The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder are on their strategy to the Western Convention Finals for the primary time for the reason that 2015-16 season after an emphatic, 125-93, Recreation 7 win in opposition to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday afternoon. They may tackle the Minnesota Timberwolves as they seek for their first NBA Finals look for the reason that 2011-12 season.
The star of Sunday’s win for the Thunder was the identical because it has been all season — level guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The 2025 MVP finalist was absolute cash in crunch time, scoring a game-high 35 factors in solely 36 minutes of motion.
He was borderline unstoppable.
He not solely put up the factors, he did so with unbelievable effectivity, capturing 12-of-19 from the sector, together with 3-of-4 from three-point vary.
It was additionally the third consecutive recreation within the sequence the place he topped the 30-point mark, going for 31, 32 and 35 over Video games 5, 6 and seven of the sequence. He did so whereas capturing higher than 60% from the sector and higher than 54% from behind the road.
He was not solely the Thunder’s greatest participant in all three video games, he was one of the best participant on the ground and out-dueled Denver’s MVP finalist, Nikola Jokic. And that is to not say that Jokic was unhealthy or a non-factor for the Nuggets.
It is also not simply the truth that Gilgeous-Alexander was higher.
It is that whereas his manufacturing and effectivity progressively improved over the ultimate three video games of the sequence, Jokic noticed his efficiency progressively regress. He went from 44 factors in Recreation 5, all the way down to 29 in Recreation 6, down to twenty factors in Recreation 7 on Sunday. It was his second-lowest level output of the sequence, topping solely his 17-point efficiency in Denver’s 149-106 Recreation 2 loss (through which Jokic logged simply 32 minutes).
While you get right into a Recreation 7, it may well usually come all the way down to which group’s greatest participant goes to have their greatest.
On Sunday, it was the Thunder and Gilgeous-Alexander that had it.
