Up 3-0 on Lakers, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander only cares about wins — not stats

Little by little, Gilgeous-Alexander is figuring the Lakers out. The double-teams worked at first, but the shock value has dissipated. And getting one-for-one situations has been welcomed with a warm hug. The jumper is still out of whack for whatever reason, but he started to see the desired results as the game wore on.

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault has been impressed by Gilgeous-Alexander's poise. Despite his low numbers for his standards, he's loved his thought process. If the Lakers are going to junk up OKC's offense, the reigning MVP has all the confidence in his teammates to make them pay.

"I give him a lot of credit. It's the way that he has not fought the game in this series with the double teams. The double teams were reeled back tonight, but in the first two games, they were doubling him quite aggressively. It really put his teammates at an advantage," Daigneault said about Gilgeous-Alexander. "Now tonight, you turn around and we get contributions from everybody. I think if he had been more hasty in the first couple of games and had tried to find something that wasn't there, I'm not sure they would've had the advantages. I think that contributes to the confidence that the guys play with on a night like tonight."

Helping put this game away, Gilgeous-Alexander scored nine points in the second half. While his mid-range and outside jumpers were ice-cold, his drive-heavy approach bailed him out. Nobody on the Lakers could stay in front of him. So many resorted to fouling him to make him earn his points at the free-throw line.

Ultimately, the Thunder need Gilgeous-Alexander to play better. Maybe not against the Lakers. But definitely against the Spurs when that matchup inevitably becomes official. That's probably the biggest difference between this year's and last year's squad — the supporting cast has basically put OKC up 3-0. All while the reigning MVP has looked anything but the part.

"We organically get along as a group. So that always helps. We really have fun just being together and hanging out together. It's like when you go play pickup with your friends," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "You have that feeling out there. You know what their tendencies are and things like that. That's what it feels like at the basketball court."

It's been a mixed bag of results for Gilgeous-Alexander. That should surely get fixed soon. Eventually, math will be on his side and his jumper should return to being invincible. But for right now, it just hasn't mattered. He's enjoyed the cushion of being backed by the NBA's deepest team that has looked primed to go back-to-back for the NBA championship.

“Obviously, it hasn't been my best performance. But I think I've been able to help the team win. That's most important. As long as we win," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "If the rest of the playoff run or the rest of my career looked like this, I'd be okay with it because we've won games. That's all that really matters."

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Up 3-0 on Lakers, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander only cares about wins — not stats