It all comes down to this.
The Spurs and Thunder are headed to Game 7 on Saturday night in Oklahoma City after San Antonio kept its season alive with a 118-91 Game 6 rout.
San Antonio has pushed OKC to the brink by doing what few teams have managed all season: keeping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at bay.
The reigning back-to-back NBA MVP has not had the kind of series the Thunder are used to seeing, and the Spurs’ defense has turned that into the defining storyline entering Saturday night.
Through six games against the Spurs, SGA is averaging just 24.3 points per game after averaging 31.1 during the regular season.
That doesn’t even do justice to how rough it’s been for the Thunder star.
Gilgeous-Alexander is shooting just 37.9 percent overall and a horrible 26.1 percent from three-point land.
In Game 6, he had perhaps his worst game of the series, scoring just 15 points — his lowest total this season — in 28 minutes on 6-of-18 shooting without making a 3-pointer.
The Spurs have been able to throw different looks at him throughout the series, using a mix of plus perimeter defenders like Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Carter Bryant, and Dylan Harper, among others, taking turns on SGA, and Victor Wembanyama’s rim protection behind the play to keep him from getting comfortable.
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SGA’s slump could be even harder to shake in a winner-take-all setting, where games often slow down, scoring tends to dip, and half-court possessions become harder to solve.
The play: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Under 30.5 points (-105, bet365 Sportsbook)
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Dylan Svoboda is a versatile writer and analyst across many sports. He’s particularly knowledgeable about the big three — MLB, the NFL and the NBA.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
