SGA's historic efficiency fuels OKC's suffocating defense, creating a winning formula where every possession counts and opponents are stifled.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have built the perfect team to support Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, which was clear during last season’s NBA championship run. But Saturday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns further underscored just how well Thunder GM Sam Presti has architected this roster.
For the Thunder, it’s all about efficiency, making the most of every possession and ensuring the opposite is true for the opponent. With the generational defense this team has, Oklahoma City’s opposition generally has to take low-quality shots, turn the ball over at a high rate and struggle to score efficiently.
On the other end, Oklahoma City’s secret superpower is that its primary star, the highest-volume shooter on the team, is one of the most efficient guards in NBA history.
Gilgeous-Alexander put his stamp on Game 3 against the Phoenix Suns, helping the Thunder take a 3-0 series lead with a historic 42-point performance on 15-of-18 shooting from the floor. He only missed one shot from inside the arc all night.
When your primary scorer is that efficient, paired with the highly disruptive defense OKC deploys, it shows exactly why Gilgeous-Alexander is the perfect fit for this Thunder core. It also highlights why this roster was molded so perfectly around him, both to maximize his skill set and to allow him to maximize those around him within the scheme of the offense and defense.
That’s what makes Gilgeous-Alexander’s current run so remarkable. The Thunder have now played 16 games since March 17, and over that span, he has missed just one shot in the fourth quarter or overtime. That level of late-game precision is almost unheard of, especially from a player carrying this type of offensive burden.
His 15-of-18 shooting performance against Phoenix only reinforced that, as he became the first NBA player since Michael Jordan in Game 2 of the 1991 NBA Finals to make at least 15 field goals at such a high percentage in a playoff game. For a team built around efficiency, control and two-way dominance, Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t just the engine of the Thunder’s system.
He’s the ultimate proof of concept.