Guarding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the hardest puzzles that NBA teams have to solve. While the Philadelphia 76ers didn’t exactly crack the code, they made life tough enough for him that he couldn’t lead his Oklahoma City Thunder to victory. The Sixers held on for a road win after limiting SGA to 3-11 shooting from the field in the second half.

Nick Nurse had multiple different Sixers players guard Gilgeous-Alexander throughout the game, most often using Nicolas Batum and Patrick Beverley. Although he finished the game with 31 points, that’s only slightly above his per-game average this season and his 47.6 percent field-goal shooting is well below his season split. Nurse discussed why Philly was more effective against him in the second half.

“I just thought we did a better job of settling into seeing some of the things they were running,” the Sixers head coach said to reporters after the game. “Again, I thought, we got a little bit better in front of him here and there. And then I just, I was hoping he wasn't gonna make every shot he took tonight like he did in the first half. And he had a few bounce out, which was key.”

In the second half, the Sixers did a better job not biting on Gilgeous-Alexander's pump fakes. Defenders stayed disciplined and forced him into deeper shots, sometimes on step-backs. SGA can still hit those types of looks but they’re much tougher than shots in the paint or from the mid-range.

Philly dared anyone else to do damage, as shown by Tobias Harris coming way off of his assignment to clog the paint and force Gilgeous-Alexander into a middie.

Even on the occasions when Gilgeous-Alexander was able to bait the Sixers into a foul, they were more ready for it as the game went on.

The Sixers continued to show Gilgeous-Alexander multiple defenders down the stretch, forcing him into his lone turnover of the night off of a great double-team from Robert Covington and Joel Embiid.

And, as Nurrse indicates, they simply benefited from shooting regression to the mean. While scorers like Gilgeous-Alexander can make hard shots all the time, they won’t be able to live fully on such shots in most games. This wasn’t a game where he was on a total heater, though he and Chet Holmgren, who dropped 33 points, pushed the Philly defense to its limits.

The Sixers, meanwhile, got huge efforts from Embiid and Tyrese Maxey that helped them come out on top.