The Oklahoma City Thunder moved even closer to their first NBA Finals birth in over a decade with their Game 4 win on Monday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, much of which was thanks to the terrific game from league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Time and time again, Gilgeous-Alexander has proven exactly why he was named the 2024-25 NBA MVP over the likes of Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo throughout this postseason, averaging 28.7 points per game throughout the postseason thus far.
Perhaps his best game of the postseason thus far came in Monday’s Game 4 matchup, scoring 40 points with 10 assists and nine rebounds en route to a 128-126 victory.
There have already been conversations that Gilgeous-Alexander could very well be considered the greatest player to ever wear a Thunder jersey if he does lead his team to an NBA championship this year. And Wednesday’s performance from him is perhaps further validation that this could be true.
With his 40-point performance, Gilgeous-Alexander becomes just the third player in the history of the organization to score 40 points or more in a Western Conference Finals game, joining two players whom he is chasing on the list of elite Thunder players, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
The only players in Thunder history with a 40-point WCF game: pic.twitter.com/O0CW8GHCdO
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 27, 2025
Durant and Westbrook are obviously two of the best players to play the game of basketball in recent memory, much less the history of the Thunder organization. But for as great as they were in Oklahoma City, the one thing they were never able to do was win the NBA Finals, a feat that Gilgeous-Alexander may very well be on the way to doing.
Some may still not see Gilgeous-Alexander in the category of the likes of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. But on paper, it sure seems like he certainly should be compared, or perhaps even considered to be better than the two Thunder legends.