OKLAHOMA CITY — Monday night’s game between the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder should’ve been decided 10 seconds earlier. Before the blunder of a four-point play that allowed the Nuggets to creep back in. Before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was granted another chance at glory.
But this game might not have been a candidate for Gilgeous-Alexander’s regular-season magnum opus if the Thunder didn’t need both of his late 3-pointers.
The first one came with 13.9 seconds left and Oklahoma City up one. Gilgeous-Alexander, wary of double teams but undeterred, went with the stepback he’s used to frame so many clutch moments. That should’ve been enough. He pointed behind him, toward the remains of a collapsed Denver defense, taunting in a way only seen after knockout punches.
The second came with 3.3 seconds remaining, tie game. Gilgeous-Alexander drifted toward the right wing, braking and leaning into an almost cinematic stepback dagger. Once the buzzer sounded and Denver deflated, SGA waltzed away from a 129-126 win, hoisting two fingers in the air.
Gilgeous-Alexander, typically as expressive as a mannequin, could not mask this. The competitive rage of a boiling rivalry. The tension of two clutch shots. The exhaustion of a second half in which Denver recycled double teams. Gilgeous-Alexander, at his apex, could not feign indifference.
“You want the game so bad. You’re in the moment so bad. You’re at home, the crowd’s behind you, you’re close to getting what you want — a win,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of his reactions to his final two shots. “Then you’re just feeling yourself.”
Monday’s game demanded that Gilgeous-Alexander be immaculate. OKC was without Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso. Three guards started beside SGA, one of them tasked with fronting and squirming around the Nuggets’ 6-foot-8, 235-pound Aaron Gordon. Gordon’s presence was threatening before the mismatch. With it, he and Nikola Jokić seemed to share a telepathic connection.
Gordon posted 19 points in the first seven minutes. The Thunder shuffled responses. Minutiae kept them alive.
Kenrich Williams’ early insertion forced Jokić to be a decisive defender. Jared McCain’s late deployment stretched the Nuggets’ defense. Center Jaylin Williams bested Tim Hardaway Jr. in a battle between who could better make use of 4-on-3 coverages; Williams tallied 29 points, 12 boards and seven 3s — the most of any Thunder center ever.
Ajay Mitchell provided a lifeline in his 24-point return performance, his first game since Jan. 21 after an abdominal strain and a sprained ankle kept him out for almost seven weeks. He stabilized what was a lowly offense before his substitution and lunged into hustle plays. That he could even simulate a fraction of SGA’s impact, stopping for midrange pull-ups and deep drives, resurrected the Thunder in the non-Jokić minutes.
But no answer proved as potent as Gilgeous-Alexander.
In the face of double teams, he found shooters and escaped the pocket, dishing a career-high 15 assists. With just four free-throw attempts, he shot 14 of 21 to post 35 points. He was one rebound shy of his third career triple-double. His motor fanned for 39 minutes. In all that time, amid all that pressure, he committed zero turnovers. Only one other player previously produced a 35-point, 15-assist, zero-turnover game in NBA history: LeBron James in his Herculean 2018 season.
Single coverage is a death wish against Gilgeous-Alexander. He can change the cadence of his rhythmic dribble at will, is as efficient as a center inside the arc and weaponizes contact.
What happens when two defenders won’t suffice? When a crowd of defenders is no longer deep enough for him to see through? The Nuggets doubled SGA on 22 of his touches; the Thunder still converted 2.07 points per touch when he faced a double.
On the final possession, just after Williams fouled Jamal Murray to allow Denver that game-tying four-point play, the Nuggets attempted to deny Gilgeous-Alexander the ball entirely. They still couldn’t deny him the moment.
Asked if Monday night might be his best performance yet, Gilgeous-Alexander’s eyes darted to the corner of his shades, searching for the lone answer he seemingly didn’t have. Even through the tint, you could see his eyes widen at the thought. He browsed a library of numbing statlines and dizzying consistency.
“I don’t know. It’s up there, for sure,” he said. “It was super fun tonight.”
Postgame, the Thunder locker room dissolved into debate. From the corner, Aaron Wiggins was careful in considering his superstar teammate’s catalog.
Gilgeous-Alexander, on pace for a fourth season averaging 30 points on at least 51 percent shooting, is the poster boy for consistency. He joined rarefied air Monday with his 126th consecutive game of at least 20 points, tying Wilt Chamberlain’s mark. For 496 days and counting, Gilgeous-Alexander’s floor has been 20 points.
Wiggins still rattled off nights from the past year that he felt might trump what SGA did Monday.
“There’s too many to pick from,” Wiggins pleaded.
There was the game in Detroit a season ago, with Oklahoma City down a handful of rotation players, even losing a couple during the game. The Pistons deployed triple teams and kitchen-sink coverages, leaving Gilgeous-Alexander hunched over and heaving by the end of a 48-point performance. Both he and Wiggins picked that first.
“And then I guess whatever my career high is. I don’t even know,” SGA said at the podium. “That was probably one of my better nights.”
That would be his 55 points in the second game of this season, a double-overtime win over the Indiana Pacers.
From the locker room, Wiggins reasoned for the field: “He’s scored 50 before.”
Four times in 40 days last season, to be exact.
There was the half-hearted suggestion that SGA’s 20-point, 20-rebound game during his first season in OKC might top the list.
“That was fun, too. But I didn’t shoot as many balls,” Gilgeous-Alexander joked. “I didn’t have as much fun that game.”
Wiggins forfeited. The numbers were too loaded to crunch. The list too long to scroll. The moment too fresh to digest.
As far as games of 20-plus, he has the last 126 to choose from. As far as SGA’s go-ahead shots, if Wiggins subscribes to recency bias, he’s got the Thunder’s past three games to rank.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s late outburst underscored the absurdity of Monday’s finishing touches. That, despite the Thunder’s depleted lineup, Gilgeous-Alexander dictated the margin for error. That joining the company of Chamberlain could somehow become an afterthought. That he could impact the MVP polls with two plays. That Denver dared him to call game. Twice.
And that SGA abandoned his state of nonchalance to bask in the moment.
“It all happened in a split second,” Gilgeous-Alexander recalled. “I don’t even remember what I was saying. It usually doesn’t happen.
“Tonight called for it.”