The moment is clearly not too big for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
These are his first NBA Finals. It’s hard to remember that sometimes. The Oklahoma City Thunder star — and NBA MVP — just had a pair of debut finals games like nobody in league history, with a combined 72 points in his first two appearances in the title series.
That’s a record. The previous mark for someone in his first two finals games: 71 by Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson in 2001.
“I’m being myself,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I don’t think I tried to reinvent the wheel or step up to the plate with a different mindset. Just try to attack the game the right way. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that so far.”
His next attack chance isn’t until Wednesday night, when the series — the Thunder and Indiana Pacers are now tied at a game apiece — shifts to Indianapolis for Game 3.
He had 38 points in the Game 1 loss to the Pacers, 34 points in Sunday’s Game 2 win. Gilgeous-Alexander has more points in the first two games than any other two players in the series — not just Thunder players, any two players — do combined.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault isn’t taking the greatness of the MVP for granted. He’s just come to expect it by now.
“Yeah, unsurprising at this point,” Daigneault said. “It’s just kind of what he does. He just continues to progress and improve and rise to every occasion that he puts himself in and that we put ourselves in. I thought his floor game (in Game 2) was really, really in a great rhythm. I thought everyone played better individually, and I thought we played better collectively. I think that was a by-product.”
He had eight assists in Game 2, making him the 17th player in NBA history to have that many points and that many assists in a finals game; it has now happened a total of 34 times in the title series.
But it wasn’t just having assists. It was the type of assists that were key. Of Gilgeous-Alexander’s eight on Sunday, six of them set up 3-pointers. Those eight assists were turned into 22 points in all.
“He’s MVP for a reason,” Pacers center Myles Turner said. “He’s going to get off, and I think that we accepted that. It’s a matter of slowing him down and limiting the role players.”
Only seven players in finals history — Jerry West (94 in 1969), LeBron James (83 in 2015 and 80 in 2018), Shaquille O’Neal (83 in 2000, 76 in 2002 and 72 in 2001), John Havlicek (80 in 1969), Michael Jordan (78 in 1992 and 73 in 1993), Cliff Hagan (73 in 1961) and now Gilgeous-Alexander — have scored 72 or more points in the first two games of a title series.
“Shai, you can mark down 34 points before they even get on the plane for the next game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “The guy’s going to score. We’ve got to find ways to make it as tough as possible on him.”
In Game 1, the Pacers bottled up Gilgeous-Alexander’s supporting cast. In Game 2, they didn’t. It’s not really simple enough to say that’s why the Thunder lost Game 1 and won Game 2, but it is certainly part of the equation.
Or maybe it’s just as simple as saying the MVP is playing like an MVP. He’s the scoring champion as well, leads the playoffs in total points, just became the 12th player in league history to cross the 3,000-point mark for a season (counting regular season and postseason), and just got his first finals win.
“I would trade the points for two Ws, for sure,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But this is where our feet are. This is where we are. You can’t go back in the past, you can only make the future better. That’s what I’m focused on.”
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