OKLAHOMA CITY — The normally stoic Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was caught smiling on camera after a road loss earlier this month that put the Oklahoma City Thunder behind the Denver Nuggets, 2-1, in their best-of-seven series in the Western Conference semifinals.
The 26-year-old guard from Canada, again an NBA MVP finalist, spent the rest of the series showing what he was grinning about. He averaged 30.8 points on 55.8% shooting over the next four games, and the Thunder won three of those to advance to the conference title series.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who was a prep standout at Chattanooga’s Hamilton Heights Christian Academy, said the smile was a response to fans who were razzing him.
“It’s easy to taunt when you’re up,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after Game 3. “I don’t ever want to show them that I’m defeated or mad or anything like that. Nothing’s written. The series is not over, and we have a lot to be optimistic about.”
He backed up that claim by scoring 25 points in a Game 4 win, 31 in a Game 5 victory, 32 in a Game 6 loss and 35 in a 125-93 blowout in Game 7 on Sunday afternoon.
The top-seeded Thunder will host the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday to tip off a best-of-seven series with a spot in the NBA Finals up for grabs.
Gilgeous-Alexander is getting more comfortable expressing himself.
For years, he has worked to remain even-keeled, yet he acknowledged he was on edge heading into Game 7. He wanted the Thunder’s league-best 68-win regular-season to mean something. Oklahoma City had lost in the conference semifinals last season after earning the No. 1 seed in the West. And he had another MVP finalist in Denver center Nikola Jokic to deal with.
Instead of ignoring or downplaying his feelings, Gilgeous-Alexander embraced them.
“I was nervous, to be honest, just knowing what’s on the line,” he said. “We worked so hard the whole 82-game season. We’ve all worked so hard in the summer to know if you don’t bring your A game, it can all be over with, all for nothing. But I think that nervousness, like, motivated me and helped me play today.”
The Thunder showed some nerves early in Game 7, but they took over in the second quarter.
“Once I felt the flow of the game and we had the right intentions and the right energy, I knew it would turn around for us,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
When he was subbed out for good with the Thunder leading 114-76 and 7:40 remaining, he raised his arms to exhort the crowd, then pointed to the small-market franchise’s devoted fans in a rare celebratory moment.
“No team in the league has a home-court advantage like we do,” he said. “And that’s all due to them with the T-shirts, the cheering, the screaming, the chants. They really give us energy out there. And we’ve been a better team because of them, having them behind us. To know that if we didn’t bring it tonight, it could be over for them as well wasn’t fair. We wanted to play for them as well.”