The Oklahoma City Thunder have done a good job of holding onto big leads all season long.
It’s the NBA, teams will always make a run, but OKC has done well to stay composed, stay in front, and get out of the game with a win.
The Phoenix Suns did its best to make itself an outlier. After the Thunder took a massive lead in the first half, Phoenix came roaring back in the second half, and eventually took a lead in the fourth quarter. OKC regained its advantage late and never gave it back. Behind dominance from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder made a comeback, while much smaller, of its own and ripped away a 118-110 win.
It was an impressive display of resilience from OKC, who could have easily rolled over after blowing the lead, but they didn’t. The Thunder once again played like a team who had been in battles for years, but in reality this is its first season of doing so.
The constant during the positive portions of the game, as it is so often, was Gilgeous-Alexander. Gilgeous-Alexander seemed to get to his spots whenever he wanted to, regardless of who was guarding him. Phoenix threw everyone from Grayson Allen to Kevin Durant at the MVP candidate, but it was all for not.
SGA put up a dominant 35-8-9, all while closing out the game, and putting the final cherry on top in the form of an emphatic block on Durant in the final minute.
Gilgeous-Alexander has been doing stuff like this all season, but doing so in front of a national audience has to feel just as good for Oklahoma’s favorite Canadian as it did for the fans.
Jalen Williams had his moments on both sides of the ball, but it was almost exclusively Gilgeous-Alexander who closed out a good Suns team. The only thing he didn’t do at an MVP level Sunday night was make threes. Every other thing he did, he did well, clearly establishing himself as the best player on the court while going up against the likes of Durant and Bradley Beal.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance catapulted OKC in to sole possession of the Western Conference’s number one seed, and may have done the same to himself on the MVP ladder after out-dueling one of the best players in the history of basketball.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s heroics have become an expectation for OKC fans at this point, but for him to do it in front of a national audience means a little bit more. He has another chance to put a large audience on notice Monday night when OKC takes on the Los Angeles Lakers on NBA TV.
