The steady, smooth magic of Shai

Good morning. The Thunder clap back in Game 2 behind another perfectly normal, perfectly great performance by the MVP. Let's basketball.

The Indiana Pacers, who trailed by a bunch for everything past the first quarter, didn't have a good offensive game and, as evidenced by the 123 points they gave up, had a bad defensive game. It was the second-best shooting performance by a Pacers opponent in the playoffs and third-highest free throw rate Indiana has given up through 18 postseason games. But put in the context of Oklahoma City's postseason run, there were totally middle-of-the-road results. It was statistically Indiana's worst defensive performance of the playoffs. It was just OKC's fourth best.

This is the underrated part of what makes the Thunder special. Their defense rightfully earns credit by being literally the best in the league, and by a solid margin. But they pair that defense with an offense fully capable of winning any game against any opponent. That what leads to all of those (or now these) blow-outs: you can't score on them and they are liable to score all over you.

And that offense is truly built around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.