Every teammate and coach hugged, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke away from the celebration in the middle of the Paycom Center court and walked toward the Thunder bench where his wife was waiting.
She held their son, Ares, who reached for his dad.
Actually, the toddler reached for his dad’s new hat, the one with the Thunder logo and the words “NBA Finals.”
SGA took it off and tried to put it on Ares, but he only seemed interested in seeing what was inside it. So, SGA put the hat back on, only to have Ares reach for it again and try to figure out what was underneath.
“The best thing about that moment is that he has no clue what’s going on, and he’s just happy to see me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “You get caught up in life in general. You get caught up in so many things that don’t actually matter, and that’s the biggest thing with having my son in the past year.
“He’s put on the forefront. He’s showed me everything that actually matters in life.”
Yes, what was on the scoreboard Wednesday night was a big deal.
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But on the night the Thunder secured the Western Conference championship and a spot in the NBA Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander’s why was on display for all to see. You didn’t have to wait until those postgame snapshots to see it either. It was evident in his play, his excellence, his approach to the biggest game of his career.
He is all about the love of and the care for family.
And for Gilgeous-Alexander, his team is his family, too.
He loved and took care of it Wednesday night, scoring a game-high 34 points on only 25 shots and adding seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals in a close-out game that became a coronation.
Most impressive about his performance?
“The tone,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “He just set an unbelievable tone. I think he understood his role in our mentality. He was a participant in that, and he was a leader in that. He was ready to play from the jump.”
Was he ever.
Gilgeous-Alexander had a hand in Oklahoma City’s first six baskets, scoring twice and assisting on three Chet Holmgren baskets as well as an Isaiah Hartenstein make. In the first quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander scored or assisted on all but two of the Thunder’s 26 points.
OKC led 26-9 at that point and never looked back.
Neither did SGA.
SGA wanted Thunder fans ‘to have fun in the moment’
He kept pouring on the points. A right-elbow jumper over Rudy Gobert. A breakaway after an Alex Caruso steal that resulted in two free throws. A driving finger roll in the waning seconds of the first half.
By halftime, the Thunder lead had ballooned to 33 points.
The second half was a mere formality, and the Paycom Center crowd enjoyed every minute. It roared its approval for steals and rebounds and baskets and anything else the Thunder did. And for the entire fourth quarter, even though the game was completely in the Thunder’s control, the fans stood.
No one sat.
Everyone celebrated.
Winning at home was something Gilgeous-Alexander had in mind.
“I wanted the fans to be able to enjoy the moment with us,” he said. “I wanted them to be able to see it unfold in front of their eyes. I wanted them to be able to celebrate tonight in our building, go home, get drunk, whatever they do.
“I wanted them to have fun in the moment.”
This night was completely different than the last time the Thunder clinched a spot in the NBA Finals. On June 6, 2012, an Oklahoma City bunch powered by a couple of budding but baby-faced superstars in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook ousted San Antonio from the Western Conference finals with a furious comeback. The Spurs scored 63 points in the first half, and the Thunder trailed by 15 points at halftime.
But OKC only allowed San Antonio to score 36 points in the second half and stirred the Thunder faithful into a frenzy. After losing the first two games of the series, the Thunder won the next four, KD and Russ and The Beard and Serge and Perk besting Kawhi and Duncan and Tony Parker and Manu.
There was a feeling of wonder and awe in the building that night — only a few years early, OKC had gotten an NBA team of its own, and for it to be heading to the NBA Finals felt surreal.
Surreal wasn’t the feeling Wednesday.
Certainty was more the vibe.
SGA made Thunder teammates better en route to NBA Finals
And that goes back to Gilgeous-Alexander. Despite his bob-when-everyone-else-weaves style, he is a force. An inevitability.
“He does a great job of playing aggressive and then letting the game tell him what the right play is,” Thunder big man Chet Holmgren said. “Sometimes that’s score, and sometimes that’s pass, but you never really feel like watching him or playing with him, you never feel like he made the wrong read.
“When the defense gives him pass, he passes. When the defense doesn’t force that, then he scores. Obviously, he’s really good at it.”
And he makes the Thunder really good.
He makes Daigneault and his staff really good. Makes Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace and the Thunder’s snarling pack of reserves really good. Makes the bigs, Holmgren and Hartenstein, really good. Makes his Canadian bestie Lu Dort really good. Makes sidekick Jalen Williams really good.
It was fitting that in the final moments of the game Wednesday, Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams sat next to each other on the bench, both covering their legs with towels, both loosening shoes and removing tape. These two have become Thunder 2.0’s version of Durant and Westbrook.
Different in style but similar in results.
SGA and Williams watched and talked, one sometimes poking the other on the leg, the other sometimes tapping the one on the arm.
“Honestly, we’re always together, so the conversation wasn’t much different than it always is,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Obviously happy for the moment, but this isn’t our goal. This isn’t the end of the road.”
Yes, Gilgeous-Alexander celebrated after the win, holding his Western Conference MVP trophy and posing for photos with family and friends. When his dad took the trophy during a group photo, playful tossed it in the air and thankfully caught it without incident, SGA nearly doubled over in laughter.
But he celebrated, too, with teammates and coaches who have become not only friends but also like family.
We all know, after all, how Gilgeous-Alexander feels about family.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.