Denver pulled out a massive Game 3 victory on Friday night over the Thunder, largely by doing what nobody has been able to do all season: shutting down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. SGA will likely win the NBA MVP Award in the coming days, and despite my obvious preference for Nikola Jokic, it’s hard to argue that Shai won’t be a deserving winner.
The Thunder were incredible this season, going 68-14 and winning the West by a whopping 16 games. And the biggest reason for their dominance was the constant, elite presence of Gilgeous-Alexander.
On the season, he led the league, averaging 32.7 points per game on very efficient shooting at every level, boosted by 8.8 free throw attempts per game. This led to one of the most consistent scoring seasons we’ve ever seen, including a record streak of 72-straight games with 20+ points during the regular season.
Nuggets able to keep SGA off the free-throw line
If there was any fear for this OKC team heading into the playoffs, it was how the team’s offense would fare when facing increased physicality in the playoffs. The intensity is ramped up, officials are letting them play more, and teams are hyper-focused on matchups, adjustments, and game-planning for specific players.
Everyone knew that, come playoff time, teams would try to take away SGA with tough physical defense and multiple bodies, but that’s a lot easier said than done. But in Game 3, Denver was able to pull it off, and it was a scary sight for Thunder fans.
Shai had just 18 points in 44 minutes on 7/22 shooting, and he attempted just 5 free throws in a game the Nuggets won 113-104 in overtime. To make matters worse, his struggles were only amplified in crunch time when his team needed him the most.
In the 4th quarter of Game 3, SGA had just 3 points in the 4th quarter on 1/8 shooting and didn’t attempt a single free throw. It got even worse from there as Shai didn’t score or even attempt a single shot in the 5 minute overtime session.
If Nuggets can keep up this defense, they’ll beat Thunder
Part of this is obviously on Gilgeous-Alexander, but another part is the Nuggets’ defense working to get the ball out of his hands, to be extremely physical with him, and to show him multiple bodies and looks. At the end of the day, they’ll live with the other players on the Thunder beating them, but if SGA goes off for 30+ points and lives at the free-throw line, they’ll be almost impossible to beat.
We’ll see if the Nuggets can actually keep this up for the rest of the series. You’d certainly expect SGA to adjust and come out stronger in Game 3. But if the Nuggets have found something here, and can keep hounding Shai, making life tough for him, and forcing other guys to beat them, suddenly the Thunder seem a lot less daunting.