Barely missing the potential game-winner, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander darted to the locker room. Stone-faced and all. The 28-year-old — like the rest of us — is slowly learning just how grueling a situation OKC finds itself in for the remainder of the year. He played as perfectly as you could hope for and it still wasn't enough to beat a bottom-of-the-barrel club.
The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered a heartbreaker in a 113-112 loss to the LA Clippers. This was part of the 2026 NBA Cup West Group B play. This is also their first three-game losing streak in over three years.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 40 points on 15-of-26 shooting, five assists and four rebounds. He shot 2-of-4 from 3 and went 8-of-11 on free throws. He also had one steal.
I'll
say this — before I dive any further — Gilgeous-Alexander completely shut me and other critics up. After junking up his shot diet with contested jumpers, he returned to formula. The 28-year-old had a vintage night as a drive-heavy scorer. The Clippers had no answer for him. He danced with the ball in isolation looks. I've been critical of his offensive processing in recent weeks, but this was a great 180 to all those talks.
Gilgeous-Alexander was almost Superman perfect — sans those last two shots he missed. But he did enough to get this win. He put the Thunder on his back and entered supernova scoring mode. The 28-year-old absolutely sliced through LA's defense. He dribbled his way to his favorite mid-range spots at the elbows and baseline. He cut out his outside shot. Heck, he even went to the free-throw line a bunch.
By the end of the first quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander had nine free-throw attempts. In the third quarter, he completely took the game over with 14 points as the Thunder mounted a double-digit comeback. At that point, he had 32 points through three frames. This was a textbook one-man carry job. He understood how dire OKC's situation was with its healthy scoring talent.
"Obviously, we were down pretty big at half. I just wanted to come out and be aggressive. Tried to turn the tide right away. Get off to a good start," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "Jared made a few threes. When guys are making shots, things usually open up, space-wise, out there. It was kinda a trickle effect. The team got off to a good start and we were able to get off to a good start."
As Gilgeous-Alexander knocked down a stepback 3-pointer, it felt like the Thunder would cruise to the finish line. Instead, they decided to go through a scoring drought at the absolute worst time. He had two chances in the final 36 seconds to add a game-winner to his highlight reel. No dice. He missed both. The first was on a semi-clean look. The second was purely out of desperation.
Now, the Thunder have to sit on this loss for a little while. It's going to sting for a minute. Especially for Gilgeous-Alexander. He did his part. A super-efficient 40-point outburst is ideally enough to get a win. After catching flak for his lackadaisical body language in recent losses, he spearheaded OKC's comeback efforts. But two chances to get the win weren't enough.
If you're the Thunder, you're bummed about the result. But you live with the process. Gilgeous-Alexander had a couple of chances to get a shot up. Neither went in, but you take that scenario 101 out of 100 times. That shouldn't help them sleep at night, though. As they navigate the unknown of this season, I think the only clear thing you can confidently say is that OKC isn't a title contender with this group of guys. Even if the top guy is a two-time MVP winner.
Blinking rapidly as he processed the question — like the Terminator — Gilgeous-Alexander finally gave in to how grave OKC's situation is right now. The 28-year-old admitted that the Thunder are going through their roughest stretch since he ascended into an NBA superstar a half-decade ago. There's no sugarcoating or spin-zoning just how dreadful things are right now.
"Maybe — like since I've been this good, yeah. For sure," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We were pretty bad for a few years but I wasn't great for those years either, so it was a little different. Honestly speaking, it's kinda fun. We've kinda had the wind in our backs the last couple of years. Had our way a lot of nights. To have that adversity is kinda fun. I embrace it. It'll make me better. It'll make us better. We can't be at the top of the mountain every night for the next decade. It doesn't work like that. It's motivation for me. It's something I embrace. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander admits OKC Thunder are 'maybe' having toughest stretch ever
