Despite a 35-point performance in Game 7, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander called his campaign a failure after Oklahoma City's loss to San Antonio.
There are both individual and team goals in the NBA, as there are in every major sports league, but it’s certainly harder to enjoy individual accolades when that player’s team falters. That is the case for Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who won the league MVP for a second year straight. He wasn’t exactly able to celebrate it following their Game 7 elimination by the San Antonio Spurs, ending their quest for a second straight championship. It probably doesn’t help that SGA is among the few to win the league award the same season his team won the NBA championship, which makes any future wins falter in comparison.
But SGA went a step further in his blunt postgame assessment of himself, and that’s that he failed. He felt his efficiency dipped under a Spurs defense that was simply suffocating, and he didn’t reach his goal of that repeat title. Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t perform like he did in the regular season where he averaged 31.1 points on 55.3 percent shooting and 38.6 percept from the three. In the series that took San Antonio and Oklahoma City to seven, SGA averaged 25.9 points on 40.9 percent shooting and 28.6 percent on threes. He did notch 35 points in the Game 7 loss, nearly dragging the Thunder to victory, but will spend this offseason looking for answers to what happened to never repeat it.
To read more about SGA’s season and how it looked as a full body of work, here is the full story from Thunder Roundtable writer Braxton Reynolds.
The Spurs were able to hound SGA, most by deploying wing Stephon Castle while protector Victor Wembanyama locked him out at the rim. Altogether, it forced SGA into a rhythm that wasn’t his, and while he wasn’t nearly the reason for things falling apart, he showed a strong trait of leadership in assuming that responsibility as they turn the page to next season.
