Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is now more focused on helping the Thunder become even better amid talks of reaching the Warriors' 73-win record.
From the past couple of days, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made headlines as he claimed that he and the Oklahoma City Thunder breaking the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors' 73-win regular season record would "absolutely" mean something special.
Oklahoma City Thunder / Schedule
Yet following the team's 111-109 NBA Cup semifinal loss against the San Antonio Spurs, it appeared that the reigning league MVP had found a new priority for his group.
“73-9? I mean, the position we’re in right now, what are we, 24-2? My goal is to get better," he said.
"Goals to me are pointless, trying to reach at when they are so far away. You have to take care of everything step-by-step, and tonight we didn’t. If we stack nights like we did tonight, we won’t even come close to it.”
The Thunder notably tied the Warriors' best 25-game regular season start (24-1), positioning themselves to potentially break their NBA-record 73-9 record that happened a decade ago.
But this weekend, SGA and his team were humbled by the surging Spurs. The reigning NBA champs were reminded that they still have a lot of work to do in order to reach the Dubs' historic mark.
Oklahoma City failed to contain the returning Victor Wembanyama, who finished with 22 points and nine boards in only 21 minutes. Besides a brutal 24.3 percent outside shooting (9-for-37), they couldn't get the job done during crunch time as San Antonio finished it off.
The Thunder also allowed the trio of Devin Vassell (23 points), Stephon Castle (22 points), and De'Aaron Fox (22 points) to go off as the Spurs advance to the tournament championship.
Right now, Gilgeous-Alexander's main focus for OKC is to get even better beyond the historic 25-game stretch they enjoyed.
"I think trying to focus on getting better than we just got in this 25-game stretch will help us, and all the goals and stuff will take care of itself," he added. "Then playing in bigger moment games, games with a little bit more on the line, definitely help sharpen a tool for later in the season when the moments matter.
"All these experiences, you definitely can grow from."
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