The OKC Thunder looked absolutely dominant during Tuesday night's NBA Cup Quarterfinal, beating the visiting Dallas Mavericks on the boards (52 to 44), stocks (19 to 12), and, ultimately, on the scoreboard as they coasted to a 118-104 Semifinal-clinching win.
While the win was unequivocally a result of a full-team effort from Oklahoma City, throughout the 48-minute exhibition several individual performers served as true leaders and guides in their victory.
Two, in particular, were Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort.
From the former's all-around dominance that had him lead all players in plus-minus rating (+22) to the latter's defensive excellence that held superstar Luka Doncic to a mere 16 points on 33.3 percent shooting, this dynamic duo showcased exactly why they're so important to the ongoing success of this ball club in 2024-25.
Subsequently, at least in the eyes of Chet Holmgren, they strengthened their claims to win two of the league's most prestigious end-of-season awards with their respective performances.
Chet Holmgren hypes up Thunder teammates for specific NBA awards
Lu for DPOY and Shai for MVP or we riot
— chet holmgren (@ChetHolmgren) December 11, 2024
Coming into the season, both ballers were viewed as being legitimate threats to contend for these specific accolades by year's end, with Dort falling into the top-12 in odds for Defensive Player of the Year while Gilgeous-Alexander led the charge for Most Valuable Player at +400.
Now, 24 games into the season, they still find themselves soundly in the conversation by putting consistently forth strong cases for why they belong within these illustrious conversations.
For Dort, his performance against Doncic was far from an aberration for the year, as he's boasting the best defensive rating and defensive box plus-minus rating of his already impressive career at 106 and +1.1, respectively, while already finding himself registering the third-most win shares of his career at 1.3 only a quarter of the way through the campaign.
As for Gilgeous-Alexander, he finds himself serving as the leader of the best team in the Western Conference (19-5) while posting sensational, stat-sheet-stuffing averages of 30.2 points, 6.3 assists, 5.4 rebounds, 1.8 steals, and 1.0 blocks while shooting 51.5 percent from the floor.
To put this into perspective, considering he's been averaging over 30.0 points a night since 2022-23, should he finish out the season with these scoring numbers the Thunder star would become just the 10 player in the NBA's 77 years to average +30.0 points in three consecutive seasons.
Of these players who accomplished such a feat, only two (Elgin Baylor and Adrian Dantley) went MVP-less amid such a stretch, thus suggesting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a 77.8 percent chance of taking home the Michael Jordan trophy this year.
Frankly, though Holmgren's comments may seem to be a bit bold initially, when digging a bit deeper into just how sensational his Thunder teammates have been performing, it's evident that there's some credence to his claims.