Shai Gilgeous-Alexander strode into the postgame interview room looking dapper as always. Brown suede jacket. Red tank top. Black leather pants.
But he arrived without one item that has become routine with his fits: shades.
Even though he arrived at Paycom Center on Tuesday with sunglasses, doing the player walk with an oval black pair, they were gone after Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.
Eyes wide open?
Sure felt that way.
After a clunker of a performance Sunday in San Antonio, the Thunder had a clear objective: figure out how to turn things around and win the next game at home or face the supremely difficult task of going to San Antonio and winning on Thursday, then returning home and doing it again on Sunday.
Instead, Oklahoma City has a 3-2 lead in the series and is one win away from returning to the NBA Finals.
The Thunder’s response Tuesday night was a championship response, led by SGA himself.
“A series, especially against a good team, is like a chess match,” he said. “It can go back and forth with adjustments and game plans and switching to things and trying new things.
“They obviously punched us really good in Game 4, but we got better from the team that played Game 4 to Game 5.”
There were lots of reasons for that. The defense on Victor Wembanyama clamped down again. Alex Caruso and Jared McCain got going again. Chet Holmgren got aggressive on the offensive end. But as much as anything, Gilgeous-Alexander played like one of the best players on the planet.
He scored 32 points on 7-of-19 shooting from the floor and 16-of-17 shooting from the free-throw line. Add in nine assists, two steals and one blocked shot, and it stands as his best game of the series.
Not only because of the numbers but also because of the stakes.
The Thunder had to be great to bounce back from the disappointment of Game 4, and it had to figure out how to do that without Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, both playmakers still out with injuries.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault trusted his team would maneuver through all of that.
“I know that when we don’t play well, we look in the mirror,” he said. “We don’t make excuses. We don’t point fingers. And usually that’s the best way to get yourself into the next opportunity.”
No Thunder embodies that more than Gilgeous-Alexander.
He came back to OKC after Game 4 and went to work figuring out what he needed to do better. Where could he tweak? Was there something he might attack? Or maybe something he needed to stay away from?
The thing is, that’s what he does before any game.
“One of the things about him is he’s so consistent,” Daigneault said. “His temperament’s the same all the time. His approach is the same all the time. His floor game is the same all the time.
“That’s one of the things that really is a superpower of his, and I think it gives the team tremendous confidence.”
Not that there weren’t bumps along the way on Tuesday. Frankly, the first eight minutes of the game for SGA were a bit like a drive down certain stretches of Lake Hefner Parkway — so many bumps you forget what smooth looks like.
He committed three turnovers while hitting only one shot.
During his postgame on-court interview, SGA called it one of the worst starts to a game of his career, then later said if there had been five of him on the court to start the game, “we would have been down 20 after the first quarter.”
He chuckled.
“I probably should never start like that again. It’d give us a better chance to win a ballgame.”
The thing is, his response to that rough start may well have propelled the Thunder. Yes, it had to sustain his struggles, and without big contributions from Chet Holmgren and Co., OKC would’ve been in a huge hole.
But his calm in those moments helped calm everyone else.
“He obviously didn’t have his fastball early, but he stays so present,” Daigneault said. “His confidence never wavers. He really has great trust in himself, and that was on display tonight.”
And eventually, SGA stopped turning the ball over, started finding his spots in the midrange and hitting some shots, and the Thunder hit the accelerator from there.
This is a bunch that knows what to do when straits are dire.
It did it repeatedly last season in the playoffs.
“I think the thing you take from those experiences is just the mental part of it,” Hartenstein said. “Not getting too high. Not getting too low. Just going in there knowing you have to come with certain sense of urgency.”
Urgent but controlled.
That was the Thunder in Game 5, and it flowed from the MVP.
“His consistency of approach and of tone has a lot to do with our ability to stay very steady,” Daigneault said, “even if things are unsteady outside of our team.”
Still, it felt like Gilgeous-Alexander recognized that this night was different. When he stood at the end of his press conference and left the room, he did so not in a pair of Shai shoes as has been his way. He wore black work boots instead.
No time to be selling.
Time to get to work.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: SGA sets tone for Thunder championship response in Game 5 vs Spurs