Staring down Bruce Brown, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander showed why it was a bad plan to leave him in isolation looks. He toyed with the Denver defender. First, with a behind-the-back dribble move. Baiting him to go right, the reigning MVP stomped to go left on the baseline and swished in a highly-contested fadeaway mid-range jumper.<\/p>\n
The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> made a statement in their 121-111 win<\/a> over the Denver Nuggets<\/a>. The wire-to-wire victory showed that the reigning NBA champions are still the team to beat as they showed out for Sunday Night Basketball’s inaugural debut.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Yo-yoing Denver’s defense, Gilgeous-Alexander reached basketball nirvana. He finished with 34 points on 11-of-16 shooting, 13 assists and five rebounds. He shot 1-of-2 from 3 and went 11-of-13 on free throws. He also had two steals and a block.<\/p>\n If you want to know what it looks like when you master basketball at the highest level, roll back the tape in this one. Gilgeous-Alexander knew how badly the Thunder wanted this one. Cruising through the last month, a win at Denver could be the exact jolt of energy OKC could utilize to get its confidence back.<\/p>\n The Thunder go as far as Gilgeous-Alexander will take them. He led them through a hostile environment and completely silenced it. The shot-making was legendary. Even when Denver tried every gimmick defense known in basketball lore, the reigning MVP had no problem getting to his spots.<\/p>\n Gilgeous-Alexander completely buried the Nuggets with his mid-range jumper. When they threatened to come back, he’d drill demoralizing jumpers. When that didn’t happen, he danced his way to the free-throw line. As Denver grew more insecure about what to do, he had them fall for several of his baits en route to a busy line at the charity stripe.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Putting this game away with a signature OKC third-quarter run, Gilgeous-Alexander had 12 points in the frame alone. He added seven more in the final frame to tie a nice bow on this one. He had complete control of this game from the jump, ala Peyton Manning in his prime.<\/p>\n “These types of games force you to throw your best punch or you’ll get embarrassed. When a team is this good, has the level of talent and history, they force you to bring it or else you get beat bad,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I think the guys did a great job all across the board of bringing it.”<\/p>\n And then there was the playmaking. I can’t keep burying the lede \u2014 this was one of Gilgeous-Alexander’s best games in that regard. The assist numbers never pop off, but anybody who can appreciate basketball’s nuances beyond the basic box score understands how much he weaponizes his one-of-one scoring gravity.<\/p>\n This game, though, was on a different level. Gilgeous-Alexander completely dissected Denver’s defense. Want to throw a double? Here you go, Cason Wallace and other OKC role players. Want to pick him up full-court? No problem. That creates a man advantage elsewhere. He was just a step ahead of everybody else in this primetime matchup.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n “The better you get at individually scoring, the more they make you pass. That’s how it goes. I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t lean into that and work on those types of things,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I just try to take what the defense gives me and always have them at my mercy.”<\/p>\n In a game where you can tell everybody was playing at a thousand miles per hour, Gilgeous-Alexander saw everything in slow motion. The Nuggets were hopeless. It didn’t matter if they tried out different defenders on him. He orchestrated how the game played out like John Williams in a ‘Star Wars’ film. Just special stuff.<\/p>\n “They’ve won at the highest level. They have really, really good players. Really, really good team \u2014 1-15. Ultimately, you know if you want to come out of the West, they’re one of the teams you have to beat,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “When you do kinda play them before, the games really matter. You want to give them your best punch and see where you stand against them.”<\/p>\n