SGA is Dominant Once Again

 I am sorry to be late to post today! I got caught up in a task at work that took forever. I wanted to pump out a quick one before the day ended though, especially after that thriller of a game last night. All is right in the world again, people all around me are saddened by Minnesota's loss, but not me! No time for more preamble lets get into it: 

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

I really can't say enough good things about Shai man. This guy was unstoppable from the opening tip to the final whistle last night and it was a joy to watch. Shai finished this game with a surprising playoff career high 40 points. I call it surprising because Shai had just come off a streak of 5 straight 30 point games in the playoffs and averages 30ppg in the playoffs the last 2 seasons. Shai is ruthlessly consistent, never gets too high or too low. Last night wasn't just about his scoring though, it was about when he got it done. At the start of the game the Thunder got off to a decent lead off the backs of their role players hitting shots and Shai making things happen in the mid range. The Timberwolves, fighting for their lives, had their role players firing too though and they would periodically hit a couple of threes in a row to go on a run. The crowd would start getting loud and into it and you could sense the tension building for the Thunder. Literally every single time one of these moments happened, Shai calmly would get to his spot and drain a mid range jumper to silence the crowd. I am going to go off pure memory for the couple of plays I talk about below so don't judge me if I get some facts wildly wrong: 

There was one jumper Shai hit that really stood out to me I believe in the first half. The Thunder had just watched their lead go from double digits to tied and they hadn't scored in a while. Shai got the ball with Anthony Edwards guarding him. He made a couple dribble moves to get near the free throw line, picked up his dribble, pivoted then nailed a fadeaway jumper with Ant right in his jersey and you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. There was another play where Shai got Naz Reid on a switch at the end of the half. He drove to his left forcing Naz to chase him, stopped slightly and looked up as if he was going to pop for a jumper, this got Naz to jump out of his shoes but it was a fake, Shai continued the drive and went up with a little scoop layup off the glass for 2. Then there was the play everyone remembers with time winding down and the Timberwolves attempting one last comeback, Shai drives into traffic and is met by Rudy Gobert near the rim with Jaden McDaniels for the double team. Shai falls, but somehow manages to keep his pivot foot planted to avoid the travel, because he falls on the ground he can see Jalen Williams through McDaniels' legs, he throws the pass underneath McDaniels to JDub who nails a dagger 3 that all but put the Wolves away. This game was poetry in motion if you're a fan of mid range scoring, Shai did it all and the Thunder needed every bit of it. 

No Show from Ant and Randle

On the flip side, the Wolves lost a tight one despite getting very little production from their two stars Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle. Through the first 3 quarters, I was joking that Ant looked like Ben Simmons out there. I believe he had 2 FG attempts in the first half, something that simply cannot happen regardless of the defense. Luckily for Ant the Wolves' roleplayers in Donte DiVincenzo and Nickeil Alexander-Walker were on fire from deep keeping them in the game. Julius Randle was a turnover machine and I said this after game 1, you can't count on him to have a great shooting night every game like he did game 1, but you can count on him to have multiple turnovers against this OKC defense no matter what. That's what happened again as Randle looked terrible on both ends of the floor. This OKC defense is tremendously tough and they've made many star players look silly before, but if the Wolves are going to come back from a 3-1 deficit they need their stars to show up despite the defense. 

Shout out to NAW

I quickly mentioned Nickeil Alexander-Walker earlier but he deserves his own mini segment in this very rushed recap I'm pumping out. NAW was amazing in this one hitting his catch and shoot 3s and playing strong defense on his cousin despite Shai's outburst. NAW also showed he's got a bit of a bag off the dribble especially in that second half where he cooked some Thunder players on drives a couple of times. You are probably not getting a NAW game like this again in a series so it's a real shame if you're a Wolves fan that they wasted it. I needed to shout him out though, I've declared that I hate all the Wolves players no matter what but NAW gets a Canadian exception, as he should. Needless to say, this was the perfect game for me! Shai played out of his mind, Ant played terribly, the Wolves lost and NAW had a good game as a Canadian on the Wolves, what's there to hate?

And that's that! Quick one just because I am busy today! I didn't even shout out JDub and Chet who were both awesome in this one. JDub showed he can be a secondary ball handler when he's on and Chet was a menace on defense while hitting big 3s and crashing to the paint for big dunks all game. If JDub and Chet are on, the Thunder are unbeatable, it's that simple.