-over at that moment. We’ll see. But the Thunder look every bit the part of a team that has a realistic chance to go back-to-back.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t satisfied with championship run
