At 101:113, the Thunder still lost.
But the Thunder's rout didn't make the players feel bad, because they lost to the Suns, who are now the number one in the league.
And the Thunder weren't without a chance to win, they played excellent team basketball in the second quarter, reversing the score after the Suns played a 19:5 start, but in the end it was because of the overall strength gap and lack of experience that the Suns opened up the point difference in the second half.
But in this defeat, the Thunder have received a different kind of surprise.
The Thunder have been looking for their future for the past few years, and in this game — arguably in the most recent period of play — the Thunder seem to have found that future.
This future is Shay Gilgers Alexander.
In today's game against teacher Paulo, Alexander played very well, Alexander shot 10 of 20, 7 of 7 from the free throw line, scored 29 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds, and scored and assisted the highest in the team.
Not only this game, in yesterday's game against the Nuggets, Alexander blasted down 27 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists to help the Thunder beat the Nuggets in the absence of a major general.
In the last game, playing the Grizzlies, Alexander had 23 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals, and in the 16.6 seconds before the final, he first dunked heavily, then stole Morant's serve, and took away the game with two free throws.
Retreating to play the Clippers, with the Clippers leading by 4 points in the last 17 seconds, Alexander first counterattacked the layup hit, and then brazenly shot a super long three-point shot against the defender in the last 1 second, hand blade old master.
And in the previous game, against the Pelicans, Alexander hit a 10.5m ultra-long retreat three-pointer in the final moment, and if it wasn't for Graham's 20-meter lucky three-pointer, the result of the game might have changed.
But regardless of whether he wins or loses, Alexander's big heart is already on display, and he is steadily moving in the direction of his master, Chris Paul.
If Alexander can maintain the performance of the last month in the following games, then at the end of the season, he will definitely be in the same level as Morant.
All this depends on Alexander's efforts, and there is some luck.
Alexander's career was extremely fortunate.
2018 rookie, Alexander was selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the No. 11, unfortunately such a good seedling, Joe boss did not look up, directly sent to the Clippers, in the Clippers period, Alexander performed well, averaging 10.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game in the 18-19 season, but also did not know whether it was a common problem of the Los Angeles team, they did not want to cultivate new people, and immediately sent Alexander who played out to the Thunder, in exchange for Paul George.
And thunder is Alexander's blessed land.
At that time, the Thunder had no enterprising spirit, and only wanted to have a good selection right and choose the next cornerstone, so the Thunder replaced the star Wei Shao to the Rockets, in exchange for the experienced guard Chris Paul, and Alexander also met a good teacher.
Paul is a superstar, but there is no big plan, in the thunder year, Paul spared no effort to inject the thunder with the concept of the team, and did not hesitate to pass on his years of experience to Alexander.
Under Paul's careful teaching, even if the team has the ball master Schroder, Alexander can play an average of 19 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.
Like Paul, Alexander's style, that is, under the extremely high ball consumption ability, can steadily maintain efficiency, and Trae Young represented by the modern style of defenders who like to shoot three points, Alexander is more like Paul, preferring to shoot in the middle distance, of course, compared with Paul, the younger Alexander has a stronger impact, he will rush into the opponent's penalty area like Morant, interpreting the aesthetics of violence.
In the 2020-21 season, Alexander averaged 33.7 minutes per game, could get 23.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists, shooting 50.8%, shooting 41.8% from three-point range and 80.8% from the free throw line, which has reached the standard of a star guard at the data level.
So far this season, Alexander has averaged 22.1 points, 5.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game, although the data has decreased slightly, but Alexander's role in the game has become more and more important, and he is undergoing a transition period, from a charging general to a strategic commander - just like Paul, the data may not be the best, but the impact of the game is unmatched.
Although the Thunder are incredibly weak now, so that almost no one notices Alexander, but this is a good thing - the Thunder don't care about the record, the Thunder don't need attention, the Thunder don't have any superstars, all of which allows Alexander to thrive in a relaxed, team-leaning environment.
After several years of experience, Alexander is already very good.
Alexander has a very good breakthrough ability, he does not have the perverted physical qualities of the alphabet brother, but his core strength is very good, and the instantaneous explosive power is also very good, which gives him the impact of Morant.
In the year of studying with Paul, Alexander developed his own style of play, mid-range became his main way of scoring, this kind of scoring method that was extremely inefficient in the small ball era, but Alexander benefited a lot, in fact, no matter which way of scoring, it is a good way to stably throw the ball into the basket - although Alexander can't do Paul's weightlifting lightly, nor can he do DeRozan's hand, but his mid-range is still very stable, Alexander's shot posture is very standard, the shooting speed is fast, Add to that his height of 198 and his arm span of 212, and there are few times when he is disturbed.
And this season, Alexander has upgraded his finishing ability again, after breaking through to the bottom of the basket, the pressure mountain has a variety of weapons to complete the finish, playing on the board, pulling the basket, small throw or direct shooting, etc., Alexander can easily control, and the mid-range and three-point shots are also included in his arsenal of key moments.
What is even more valuable is that Alexander's defense is also at the top of the guard, he has excellent steal rate and block rate, and what is not shown by the data is that Alexander has many "ineffective actions" in defense, such as pressing opponents to make mistakes, destroying opponent passes or attacks that are not counted in steal data.
And the culmination of these defensive methods is Chris Paul.
The Thunder traded paul, but they left Alexander, and that would be the next Paul — they were equally calm and wise, equally passionate about mid-range, equally proficient in defense that didn't record and data, equally big-hearted, and equally leaderly.
Just as Paul has not been recognized before, thinking that it is the signing of the garbage contract with an annual salary of 40 million, after the 5-year and $172 million extension that the Thunder handed alexander, there are many people who feel that it is not worth it, but is it really not worth it?
Maybe it won't be long before everyone has an answer.