Shai Gilgeous-Alexander posts inefficient MVP night to forget while Victor Wembanyama romps
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander posts inefficient MVP night to forget while Victor Wembanyama romps
Jason OwensTue, May 19, 2026 at 5:28 AM UTC
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander started his Monday night by accepting his second consecutive MVP trophy from NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
He ended it on the wrong end of one the all-time great NBA playoff performances, posting one of the worst big-game efforts of his career.
The end result was a 122-115 Game 1 win by the San Antonio Spurs in double overtime over Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals, the team’s first loss of the playoffs.
SGA’s night goes downhill after MVP ceremony
The most anticipated series of the playoffs started with appropriate fanfare as Silver presented Gilgeous-Alexander with the MVP trophy as Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, a fellow finalist for the award, watched.
It may or may not have provided fuel for Wembanyama, who finished Monday’s contest with 41 points, 24 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks while making multiple game-saving plays down the stretch.
It was a historic performance from the still-rising NBA star who continues to make his mark on his first postseason at 22 years old.
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Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, despite a double-double and some clutch buckets late, had a night he’d surely like to forget. The two-time MVP finished with a stat line that looks nice on the surface, posting 24 points, 12 assists, 3 rebounds and 5 steals.
But a deeper look at the box score tells the story of his and Oklahoma City’s night.
Victor Wembanyama watched Shai Gilgeous-Alexander win MVP, then thoroughly outplayed the Thunder guard to lead his Spurs to victory. (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / REUTERS)SGA’s inefficient night
Gilgeous-Alexander needed 51 minutes to compile those numbers. And he shot just 7 of 23 from the field in an inefficient effort that belies his normally über-efficient game.
This is a player who won his second MVP courtesy of posting the league’s second-best player efficiency rating and best win shares per 48 minutes — for a second consecutive regular season.
Gilgeous-Alexander also turned the ball over a team-high four times. And he finished with a game-worst minus-15 in the plus/minus column. Plus/minus isn’t always the most reliable predictive stat. But it’s hard to argue that it didn’t tell a large part of the story Monday night.
Gilgeous-Alexander was cold out of the gates as the Spurs opened a 12-3 lead. By halftime, he’d tallied four points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field as the Spurs took a 51-44 lead into the break.
He picked up his volume after halftime as the Thunder rallied to force overtime. But a 6-of-18 combined effort in the second half and the overtimes wasn’t enough to get the job done or what the Thunder needed from their superstar.
The end result was a loss. It’s a result that puts OKC’s hopes of a repeat championship in peril — and one that demands an answer from Gilgeous-Alexander in Game 2.
Source: “AOL Sports”
