Nikola Jokic was quickly brought back to the ground after having a perfect scoring outburst. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander proved that his Oklahoma City Thunder squad can clearly outgun the defending champions, the Denver Nuggets. It was a smooth-sailing win to keep them atop the Western Conference contenders. Players like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren also came into form. Their leader on the court was so proud of his team and how they got away with the massive win, via Nick Gallo of the Thunder and Bally Sports.

“We knew we were going to have to play together, we were going to have to play hard for a full 48 minutes. Even though we built the lead, a good team like that will come back in there. So, we needed to stay focused and we did so tonight,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said.

He was fueling a lot of MVP chatter after going toe-to-toe with Nikola Jokic. The Thunder star dropped 40 points by knocking down 14 out of his 20 attempts. Chet Holmgren followed it up by cleaning up the boards six times and scoring 24 points on his own. Jalen Williams, on the other hand, acted as a swiss army knife for the Thunder. A record consisting of 11 points while dropping nine dimes and grabbing seven rebounds proved this.

Jokic and the Nuggets have a lot to adjust after this deflating loss. As for the Thunder, they get to avoid falling into double-digit losses in the second quarter of the season. Both teams have a lot to improve but it was clear that this night belonged to SGA.