PHOENIX — There’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Peeking through the proverbial peephole, making a game of walking down the Phoenix Suns like Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.” Shouting at unassuming teammates, reassuring who’ll listen — Dillon Brooks, officials, Twitter, the ether — that he didn’t need free throws after an unrewarded drive in the fourth quarter. A declaration of the level of control he holds over his fate.
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His first-round series historically serve as feel-outs. But he took the Suns’ season to the morgue Saturday. A slow, methodical, meticulous degradation of a Phoenix defense that tried almost everything to stop him. For four quarters, SGA toggled every lever and button possible, taking command unlike anything in his postseason career to date.
“He’s starting to think the game a little more rather than just use his amazing athletic ability and skill to get places,” veteran Alex Caruso said after Oklahoma City’s 121-109 win Saturday, snatching a 3-0 lead in the series. “And that’s when you really get to the next level, at least for him and those guys in that category.
“Their physical tools are obviously a gift. Once you mentally can evaluate, organize, execute, that’s when you really get to another level.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s ascension is best summarized by how he sneaks up on his peers when they evaluate his dominance. Professional hoopers that have watched him average 30 points for the past four seasons.
Thunder All-Star Chet Holmgren’s glossy gaze didn’t initially change when hearing Gilgeous-Alexander’s name postgame, not until he was peppered with questions about him to the extent that he required a box score. From the podium, he glanced at the TV on the wall to his right, scanning the stats. Attempting to contextualize the normalcy, his eyes bulged at SGA’s efficiency.
“I don’t think we saw anything different tonight than we normally do,” Holmgren began, “… except he was 15 for 18. It seemed like a pretty normal night, I guess.”
Looks are deceiving. Gilgeous-Alexander totaled a playoff-career high 42 points, effortlessly doing so. He shot 8 of 8 in the paint. He made 14 of his 15 shots from 2-point range and 11 of his 12 free throws. He tallied eight assists and three turnovers in 38 minutes. Phoenix started sturdy 6-foot-1 guard Collin Gillespie on him, ill-fitted for the assignment. It cycled through every available wing, even forcing center Oso Ighodaro to pick him up full court late in the first half.
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“We tried different matchups,” Phoenix coach Jordan Ott said. “We tried to take it out of his hands. He had us spinning tonight.”
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Gilgeous-Alexander found a way to make the postseason feel like a continuation of his regular season. Hoisting the same shots, bending the defense to similar whims. With Jalen Williams sidelined for the indefinite future and Holmgren in foul trouble for the night, Oklahoma City needed to adjust how it would allocate its offense. Its superstar already mulled it all over.
“Regardless of who’s out there, I get to go out there and play my game,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s just the role I have on this team, and my coaches and teammates do a really good job of letting me be in my space.”
He’s well past the point of dictating his on-court terms. His teammates know how to space out, even for such an enigmatic ball handler and unpredictable shotmaker. Gilgeous-Alexander has moved past manipulation.
The Thunder bench outscored the Suns’ reserves 36-12. Second-year guard Ajay Mitchell chucked a career-high 20 attempts, shot volume not only necessary next to SGA but generated by him. Caruso, in spots he’s found himself in all season, drilled 3s by way of SGA’s passes.
Rarely does he reach these levels of animation. For a series, Team Canada teammate Brooks has tugged at him every which way for a reaction. “I don’t need it,” which he told the Thunder bench, was his way of acknowledging of a whistle he felt he deserved during a series that’s highlighted his affinity to reach the free-throw line.
Offered the opportunity to put beef on the grill, to channel Kevin Garnett or Gary Payton, Gilgeous-Alexander spoke like Ned Flanders. On Wednesday, Brooks called him “frail,” fighting words in most cases. Gilgeous-Alexander turned the other cheek.
“Shoutout Dillon,” he said Saturday, smiling.
His approach for the series borders on greed. He now craves control over the cadence of a series, too. To feel the pressure of taking a 3-0 series lead on the road and not lose his grip.
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For his iteration of the Thunder, Game 3s are usually goners. SGA mulled over the data with his teammates entering this postseason. A daunting deficit in Memphis last April. A loss that put Oklahoma City down 2-1 versus Denver. An uncharacteristic 42-point blowout in Minnesota. On the ropes versus Indiana.
He wanted to change the tone of this run. This was a start.
On Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander might’ve distorted the bar at which we evaluate him. For the upper-echelon, the perennial MVP candidates, the performances of a first-round series only reach the desk and sound the alarm if they’ve fallen below their standard. SGA’s consistency has already turned fans’ attention toward future series. But he quietly delivered an all-time outburst in Game 3.
Only three players in NBA history have shot 15 of 18 in a playoff game, separated by decades: Sam Jones in 1967, Michael Jordan in 1991 and Gilgeous-Alexander on Saturday.
Only three players in NBA history have gone 15-of-18 in a playoff game. Sam Jones in 1967, Michael Jordan in 1991 and SGA today. No player has ever shot a higher percentage (83.3%) in a playoff game than those three (minimum 18 attempts).
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) April 25, 2026
When he’s remembered as one of the defining players of the 2020s, this game will play on NBA TV’s “Hardwood Classics” series on a Sunday afternoon, a game that didn’t alter his legacy but offered a glimpse of his distinguished dominance. Game 3, as low as the stakes might seem for a player chasing a second consecutive title, encapsulated his brilliance.
He did not need those free throws because, after digging in its bag for crumbs of coverages, Phoenix succumbed to desperation. Nothing worked.
Game 3 belonged in his grasp.
“This is why we go the way we go,” Caruso said. “Just not surprised anymore with him. I’ve grown to expect it. And that might be a detriment to him and his greatness, because I do get to see every single night, but it really is magnificent to see his mentality is eternally optimistic. He’s just a killer with his competitive mindset.
“This is why we go the way we go.”