Every NBA team has a defining moment each season.
The Oklahoma City Thunder has already had several things that could end up being that moment in its first eight games. After coming out of the gates with a dominant win over San Antonio, OKC’s season was quickly derailed when Jalen Williams suffered a gruesome ankle injury in the third game of the season. In that same game on Oct. 25, OKC lost Cason Wallace and Chet Holmgren to serious injuries as well.
Most teams would’ve collapsed at that point. Williams and Holmgren are both All-NBA talents and Wallace is one of the NBA’s elite defenders who was poised to step into a bigger role this season, and in the snap of a finger, all were gone for a minimum of two months, probably longer.
The Thunder were visibly shell-shocked in their next two games against Dallas and Houston. At that point, it seemed this would be a lost season. Sure, OKC would be a solid regular-season team and be a tough out, but the championship aspirations in OKC had evaporated less than a week into the season. Then, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander reminded everyone exactly who he was.
Holmgren said it best on Instagram.
“Dump that clip 2.”
In back-to-back games against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who made the Eastern Conference Finals last season, Gilgeous-Alexander had 43 and 42 points. He got whatever he wanted despite being met with as physical of defense as you’ll see allowed in the NBA in both games, grinding to his spots and hitting shots when he needed to, including a go-ahead step-back 3-pointer to take the lead in the final 35 seconds of the first of the two games.
So what do those two games really mean?
Yes, Gilgeous-Alexander is great. An uncontainable inferno of offensive ability that the best defenders in the NBA can’t hope to extinguish. Yes, OKC can still reach high heights, including beating one of the NBA’s four finalists two times in three days. It also shows that the Thunder haven’t given up despite unfathomable injury luck that would’ve demoralized any of the best handful of teams in NBA history that fans may rattle off.
But, to me, the most notable thing we’ve seen from OKC in this two-out-of-82-game stretch has been Gilgeous-Alexander’s mentality.
Perhaps to his detriment, Gilgeous-Alexander has always been more passive than his stats have reflected. He plays the game the right way, despite what X or your favorite national podcast may tell you. He looks to teammates. He doesn’t want to unload the clip. He wants to hover around 20 shots per game, get good, calculated looks and keep the defense on its toes.
With no Williams… or Holmgren… or Wallace… or Lu Dort… or Aaron Wiggins… or Isaiah Joe, SGA has been given no choice, he has to let it fly. Against Cleveland, he finally did what so many of us have clamored for in past years, when it wasn’t as necessary — he went into THAT mode.
In his 43-point performance in Cleveland, Gilgeous-Alexander tied a career high with 35 shot attempts. That number is high for anyone whose last name isn’t Bryant, and that could well be the highest amount he reaches this season, but it showed something important. It showed that the switch has flipped for Gilgeous-Alexander.
It’s not that he doesn’t trust his teammates anymore. Since Oct. 25, Ajay Mitchell has averaged 21 points, Jared McCain hasn’t shied away from looks and Bennett Stirtz has reset his career high in every single game. But when the game is tight and OKC needs a bucket, OKC’s MVP, the same one who’s always tried to give others every opportunity to take that moment for themselves, has realized that with THIS team, he doesn’t just own the last four minutes; he owns every moment that he’s on the court.
If OKC wants to remain in the title picture, Gilgeous-Alexander will need to internalize what he did in those two games and make that his baseline. Outside of Williams, who’s almost certainly lost for the season, OKC’s players are all expected to trickle back into the lineup at some point. Holmgren’s timeline is 8-10 weeks, and while no timeline was given for Wallace, NBA players have returned from torn labrums during the same season, most recently Nic Batum.
In the long run, OKC will trot out essentially the same group that took San Antonio to seven games last season, outside of losing Dort and Joe, who both struggled in that series. The Thunder has also added Aday Mara, Bennett Stirtz and, perhaps most surprisingly, Micah Peavy, all of whom look to be legitimate role players.
But in the end, this is all going to come down to Shai.
There is truth to the idea he can’t do it alone. Of course he will need 1-2 teammates to step up and provide a scoring punch, and he has the benefit of being the fifth cog in one of the NBA’s best defenses, but in reality, basketball comes down to the stars almost every time. In the past, SGA has had an A+ supporting cast that can do everything a superstar could ask for around him. Now, even when Wallace and Holmgren return, this team lacks an experienced heat check guy like Dort or Joe. It lacks a true 1B offensive co-star in Williams.
Lost in the dread of injury after injury has been the realization of an opportunity. The best player in the world, who famously never looks uncomfortable, is going to have to do something that he normally doesn’t. Play like it’s the final two minutes all the time.
He’s shown flashes of doing it before and can definitely reach into his Kobe Bryant/Russell Westbrook bag when he needs to, and now, that need is going to be every game. And for my money, getting used to that constant abuse will be good for SGA based on nothing but what happened a season ago.
Last year in the Western Conference Finals, it felt like SGA was worn down by the Spurs’ overly physical defense and constant pressure. By Game 7, he had solved it and he put up one of the best games that anyone has ever played in a Thunder uniform. That was him in the mode he needs to be in all the time now.
With how he’s been officiated so far, the treatment he got in that series seems to be what he’s going to be facing every night. While it can be frustrating to watch on a day-by-day basis, it gives OKC and SGA the chance to be more ready for it come this postseason. And by the time Wallace and Holmgren are back, Gilgeous-Alexander will be primed and ready to fall into his old habit of giving his teammates a chance to shine in big moments, or he’ll be ready to take 32 shots and put the team on his back just like Westbrook used to, but better.
We as a basketball community have a habit of overcomplicating things. Free-throw merchant, or he gets fouled on nearly every possession? Snake or a player looking to close out his best years in the best situation? The 2016 Cavs came back from 3-1, or LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and a flailing Draymond Green came back from 3-1?
We all know the real answers to all these questions, yet we want them to be more. There is nuance to basketball, and SGA can’t do it completely by himself; I’m not saying he can. But frankly, in the biggest moments, he’s probably going to have to, as long as he and his team can get there. We saw what I’m referencing in the first of the two Cleveland games. In the final five minutes, it felt like Shai was shooting whenever he got the ball, contested or not, and that’s a good thing.
With a date with the Spurs still on the table, OKC’s going to have to do it a little differently this year. It no longer has the ravenous defense or depth to constantly share the sugar. If the Thunder want to beat the odds and win another title despite Williams’ injury, it comes down to one man, and he wears No. 2, has that same amount of MVPs, and may well need to win his third for OKC to have a shot at hanging another banner this year.
So what will this OKC team’s defining moment be? A ghastly rash of injuries, or the reigning MVP adding his third straight to the collection.
