OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander achieved his short-term goals Wednesday night and positioned himself to achieve his long-term objective for this season.
The Oklahoma City Thunder point guard had 34 points, eight assists and seven rebounds to help the hosts rout the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-94 in Game 5 of the Western Conference title round, closing out the best-of-seven series and securing the franchise’s first trip to the NBA Finals since 2012.
“I know I wanted two things,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who was a prep standout at Chattanooga’s Hamilton Heights. “I didn’t want to go back to Minnesota. And then I wanted the fans to be able to enjoy the moment with us. I wanted them to be able to see it unfold in front of their eyes. I wanted them to celebrate tonight in our building, go home, get drunk, do whatever they do to have fun with the moment.”
Already the NBA’s regular-season scoring champion for 2024-25 and the league MVP, he picked up another individual honor Wednesday night, receiving the Magic Johnson Trophy as MVP of the Western Conference title matchup after averaging 31.4 points, 8.2 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game.
It was another example of how playoff basketball appears to have slowed down for the 26-year-old Canadian in his third straight season as an All-NBA first-team selection. He forced things at times in the first round — when the top-seeded Thunder nonetheless swept the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies without much trouble — and in the second round — when the fourth-seeded Denver Nuggets proved a more formidable obstacle by pushing the series to Game 7.
Against sixth-seeded Minnesota, he was back to making basketball look easy, including a 14-for-25 shooting performance with just two turnovers in Game 5.
“I think he does a great job of playing aggressive and then letting the game tell him what the right play is,” Thunder forward Chet Holmgren said. “Sometimes that’s score, sometimes that’s to pass. … Watching him or playing with him, you never feel like he made the wrong read.”
Gilgeous-Alexander had 12 points and five assists in the first quarter as Oklahoma City took a 26-9 lead. The Thunder were up 65-32 at halftime and 88-62 heading into the fourth quarter.
“All we can do is come in at night and control our energy and our effort and our focus level, give these fans what they deserve and families what they deserve,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Everyone that’s sacrificed for us, they deserve this moment to celebrate at home. We took care of business from the jump. We were focused. We were together. We were energetic, we were aggressive, and the game turned out the way it did.”
His big night went beyond measurables. Mark Daigneault, whose five seasons as head coach of the Thunder have featured a turnaround built around Gilgeous-Alexander, said the 6-foot-6, 195-pounder’s leadership helped the Thunder get off to the strong start Wednesday.
“He just set an unbelievable tone,” Daigneault said. “I think he understood his role in our mentality. He was a participant in that, and he was a leader in that. And he was ready to play from the jump.”
Of course, none of what Gilgeous-Alexander or the rest of the Thunder have done to this point will matter when the NBA Finals begin next Thursday.
This is just the second trip to the league’s title round for the franchise since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008 — the forerunner Seattle SuperSonics made the NBA Finals in 1978, 1979 and 1996, winning the title in that second appearance — and in 2012, the Thunder’s victory in the opener was followed by the LeBron James-led Miami Heat winning four in a row.
The Thunder have put of plenty impressive numbers this season, with Wednesday’s victory making them the first team in NBA history with at least 12 wins by 30 or more points in a season and with four such wins in the playoffs.
More important to Oklahoma City is becoming the next team to win the NBA’s biggest prize.
“We have to be the best version of ourselves for four nights to reach the ultimate goal,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We understand that, we know that, and that’s what we’re focused on.”