Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shut out Nuggets in Game 7

The Oklahoma City Thunder are on their technique to the Western Conference Finals for the primary time because the 2015-16 season after an emphatic, 125-93, Game 7 win towards the Denver Nuggets on Sunday afternoon. They will take at the Minnesota Timberwolves as they seek for their first NBA Finals look because the 2011-12 season. 

The superstar of Sunday’s win for the Thunder used to be the similar as it’s been all season — level guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The 2025 MVP finalist used to be absolute cash in crunch time, scoring a game-high 35 issues in most effective 36 mins of motion. 

He used to be borderline unstoppable.

He now not most effective submit the issues, he did so with implausible potency, capturing 12-of-19 from the sector, together with 3-of-4 from three-point vary. 

It used to be additionally the 3rd consecutive recreation within the collection the place he crowned the 30-point mark, going for 31, 32 and 35 over Games 5, 6 and 7 of the collection. He did so whilst capturing higher than 60% from the sector and higher than 54% from in the back of the road. 

He used to be now not most effective the Thunder’s absolute best participant in all 3 video games, he used to be the most efficient participant at the ground and out-dueled Denver’s MVP finalist, Nikola Jokic. And that is not to mention that Jokic used to be dangerous or a non-factor for the Nuggets. 

It’s additionally now not simply the truth that Gilgeous-Alexander used to be higher. 

It’s that whilst his manufacturing and potency step by step advanced over the general 3 video games of the collection, Jokic noticed his efficiency step by step regress. He went from 44 issues in Game 5, all the way down to 29 in Game 6, all the way down to 20 issues in Game 7 on Sunday. It used to be his second-lowest level output of the collection, topping most effective his 17-point efficiency in Denver’s 149-106 Game 2 loss (during which Jokic logged simply 32 mins). 

When you get right into a Game 7, it could regularly come all the way down to which staff’s absolute best participant goes to have their absolute best.

On Sunday, it used to be the Thunder and Gilgeous-Alexander that had it.