Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took another step to the MVP in the triumph of Oklahoma City Thunder against Boston Celtics

The look at the hoop, its goal, as in a seduction game. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander He is in love with converting points and falls in love with the followers of basketball around the world. It is not spectacular, or eccentric. It makes the extraordinary usual. Every night does what Oklahoma City Thunder need to win. Wednesday at TD Garden, the house of the last champion, was no exception: he converted 34 points, distributed 7 assists and took 5 rebounds in The 118-112 victory about Boston Celtics.

“Another day in the office for SGA,” said Fabricio Oberto in The transmission of the party by AM850 and Disney+. And so it was. Gilgeous-Alexander showed neither more nor less than what he has been doing throughout the season.

The Canadian, contrary to the time, once again used the two -point shot as his lethal weapon and succeeded 9 of 13 in that area, with his classic resources: if they pressed it, he attacked the hoop in penetration; If they gave him a minimum space, then he punished with the medium distance launch.

Without strident celebrations, without selfishness (the ball passes when it finds advantages for their peers) and with simplicity. This is how Shai played. This is how Shai plays.

Against the Celtics, SGA put to the releases that had another destination. Like that free kick in the last quarter in which the ball hit the hoop, went out and fell meek to cross the network. Or, before, the last of the first half, little hortodox, on the horn, in which he claimed the lack of Jaylen Brown and the ball entered after bouncing on the board. With that double reached 10,000 points with Oklahoma City Thunder in just 368 games, the fastest to get it in the history of the franchise surpassing Kevin Durant, who succeeded in 381.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance was constant, without ups and downs. Always at high level. And, as usual, he took over the attack attacks. A double to get 8 points of advantage, a couple of assists for Cason Wallace and another two -point conversion to sentence the duel at 1 minute from the end.

As in the previous match of the season, in which Oklahoma City also stayed with the victory, Shai exceeded the 30 -point barrier against the Celtics. In fact, this was the fifth consecutive game in which he registered at least 30 points and 5 assists against Boston, a streak that in the NBA history only achieved Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tiny Archibald, Rick Barry, Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson.

SGA could not stop him in any way. He scored seven different defenders during the duel at the TD Garden: Jaylen Brown, the Horford, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Luke Kornet and Payton Pritchard.

With the consumed victory, Shai greeted his rivals, Chocó Palmas with his teammates and left calm, with just a grimace of smile, without celebrations. Gilgeous-Alexander knows that being the leader of one of the best teams of the regular season and one of the two greats worthy of the MVP, along with Nikola Jokic, is not the goal. The goal is to be champion.

Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Boston Celtics: An early final?

The two clashes between the Thunder, undisputed leader of the West, and the Celtics, last champions and escorts of Cleveland Cavaliers in the East, were of the highest quality and delivery. So much that it is very likely that they are in the NBA finals.

Oklahoma City should improve its postseason production compared to last year, when it fell prematurely against Dallas Mavericks. Boston will have to show that he can get rid of the powerful Cavaliers, the whole with more victories of this season.

If so, in Oklahoma City they feel prepared. The Thunder swept a series against the defending champion for the first time since the 2000-2001 season when, at that time Seattle Supersonics, he beat Los Angeles Lakers from Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. And the last time he had defeated a eastern champion in the two clashes of the season was in 1981-1982, also Boston.

Anyway, OKC is ready to face any of the best in the east. And Shai is too. The Canadian dominated Cavaliers, Celtics and Knicks: he scored 30 or more points in the 6 games against these teams, with an average of 35 points per game and 55% in court shots. The last one who had achieved those records against the three best teams of a conference was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1971-1972 campaign against Celtics, Knicks and Bullets.