![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Shai_Dec31-784x441.png\")
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder reacts near the end of the game against the Minnesota.<\/p>\n
After a historic regular season and a Finals run that had plenty of people penciling in Oklahoma City as the 2025 champs, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still walked into a gut-check: Game 4 in Indiana, down in the series, season momentum slipping.<\/p>\n
The Thunder had already coughed up two games \u2014 stunning for a team that looked bulletproof for months. Then OKC flipped the switch. A 31-point fourth quarter turned panic into poise, and SGA was the closer: 15 of his points came in the final frame, the kind of takeover that swings a series and stamps a legacy. The Thunder grabbed Game 4, grabbed control, and eventually grabbed the title.<\/p>\n
By the time the confetti settled, Gilgeous-Alexander had basically cleared the shelf: league MVP, scoring title, All-NBA First Team, another All-Star, and the ultimate cherry on top \u2014 Finals MVP. Back home, it was the kind of year no other Canadian athlete sniffed, earning him his second Lionel Conacher and Northern Star Awards as Canada\u2019s top athlete.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
2025 NBA Finals: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander says winning championship ‘doesn’t feel real’<\/p>\n
Bill Russell Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander racks up a game-high 29 points and 12 assists in Game 7 to lead a Thunder victory.<\/p>\n
And somehow, in the middle of all that hardware, SGA\u2019s nightly dominance can still blur into \u201cyeah, that\u2019s just what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s zoom in on the numbers that explain why this version of Shai is even scarier \u2014 as the Hamilton native goes for the repeat.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Highlights From Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 39-Point Game<\/p>\n
Highlights From Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 39-Point Game<\/p>\n
SGA by the numbers:<\/p>\n
41.9% \u2014 3-point shooting
SGA has always been a walking mismatch who gets to his spots like he owns the deed. The difference now? The jumper has leveled up into a real problem for defenses. The loudest jump is on his step-backs: 35.5% last season to an absurd 52.2% this season. That\u2019s not \u201cimproved\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s \u201cpick your poison.\u201d<\/p>\n
32.4 \u2014 Player Efficiency Rating (PER)
He wasn\u2019t supposed to get more efficient after an MVP year\u2026 and then he did. Shai\u2019s PER jumped from 30.7 to 32.4, putting him second only to Nikola Jokic \u2014 and the gap between Shai and everyone else below him isn\u2019t close. More attention, tougher shots, heavier load\u2026 still cleaner results. That\u2019s superstar math.<\/p>\n
105.0 \u2014 Thunder defensive rating
Not an SGA-only stat, but it\u2019s part of the Thunder identity \u2014 and Shai\u2019s buy-in matters. OKC is a nightmare to score on because the guards set the tone. Cason Wallace, Lu Dort and Alex Caruso deserve flowers for the havoc they cause, but it hits different when your best player competes on that end too. It keeps everyone honest. It raises the ceiling.<\/p>\n
6.4 \u2014 Assists per game
Yes, he\u2019s a scorer. Always has been. Always will be. But the under-discussed flex is how he bends the defense and creates easy life for everyone else. This isn\u2019t \u201cswing it and hope.\u201d This is Shai delivering teammates into buckets:<\/p>\n
Chet Holmgren: 50% on passes from SGA\u00a0
\nJalen Williams: 55.6%\u00a0
\nIsaiah Joe: 55.8%\u00a0
\nKenrich Williams: 66.7%
That\u2019s not just passing \u2014 that\u2019s playmaking with intent.<\/p>\n
104 (and counting) \u2014 Straight games with 20+ points
This is cartoon stuff. Longevity streaks like this don\u2019t happen by accident \u2014 they happen when your floor is elite and your \u201coff nights\u201d still look like most guys\u2019 career highlights. And if you\u2019re getting mentioned anywhere near Wilt Chamberlain territory for anything? You\u2019re doing something historic.<\/p>\n
Enjoy it while it\u2019s happening. Players don\u2019t live at this level forever \u2014 and we might not see a stretch like this again for a long, long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder reacts near the end of the game against the Minnesota.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,192049,23657,5548,63860,12841,85],"class_list":["post-385261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-okc","tag-okc-thunder","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-shai","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}