The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder are on their technique to the Western Convention Finals for the primary time for the reason that 2015-16 season after an emphatic, 125-93, Recreation 7 win in opposition to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday afternoon. They are going to tackle the Minnesota Timberwolves as they seek for their first NBA Finals look for the reason that 2011-12 season.
The star of Sunday’s win for the Thunder was the identical because it has been all season — level guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The 2025 MVP finalist was absolute cash in crunch time, scoring a game-high 35 factors in solely 36 minutes of motion.
He was borderline unstoppable.
He not solely put up the factors, he did so with unbelievable effectivity, taking pictures 12-of-19 from the sphere, together with 3-of-4 from three-point vary.
It was additionally the third consecutive sport within the collection the place he topped the 30-point mark, going for 31, 32 and 35 over Video games 5, 6 and seven of the collection. He did so whereas taking pictures higher than 60% from the sphere and higher than 54% from behind the road.
He was not solely the Thunder’s finest participant in all three video games, he was the most effective participant on the ground and out-dueled Denver’s MVP finalist, Nikola Jokic. And that is to not say that Jokic was dangerous or a non-factor for the Nuggets.
It is also not simply the truth that Gilgeous-Alexander was higher.
It is that whereas his manufacturing and effectivity progressively improved over the ultimate three video games of the collection, Jokic noticed his efficiency progressively regress. He went from 44 factors in Recreation 5, right down to 29 in Recreation 6, down to twenty factors in Recreation 7 on Sunday. It was his second-lowest level output of the collection, topping solely his 17-point efficiency in Denver’s 149-106 Recreation 2 loss (by which Jokic logged simply 32 minutes).
If you get right into a Recreation 7, it will possibly typically come right down to which staff’s finest participant goes to have their finest.
On Sunday, it was the Thunder and Gilgeous-Alexander that had it.
