OKC Thunder: Gilgeous-Alexander cites defense and full 48-minute effort at crux of loss
OKC Thunder cornerstone Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a much more typical effort but it wasn’t enough to pull out the Game 2 victory.
For fans who watched the playoffs last season, you’re already familiar with how the new cornerstone of the OKC Thunder Shai Gilgeous-Alexander performed.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t just show up he surprised the Golden State Warriors posting his career-best scoring effort (at that time) of 25 points. For a rookie to show up and play the defending champions and deliver performances of 18, 22, and 25 points were special. He also had some less than stellar offensive nights with four, six, and seven-point showings.
The underrated Clippers crew of 2019 pushed the Warriors to six games and gave the Canadian his first taste of success and bitter loss.
Through two games of the first round, Thunder Nation has witnessed both sides of the equation again. SGA’s first game wasn’t what we anticipated. Throughout the seeding games, he hasn’t exactly looked right. Something has been off and it led us to wonder if he was nursing an injury. When he sat versus the Memphis Grizzlies that answer was affirmative.
When he returned to play in the final seeding game he looked closer to himself and it gave us a bit more confidence. Although his first game versus the Rockets wasn’t a typical effort as he failed to reach double-figures for only the second time this season (seven points vs. Chicago – December 16th).
What he delivered in Game 2 was much more reminiscent of what fans witnessed last postseason when his name was on many people’s lips following that series.
SGA offers optimism for series
In the postgame media on NBA.com, Gilgeous-Alexander was clearly not happy with the result but upbeat the team could make the necessary changes to get back on track.
Asked what had changed over the two games SGA said he watched a lot of film from the first game and recognized specific areas for him to be more aggressive both on offense and defense.
In terms of where the game was lost clearly the Thunder need to go back to the film room and pull up the segments when the team was held scoreless. SGA wasn’t on the court during that pivotal scoreless segment when the Rockets went on a 17-0 run. Still, the entire team needs to figure out ahead of time some specific sets they can utilize to take advantage of their strengths. One of which is height as T.I. noted in our earlier article.
For the moment the Canadian feels confident the Thunder is headed in the right direction. He made a simplistic but accurate statement that one of the main issues is the team hasn’t played a full 48 minutes.
"“Above all, we gotta get stops, no matter what, whether we’re scoring or not scoring.”"
In that regard, both the players and Donovan need to figure out some buzz words they can yell out to jump-start them out of that habit of getting stagnant.
Ultimately, teams will play to their identity, and one of the main issues this season has been the propensity for the Thunder to start the first and third quarters without energy.
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This is the playoffs and they can’t afford to fall into those bad habits. While it’s also within their character to beast in the final five minutes of games during clutch time if they don’t get to that stage of the game within five points of their competition than it’s a moot point.
Moving forward the Thunder are now in a must-win situation as going down 0-3 would be a hole no team wants to be in. There is a historical reference to pull from as the Thunder clawed back from an 0-2 deficit versus the San Antonio Spurs in 2012. Although this is a different team with a revamped roster the identity and culture of the OKC Thunder remain the same.
Billy Donovan won Coach of the Year this season and has done a masterful job. He’ll need to dig deep and figure out what adjustments needs to be made in order to get his squad to commit to a full 48-minute effort.
Although the future is bright with Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Darius Bazley, and Hamidou Diallo on board at the same time this squad scrapped all season to be in the mix of contenders. They’ll need to show that fight in Game 3 on Saturday. If they don’t, this iteration of the team is more likely to be split up sooner, rather than later.
Check out our post-game grades and three takeaways.