Thunder vs. Nuggets: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander proves clutch bonafides by stepping up late in Game 4

The burden of proof for clutch performance is absurdly demanding in the NBA. Unless your body of work is totally unimpeachable like, say, a LeBron James or Stephen Curry, a few bad games can undo years of reputational progress. Think of the week Jayson Tatum has had. He’s a reigning NBA champion with a 51-point Game 7 and a 46-point road elimination game against arguably the best player in the world at the time, but two collapses against the Knicks and suddenly the knives are back out.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hasn’t yet built up such a postseason resume, and that made his own late-game shortcomings this week much more glaring. Across the fourth quarters of Games 1 and 3 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, Gilgeous-Alexander shot 5 of 15 from the field and dished out only a single assist. Isolate clutch time and he shot just 1 of 7. The Thunder blew a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter of Game 1. Gilgeous-Alexander missed multiple shots in the final minute of Game 3 that could have won it in regulation. Instead, they lost both games.

This was catnip to the critics, seemingly confirming every meager doubt that existed about an otherwise dominant 68-win Thunder team. They’re too young, they’re too inexperienced, they won’t be able to generate offense late in games when defenses push more and more help toward Gilgeous-Alexander. It was as predictable as it was unfair.

The Thunder don’t play many clutch games… but they almost always win them. They went 16-8 in clutch games this year. Only the Celtics and Cavaliers had better clutch winning percentages. Last year it was 24-14. The regular season doesn’t count? They’re now up to 6-4 in the clutch in the past two postseasons. That’s a small sample, fine, but it’s worth noting here that the situation Oklahoma City found itself in on Sunday was nearly identical to one it escaped in the clutch last season. 

On Sunday, the Thunder trailed 2-1 in the second round and were down six points at the beginning of the fourth quarter in Denver against an opposing star in Nikola Jokić that is widely considered the best player in the series. A year ago, they trailed 2-1 in the second round and were down four points at the beginning of the fourth quarter in Dallas against an opposing star in Luka Dončić that was widely considered the best player in the series.

Last year, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 10 points and assisted on 10 more in the fourth quarter of Game 4 against the Mavericks. Oklahoma City won that game but lost the series, leading to Gilgeous-Alexander’s fourth-quarter heroics getting forgotten. Fast forward to Sunday and in a roughly three-minute stretch from the 5:28 to 2:22 mark of the fourth quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander scored eight points and assisted on Oklahoma City’s only other field goal to turn a one-point advantage into an eight-point lead that ultimately sealed the game, a 92-87 win that tied the series at 2-2. 

Yet again, Gilgeous-Alexander was the difference late in an enormously consequential playoff win. If Oklahoma City winds up winning the West or the championship, this performance will be viewed as a turning point. If they lose, as they did a year ago, it becomes a blip.

But putting so much weight on a single, high-stakes performance was always somewhat nonsensical. Over the past two seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander has shot 54 of 100 from the field and 12 of 27 on 3-pointers in the clutch. He’s been as or more efficient in the clutch than either 2024 Clutch Player of the Year Stephen Curry or 2025 winner Jalen Brunson. There shouldn’t have been much of a question that Gilgeous-Alexander would be able to generate offense in tight situations. He’s about to win MVP. The burden of proof, again, is outrageously demanding.

Rarely can a player cross that threshold without reaching the Finals first. That will be especially true of Gilgeous-Alexander given his team’s youth and its regular-season dominance. Right now, the Thunder look like a standard conference favorite. That’s almost disappointing in light of their 68-win season. Context is everything in that respect. Brunson proves that. He’s quietly only 4 of 11 from the field in the clutch in the second round, and 2 of 6 from deep. Yet each of those shots he made and the free throws he drew were absolutely critical in pulling off consecutive upsets and 20-point comebacks against a vastly superior Celtics team. The Knicks are, at least for the moment, overperforming. The Thunder, just by playing a close series when nobody played them close all season, are underperforming.

Gilgeous-Alexander is bearing the brunt of that pressure. He came up short in Games 1 and 3. But hopefully Game 4 serves as a reminder that he’s more than capable of meeting the moment when he needs to. That shouldn’t have been something he ever needed to prove, but that is the impossible standard the playoffs tend to set.