For most players, things get harder in the postseason. The game slows down, defenses zero in on stars, efficiency drops, and it becomes a battle to become the last man standing. For Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, things somehow appear to be getting easier.
It's nearly unprecedented to see a star player — nevertheless a guard — look so comfortable in the postseason. Plus he's doing it without his co-star. Plus it's against a top-10 defense in the league.
In Game 3 on Saturday, SGA scored a historic 42 points on 15-18 shooting, following up a 13-25, 37-point performance in Game 2. He is pretty much rewriting what we believe to be possible from a player in the playoffs. We're very early in a (likely) very long playoff run for the Thunder, but this is bringing flashbacks of Kawhi Leonard in 2019.
There is simply no way to gameplan for Shai-Gilgeous Alexander anymore. He is matchup-proof.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is officially matchup-proof
This is a popular phrase in football for wide receivers, and I think it applies for SGA right now. It doesn't matter what look opponents throw at him; he will not only figure out how to beat it, he will do it with the nearly unprecedented consistency and efficiency he has been playing with for two seasons now.
Look around the league at the other superstars; Nikola Jokic and Anthony Edwards are both struggling to play like themselves, Jalen Brunson is putting up good raw numbers but not in efficient fashion at all. LeBron James is somehow still efficient at 41, but he doesn't even count because there's some witchcraft going on over there.
So, despite SGA making things look easy on a nightly basis, look around at his contemporaries and it becomes pretty obvious that it's not easy... He's just a head above everyone else in the league right now.
Having an All-Star cast around SGA doesn't hurt, of course, and I won't act Shai's life isn't made easier by having so many weapons around him. It is! But he remains priority No. 1 on every scouting report. He'd dominate on any team, and a big part of why the Thunder are so good as a collective is because of how dominant Shai is.
It remains an embarrasment of riches for the Thunder, but the grand prize remains Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The basketball world may be getting sick of watching this team and its superstar, and that's somewhat understandable, but they somehow keep elevating higher and higher. There might not be a ceiling.
Add us as a preferred source on Google