Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can do it all — even become the NBA MVP

There was nothing left for Klay Thompson to do but punch the air.

Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, fearless and elusive and eerily calm, is a maddening player to cover. Thompson had stayed with him on a drive through the paint and raised his hands to challenge a shot when he pump-faked near the baseline. When Gilgeous-Alexander spun back to the middle of the court, the veteran Dallas Mavericks forward was waiting to contest again. And when Gilgeous-Alexander spun back to the baseline, Thompson recovered to swipe at the ball and get a hand up. None of it mattered: Gilgeous-Alexander faded away and swished a jumper as a helpless Thompson stewed.

That was the MVP-caliber ending to another MVP-caliber performance for Gilgeous-Alexander, who outdueled Luka Doncic on Tuesday by posting 39 points, eight rebounds and five assists to lead the Thunder to a 118-104 victory over the visiting Mavericks. Oklahoma City advanced to Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas.

“You see who you really are when you play the top of the top,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “For me, that’s where I want to be at the end of the day. I want to come out of the West and win an NBA championship. (The Mavericks) did it, so we have to go through them. It’s a good measure to see where we are.”

With more than a quarter of the 2024-25 season in the books, Gilgeous-Alexander should sit at “the top of the top” of the MVP conversation. While Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has been the NBA’s best and most productive player, a deserving MVP must boast good health and great statistics while driving wins, establishing a clear identity for his team and leading through good times and bad. No player has checked all those boxes better than Gilgeous-Alexander, a 26-year-old Canadian guard who finished second to Jokic in last season’s race.

Gilgeous-Alexander (30.2 points per game, 5.4 rebounds per game, 6.3 assists per game) ranks fourth in scoring, first in win shares and third in player efficiency rating, and he has guided the Thunder (19-5) to the NBA’s best point differential and the Western Conference’s best record. Despite having the league’s third-youngest roster and managing injuries to centers Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, Oklahoma City ranks eighth in offensive efficiency and first in defensive efficiency. The Thunder has churned out wins because Gilgeous-Alexander, the team’s only established all-star, has refined his scoring craft and pulled his weight within a ruthless defensive scheme.

There’s a pleasing generational medley to Gilgeous-Alexander’s offense: He launches midrange jumpers as if it’s still the 1990s, thrives in isolation like a 2000s throwback, uses every trick in the book to earn free throws like high-usage stars of the 2010s and leads an attack that generates enough three-pointers to keep pace in the 2020s. While he is still ironing out his perimeter shot, he has stretched defenses further by launching a career-high 6.3 three-point attempts and has hit several off-the-dribble daggers to close out wins this season.

Oklahoma City’s offense functions so well, though, because Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t hog the ball. Jalen Williams, his well-rounded sidekick, deserves all-star consideration. Before Holmgren suffered a hip injury in mid-November, he was a two-way force who finished lobs, popped for jumpers and worked from the mid-post. The energetic Hartenstein has fit in seamlessly as a pick-and-roll partner since returning from a hand injury last month, and the Thunder’s deep wing rotation bombs away without worrying that Gilgeous-Alexander will meet their misses with dirty looks.

The real magic happens on the defensive end, where the Thunder makes good offenses look pedestrian and bad offenses look collegiate. Oklahoma City held Doncic to 16 points on 5-for-15 shooting, trapping and blitzing the Slovenian guard into six turnovers.

The Thunder doesn’t always sell out to stop opposing stars, but it has forced the most turnovers in the league by a wide margin thanks to well-timed swarming and unselfish rotations. Oklahoma City’s 103.4 defensive rating is on track to be the stingiest mark of the past five NBA seasons.

“We’ve been pressuring with great intensity all season,” Thunder Coach Mark Daigneault said Tuesday, dismissing the notion his team had ramped up its effort to avenge its loss to Dallas in last season’s playoffs. “We tested it against a great offensive team (in Dallas) that was playing as well as anybody coming into the game. We had great intensity, but then also great discipline. We’ve been playing like this all season. If we’re not playing like this, it’s a surprise.”

Gilgeous-Alexander’s long arms and quick hands have placed him eighth leaguewide in steals, and his willingness to do the dirty work has cultivated an environment in which the Thunder remains competitive every night regardless of whether its own three-pointers are falling. Oklahoma City has lost just one game all season by more than six points - a 127-116 loss to the Golden State Warriors on the night Holmgren injured his hip on a scary fall.

Remarkably, the Thunder has won 11 of its 14 games since losing the 2022 No. 2 pick, who is expected to return this season. This story might sound familiar: Kevin Durant was named MVP when he carried the 2013-14 Thunder to 59 wins despite Russell Westbrook’s extended injury absence.

Jokic’s Nuggets, who are hovering near .500 with a 16th-ranked defense, and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks, who are still digging out from a 2-8 start, simply can’t match Oklahoma City when it comes to consistent intensity. While the Mavericks haven’t trailed too far behind the Thunder in the standings, Doncic has already missed six games because of injury and has been working his way up to speed.

Jayson Tatum (28.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists) is authoring his most impressive season to date, but the defending champion Boston Celtics surround their franchise forward with a veteran cast of current and former all-stars. Take away Tatum, and the Celtics would still be in the mix for home-court advantage in the shallow Eastern Conference. Remove Gilgeous-Alexander from the Holmgren-less Thunder, and the remaining youngsters would be battling for a spot in the Western Conference’s play-in tournament.

The NBA Cup will provide much-needed visibility for Gilgeous-Alexander, who has advanced in the playoffs just once and who led Canada to the knockout round of the Paris Olympics before losing to France in a quarterfinal upset. Oklahoma City will be joined in Las Vegas by the Bucks, who topped the Orlando Magic, 114-109, earlier Tuesday. The remaining spots in Saturday’s semifinals will be determined Wednesday when the New York Knicks host the Atlanta Hawks and the Houston Rockets host the Warriors.

Once the basketball world descends upon Sin City, it will get a closer look at an ascendant small-market talent who refuses to rest on his laurels.

“I have a genuine curiosity to see how good of a basketball player I can become,” Gilgeous-Alexander said last month. “My decision-making could be better. My physicality defensively could be better. My focus off-ball could be better. My shot-making could be better. My deep-paint decisions could be better. I could play off the catch better without the basketball. I’m really self-critical. I’m never really satisfied with where I am, no matter what it looks like. I’m not close to what I’m going to be and I think I can be. That’s a little bit exciting.”