re: OKC Thunder 2025/26 Season 74-20 / 1 Seed / vs Suns/LAL 4-0/ Vs SA Tue night 7:00 / 2-2

Players in NBA Playoff History with 60+ PTS, 14+ 3PM & 5+ STL off the bench over a 3-game span:

• Alex Caruso
• Grayson Allen

SGA has 21 assists and 3 turnovers over the last 2 games combined.

(And one of those turnovers was an offensive foul.)

While facing constant double teams, traps, a wall in the paint and the kitchen sink.

That level of ball security while under constant pressure is unparalleled.

Its like every game SGA turns someone else into a super power. People don’t realize how as the top player in NBA - SGA always gets all other players involved.

People can’t figure out why team and players are so close and connected. Its because SGA is selfless. He usually gets what I call quiet points. You look at end of game and say wow he scored that many. Its because he’s a rare star who doesn’t act like most stars. He genuinely wants his teammates to have their moments.

I look at LBJ and how selfish he was. It was always about him.

quote:

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Jaylin Williams praises Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's playmaking, his 12 assists in Game 3. “He’s an unselfish guy. A lot of guys in that situation would shoot over double teams or do everything they can to get points and shots up, but he's doing the right things and making winning plays.”

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quote:

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Michael Martin @MichaelOnSports Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on getting booed on the road in Game 3. “Yeah, I mean it's part of the game. I don't expect their fans to love me, it's not how it works. They want their team to win and it's that simple… I love and appreciate them, whether they're for me or against me. They made the game fun.”

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Still can’t get over this pump fake by Joe lolol.

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Time to TTFU

To be clear we just lost. Extra fouls do muddy tempo but we shot bad, had too many turnovers and played flat.

And still only gave up 103 pts. Offense was way off by all players plus bench. We made 5 FGs less than them and can correct that. Can fix turnovers.

Game 5 Tue night.

Also we lost by 43 pts in playoffs last year. Won’t overreact to this loss. Got our goal home court back.

The Extender did his job. And so did SA. We played everything badly last night except our defense was bright spot. Holding them to 103 with the FT disparity was actually a championship caliber play. It was offense and sloppy play and no sense of urgency that did us in.

The only thing refs did was not allow us to get in a rhythm. But it wasn’t why we lost. It just woulda been closer is all.

Mainly, if your defense is sound you can win more games than lose most games. So I’m encouraged by that. SA had every chance to make this a bigger blowout but didn’t because we still played good D.

We were 6-33 (18%) from 3. We lost FTA battle 32-18. We had 17 turnovers. JWill/McCain/Wiggins were 4-28 on FGs.

Win Tue and pressure is on SA.

Game 4 was an interesting study in the "let them play" vs. "dare ya to breathe wrong on them" dichotomy.