Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t wait long to make his point on opening night.
As the Oklahoma City Thunder knocked off the San Antonio Spurs 116-104, Gilgeous-Alexander was the player setting the tone, controlling the game and finishing as the night’s top scorer with 32 points. Victor Wembanyama, the other headliner in the matchup, never found his rhythm.
This was the game everyone wanted when the NBA season opened. There was plenty of star power elsewhere, but Thunder-Spurs carried the spotlight because these two young teams are viewed as championship-level groups and, as Tuesday night showed again, they are going to be circling each other for a long time in the West.
San Antonio got the upper hand in last season’s playoff meeting. This time, Oklahoma City looked ready for the rematch.
Gilgeous-Alexander played like he had been waiting all summer for it.
Late in the third quarter, he finished through contact, drew the foul and celebrated with obvious edge, slapping hands with teammates instead of taking their help up from the floor. Earlier, after knocking down a right-elbow jumper during a second-quarter burst, he backpedaled all the way to his chair, sat down and draped his arms over the seats beside him. The message was clear: he was in complete control.
The numbers backed that up. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 32 points on 13-of-27 shooting, along with five rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Wembanyama finished with 12 points on 1-of-13 shooting, 13 rebounds, three assists and six blocks.
After the game, Gilgeous-Alexander pointed directly at the defeat his team took from San Antonio last season.
“Obviously, this is the team that eliminated us from achieving our goal,” he said in an on-court post-game interview with NBC after the game. “But for us, I think it was more, we’re just happy to be back.
“It’s a long summer when you don’t win, and we felt that this summer.”
The Thunder also had to navigate the night without Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, both injured, which only added to the load on Gilgeous-Alexander. He had heavy minutes in last season’s Western Conference Finals, but his rhythm wasn’t always there.
Tuesday looked different. He was getting where he wanted on the floor, scoring from the midrange, the arc and around the rim, and looking every bit like the player who has owned this stage.
“This is the game I love,” he said on NBC. “I work hard in the summertime.
I come out here and trust my work. It’s that simple.
It’s not more complicated than that. I come out here with the utmost confidence because of how hard I work, and I trust it every night.
“And it’s been working for me lately.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Gilgeous-Alexander’s presence gives the group its edge.
“It’s his poise and his ability to answer the call that allows you to come on the road and perform like that,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Sets a great tone for us as he always has.”
Daigneault also noted that Oklahoma City has spent time during the preseason getting Gilgeous-Alexander to different spots as the team has grown and changed.
“And that looked good,” Daigneault said.
The Thunder needed that kind of punch when the game tightened. With Oklahoma City leading by seven early in the fourth quarter and Gilgeous-Alexander resting, San Antonio crept back in.
Then he returned and the Thunder snapped right back into gear. Jared McCain hit a three.
Cason Wallace followed with a steal and a layup. Gilgeous-Alexander then ended the surge with a jumper from the left elbow.
He kept influencing the game even when the shots didn’t fall. In the final two minutes, after missing a three, he erased a Stephon Castle drive at the rim.
The play was initially whistled as a foul, but Daigneault challenged it, and the call was overturned to a clean block. On the bench, Gilgeous-Alexander nodded as the decision went his way.
Then he finished the night with a wink.
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