Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s motivational message after Game 2 loss vs. Mavericks

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder’s confidence is not wavering even after they suffered a Game 2 loss to the Mavericks.

The Oklahoma City Thunder weren’t at their best on Thursday night as they suffered their first loss of the 2024 NBA playoffs in Game 2 of their second-round matchup against the Dallas Mavericks, 119-110. Apart from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 33 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists, and Jalen Williams, who put up 20 points of his own in the losing effort, the Thunder did not put up a good enough performance to warrant a victory.

Now, it’ll be interesting to monitor how the Thunder respond from their first-ever playoff defeat as a unit. Only three players on the Thunder roster have played in the postseason before, and one of them is not even getting any serious minutes at this stage (Gordon Hayward). But Gilgeous-Alexander and company have proven time and time again that this Thunder team has the collective mental makeup of a 15-year veteran, and this time will be no different as they head on the road with the goal of regaining control of the series against the Mavericks.

“No matter what’s thrown at us, we compete. We give it our all. We do it together and we see where it gets us. That’s what we’ve done all year and that’s what we’re gonna continue to do,” Gilgeous-Alexander said in his Game 2 postgame presser, via NBA TV on Twitter (X).

Thunder push back on the cliche of inexperience

All season long, plenty of critics have doubted the legitimacy of the Thunder as a championship contender. They are lacking in experience, those people say, and being the one-seed in a loaded Western Conference did not do much in convincing those people that they are the real deal. They were even branded as a fake one-seed, and many were saying that the Los Angeles Lakers should have tanked their first play-in game just so they could face the Thunder in the first round of the playoffs as they were a matchup perceived to be much easier than the Denver Nuggets.

But the Thunder did not get this far by being a naive collection of players. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is as composed of a leader as he can be, and his trust in his skillset enables him to remain composed in the face of adversity. Moreover, the team has one of the best coaches in the league in Mark Daigneault; Daigneault has proven his quality as one of the best tacticians in the league, and he’s not afraid to make huge decisions, including benching Josh Giddey in Game 2 in favor of Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace.

There is no reason whatsoever for the Thunder to fret even though time and time again, it has been proven in the NBA that there is no greater teacher than experience.

Playoff experience is still crucial

Playoff experience, at the end of the day, is invaluable. A lot of teams that have managed to win it all have gone through some form of heartbreak that prepared them for the eventual hoisting of the Larry O’Brien trophy. In fact, the champions of the past decade have gone through a few years of trying and failing in the playoffs before they broke through.

The Golden State Warriors, prior to their championship run in 2015, had to endure early playoff exits in two consecutive years. In 2013, they lost in the second round to the eventual runner-up San Antonio Spurs, and in 2014, they lost a hard-fought seven-game series against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, of course, lost in the 2015 NBA Finals before they pulled off the comeback of a lifetime in 2016. Before the Toronto Raptors won it all in 2019, they had to endure a ton of playoff losses to LeBron James and the Cavs, requiring them to trade away the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, DeMar DeRozan, for one year of Kawhi Leonard — perhaps the greatest gambit a team has made in history.

Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks team that won the championship in 2021, came up short in the Conference Finals in 2019, while the Denver Nuggets had to build a ton of playoff experience with their deep playoff runs in 2019 and 2020.

This is not to say that the Thunder cannot buck the trend and be the first team in recent history to win a championship in the first year of their title window. But taking into account recent history, OKC is currently playing with house money, as their window of opportunity to win a championship will be open for quite a while.

Now, the Thunder of all teams would know that there are no guarantees as to how long a title window lasts. But them being in the early days of this era of contention should relieve them of the pressure to deliver that they might feel moving forward.

Tags: Oklahoma City Thunder