Tim MacMahonMar 31, 2026, 02:47 AM ET
Close Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009 Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks Appears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FMMultiple Authors
OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander cracked a grin when asked about the MVP conversation late Monday night.
This moment came days after San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama publicly presented a three-pronged case for his candidacy, hours after Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick lobbied for Luka Doncic to win the award and minutes after Gilgeous-Alexander put the finishing touches on a 47-point performance to carry the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 114-110 overtime win over the Detroit Pistons.
“I think it’s good for the league. I think it’s good chatter,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP. “It gives people something to talk about. There’s a lot of good players in this league and a lot of guys in the conversation because of that.”
However, Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t want to weigh on the conversation with any words of his own.
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“No, I’m good. Thanks for asking, though,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Yeah, I’m good. I let my game do the talking.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s game has spoken loudly all season, as he has led the defending champion Thunder to a league-best 60-16 record despite extended injury absences for several Oklahoma City rotation players, including All-NBA wing Jalen Williams. Gilgeous-Alexander ranks second in the NBA in scoring with 31.6 points per game, trailing only Doncic, while shooting a career-best 55.3% from the floor and averaging a career-high 6.5 assists per game.
With Williams and starting center Isaiah Hartenstein sitting out on the second night of a back-to-back, the Thunder needed a spectacular closing performance by Gilgeous-Alexander to escape with a win over the Pistons, the Eastern Conference’s first-place team that was missing four starters, including All-Stars Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored or assisted on all but one of Oklahoma City’s baskets after he checked back into the game with 6:57 remaining in the fourth quarter. He had 21 points and a pair of assists for 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and overtime, allowing the Thunder to rally from a seven-point deficit in the final four minutes of regulation.
“A lot of times I try to let the game come to me,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who went 12-of-19 from the floor, including 5-of-5 in the fourth quarter and overtime. “I try to just play within the game, do whatever the game is telling me, and tonight I just felt like I needed to go take it. I needed to go be aggressive. I need to go make plays. I needed to score the ball, specifically.”
Gilgeous-Alexander swished what would have been a go-ahead stepback 3 with four seconds remaining from the right wing, a shot very similar to the dagger he drilled against the Golden State Warriors and a game winner he hit against the Denver Nuggets earlier this month. But the shot was waved off when official Phenizee Ransom called Gilgeous-Alexander for an offensive foul, ruling that he used his off arm to push off before launching the shot.
It was the rare whistle involving Gilgeous-Alexander with which Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff agreed. Bickerstaff spent much of the game engaged in animated discussions with the officiating crew while Gilgeous-Alexander went 21-of-25 from the free throw line.
“He’s elite at what he does,” Bickerstaff said. “You’ve got to give him a ton of credit for his skill set and his ability to create those contacts and create those whistles. There’s rules for a reason, and he’s mastered to manipulate them. That’s a talent, that’s a skill that he’s been blessed with. We’ve got to continue to play physical. Twenty-five free throws, we shot 23. That’s hard to overcome.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault praised his team for managing to “re-center” after the critical call against Gilgeous-Alexander and win in overtime. Daigneault raved about how Gilgeous-Alexander responded to a “choppy” game to dominate crunch time.
“He’s elite at what he does. You’ve got to give him a ton of credit for his skill set and his ability to create those contacts and create those whistles. There’s rules for a reason, and he’s mastered to manipulate them. That’s a talent, that’s a skill that he’s been blessed with.”
Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his 25 free throw attempts Monday night
“He has the ability to kind of labor in a game, and then snap of the fingers, he’s like back in rhythm,” Daigneault said. “That’s what happened in the fourth. When he went back in there, he had a different pop with his playmaking and his scoring. And there’s a lot of guys that are great players, but have bad games. He can work himself through a game with the best of them.”
Like Gilgeous-Alexander, Daigneault showed little interest in adding to the discourse about the MVP race. According to Draft Kings, Gilgeous-Alexander is the favorite with -300 odds, ahead of Wembanyama (+225) and Doncic (+1500).
“I think the voters take that really seriously and look at it really hard,” Daigneault said. “They watch all the players more than I do. I watch one player. I obviously have spoken many times about how I feel about him, but it’s out of our control. He goes out there, he plays, he focuses on what he can control, he stays inside the team, and then the chips fall where they may.”
Added Thunder forward Alex Caruso: “Just watch the games. He got a game winner against the No. 1 seed in the East called off tonight and had 47. His game does a lot of talking. Not much I need to say for him.”
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