Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 42 points on 15-18 shooting to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder past the Phoenix Suns121-109 in Game 3, giving OKC a commanding 3-0 series lead in the Western Conference First Round.
PHOENIX — There are nights when basketball feels like collision, when every possession is a fight for air. And then there are nights/days like Saturday afternoon, when it feels like something quieter, something more certain, like the outcome was never being decided in real time, only revealed.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had one of those days.
He finished with 42 points on 15-18 in a 121-109 Oklahoma City Thunder win over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday in performance that didn’t feel loud so much as inevitable to help the Thunder take a commanding 3-0 series lead. He didn’t chase the game. He didn’t bend it violently. He simply stepped into it and let it settle around him.
15 made shots on 18 attempts don’t usually belong in a playoff game where defenses are supposed to tighten, where every touch is supposed to be earned. Not to mention those defenses are set up to try and slow him down.
But nothing about the way Shai played felt like earning in the traditional sense. It felt like recognition. Like the game kept finding him, and he kept knowing exactly what to do when it did.
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