Never has such a young team gone so far in a season, and the Thunder are 48 minutes from playing in the first round of the playoffs. While they were promised a new season of reconstruction, especially after the announcement of the injury of Chet Holmgren, the kids of OKC are still alive, and this night, they paid themselves the luxury of eliminating the Pelicans in a hostile atmosphere, and in the face of a much more experienced formation.
But at OKC, experience is not measured in playoff games or by age on the identity card. “We have been tested all year round”has explained Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the time of the post-match interview. “We’ve played a lot of tight games all year, and even the last two years. Even when the season was not going our way, we played a lot of close matches. We have thus acquired good habits and we know what to do at the end of the match. »
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – Josh Giddey, the backcourt of the future
He is only 24 years old but “SGA” behaved like a boss in this meeting. He never panicked, and he makes his mea culpa for his failed first half. ” They sent a lot of players on me, and I tried to play fair all night. I was a little passive at the start, since it was released a bit, and I was able to find my game in attack. Then it turned into a very good evening. »
The mastery and calm of the Canadian rub off on the whole group. “It all starts with Shai” confirmed Josh Giddeywhich comes close to triple-double for its first match in “post-season”. “They double-teamed him, and he dropped the ball. All evening, he made the right gesture. We lost a few balls at the start of the match, but then we found the solution. He reads the game well, and we knew we were going to end up in 4 versus 3 situations. He’s going to be confronted with that more and more and especially if we go to the playoffs, and it’s up to us, collectively, to make things easier for him.
A collective shaped over two years
Authors of 10 of the last 11 points of their team, the SGA-Giddey tandem continues to amaze observers with its maturity and talent, and Mark Daigneault is the first to be impressed by his “kids”.
“Josh was just really good tonight, with this incredible power and toughness, and on both ends of the court, on the rebound, everywhere…” lists Daigneault. “It is the consequence of the habits taken by the core of the group for a year, even two years for some. We are able to go back to our fundamentals when necessary because we have created good habits… Shai has remained inflexible in his desire to involve others. He showed great maturity. We scored 50 points at halftime, and yet Shai had only scored 7… It’s the combination of Shai’s composure and the ability of others to go after. »
Next step in this whirlwind transition to adulthood, a trip to Minneapolis to challenge Wolves older but on the verge of a nervous breakdown after the incident against the Pelicans.
