'I’m in my comfort zone': How Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC Thunder held off the Celtics
Mark Daigneault is a philosopher.
Somewhere swimming between after-timeout plays and replays of all the challenges he wishes he could have back, there’s a concept. In basketball, there are scientists, and there are artists.
“A scientist is in the lab,” Daigneault said before Tuesday’s game, “and an artist is throwing paint against the canvas.”
The fourth-year Thunder coach took a break from Bruce Springsteen and tempering expectations to momentarily admire a pair of players he thought of as artists: Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
In the Thunder's 127-123 win over the Celtics at Paycom Center late Tuesday, their work leaped off the page.
While the Thunder perhaps began painting outside the lines as the game dwindled, hoisting a body of work that wound up rough around the edges and nearly incomplete, the inspiration could be seen. Following a three-week stretch with wins over three of the West’s top four teams and one over the NBA’s best, the Thunder has barreled toward serious aspirations.
Being among the league’s elite.
“I think they’re ambitious,” said Daigneault. “I also think they put the work in behind that.”
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On the night that would tip off the team’s hefty, Titanic-sized January load, Paycom Center became SGA and Williams’ canvas. They’re modern, they’re confident. Their influence was everywhere.
Williams played his hand in the fourth quarter — which hasn’t been entirely foreign. Eight points in the period, 16 on the night. One lethal, short pullup jumper with 26.1 seconds to play.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s work took form in the way it has all season. Effortless glides to the rim. Unbeatable pullup jumpers. Even when Boston forward Jayson Tatum switched onto Gilgeous-Alexander late and bothered him as well as anybody, he managed the game and found rookie Chet Holmgren for a couple of necessary 3s.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 36 points, six rebounds, seven assists, the game-sealing free throws and enough tape against Derrick White and Jrue Holiday to tape a day’s long marathon.
“When I work out, I work out like the best defender in the world is guarding me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “In moments like these, I’m in my comfort zone.”
The young Thunder and its artists aren’t without fault, seeing their brush strokes eventually smear out of the picture. In navigating newfound playoff contention and being one of the league’s early elite cores this season, OKC is still managing the art of suffocating opponents. Stacking huge leads like its 18-point lead with larger runs and larger leads.
Still, the Thunder’s young core probably shouldn’t be so poised. So confident, so capable of winning games. So ahead of schedule, so creative in the way its molded itself through 32 games.
Then again, maybe that’s just what artists do.
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Giddey, Thunder’s shotmaking show
OKC has had some encounters with what’ll come to resemble playoff settings as much as possible in the regular season.
The game Holmgren hit his overtime-forcing 3 in the Bay. The win in Denver that required a Gilgeous-Alexander game winner. Tuesday’s win over the Celtics essentially mirrored those.
The Thunder lined up against as good of a starting unit as there’s been in the NBA. It got schemed against, it was forced into on-the-fly adjustments, forced to choose which shooter it would have to watch shoot after Boston swung the ball around.
Surely the way teams will gameplan for OKC come playoff time — and the way they’ve prepared for them in a number of games so far — will feature plans to leave Josh Giddey. To make a business decision and flat out just put a center on him.
Giddey’s recent play has jabbed back at the idea of his fit with the team this season — though it hasn’t completely wiped away questions of his long term fit. Tuesday might’ve been his best game of the year.
With Boston choosing to leave him open, Giddey knocked down four of his seven 3-pointers. He finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and six assists. At one point, he matched SGA for the most shot attempts on the team.
While he’s shot well through this recent stretch, there’s no guarantee OKC can bank on him and the way teams will defend him as the season endures. It’s found ways to offset those things, like new sets and other wrinkles. But the shotmaking, which has seemingly stemmed from a change in confidence, helps.
As does the Thunder knocking down 18 of its 40 3s, part of the reason it didn’t squander its lead entirely.
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OKC not concerned with sudden expectations
The organization isn’t blind.
Its players won’t say it expected this, but they won’t rule it out. The change in aspirations, what can maybe be achieved now.
Contention might be closer than they previously imagined. Win after win over elite teams have placed the idea right in front of them.
“We don't think anything is impossible,” Williams said. “I just think we kind of came into the year understanding that we can play with everybody. Just trying to win games at the end of the day.”
It’s blossomed into something more, though. From individual wins to streaks. From development to a legitimate grasp on something special. What viewers thought might’ve been possible down the line — through trade and acting on the fortunate position OKC is in — has slowly showed itself sooner.
And after Tuesday’s game, a question featured a word that hadn’t been uttered by anyone in the Thunder’s postgame press conference room all season: Contender.
In typical Holmgren fashion, he downplayed it. But he acknowledged it.
“We have over 50 games of the regular season left to play,” Holmgren said, “so us worrying about playing in the NBA Finals when it’s January 2nd, we’re gonna miss out on so many opportunities that are right here in front of us to get better.”
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Thunder tip ins
- The Thunder improved to 9-1 against Eastern Conference opponents.
- After Tuesday’s win, OKC's five game win streak is the longest active streak in the league.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 'comfort zone' as OKC Thunder beats Celtics
