In a last-gasp effort, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tried to put on his Superman cape. He let his jumper fly in the third quarter. Instead, a bunch of 50-50 misses exposed just how nonexistent the margin for error is going to be for the remainder of the year. If the walking 30-point bucket isn't putting up video-game numbers, then there's close to zero shot at a win.
The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to adapt to their new NBA life. They fell in a 120-96 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Which drives home the point that none of the other 29 teams will feel sorry for them over their probable season-ending losses of Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 21 points on 7-of-19 shooting, six rebounds and two assists. He shot 1-of-6
from 3 and went 6-of-6 on free throws. He also had one steal.
This is how opposing teams are going to game-plan Gilgeous-Alexander. Go all in on him. Throw every defender you can think of. And dare the rest to beat you. He seldom had any space on his jumpers. He couldn't get to the cup as Dallas sold out on his drives. And he's suddenly lost his ability to get to the free-throw line at will. Mix all those ingredients together, and you have an off-night like this.
It's going to be a difficult year for Gilgeous-Alexander with this little NBA help, sadly. Highly-contested mid-range jumpers are the best look he can get right now. He's talented enough to drill those in, but that's obviously not a sustainable plan for success. At least, not for an entire regular season.
"It hasn't been anything we haven't experienced before. It's part of the NBA. It is what it is. Nothing more," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "I don't feel any more drained or any more tired or feel like it was more taxing than any other stretch of my career. So it's part of the NBA until the end of the season."
The Thunder need Gilgeous-Alexander to put up rockstar numbers every night for a chance to win. This is the first example of what will likely happen if that isn't the case. There just isn't enough healthy talent to overcome his struggles on the field. Because of that, this might be his highest-stress workload ever.
"Before teammates, we're brothers, we're friends. We knew that was never going to leave us," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "It'll be like that for the rest of our lives. Having those guys around still make it really good for us."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander confident OKC Thunder can overcome notable absences
