The Oklahoma City Thunder were minutes away from falling 3-1 in the NBA Finals series against the Indiana Pacers. But league MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, had other plans. In what was a tremendous comeback, the Thunder star scored nine straight points before pushing his team to the first lead of the second half at 104-103 with 2:23 remaining.
Oklahoma City never trailed again and avoided a 3-1 deficit to stretch the series to at least six games. On his way to leading the Thunder to level the series 2-2, Gilgeous-Alexander notched up 35 points and zero assists, casually creating history. Turns out, no one’s matched that statline in the NBA for more than half a century.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Matches Statline Not Seen In NBA Finals Since 1962
The last time a player failed to record a single assist in an NBA Finals game while scoring 35 points was 14-time All-Star Jerry West in the 1962 NBA Finals with the Los Angeles Lakers. Before that, Joe Fulks recorded the only instance of such a stat line in 1947 for the Philadelphia Warriors.
It, however, is less of an achievement for Gilgeous-Alexander and more indicative of how good the Pacers’ defense was on the night, which tied the Thunder to just 11 assists as a team. The MVP has made his reputation over his scoring abilities, and the last time he failed to register a single assist in a game was in 2020.
But a victory is a victory, and Gilgeous-Alexander won’t care a bit about having to sleep with zero assists to his name. He stepped up when Thunder needed him the most and delivered one of the most important fourth-quarter performances of his career, once again joining the league of iconic statlines.
Fun Fact: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the first player since Jerry West with 35+ points and 0 assists in a Finals game. pic.twitter.com/qNOPUw7gUA
— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 14, 2025
The Pacers appeared poised to take a 3-1 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Thunder trailed 80-87, and given that Oklahoma’s offense was struggling for much of the night and Gilgeous-Alexander had just managed one bucket in the fourth quarter of Game 3, all signs pointed to a Pacers victory before the MVP did his MVP thing.
“I just tried to be aggressive,” Gilgeous-Alexander said on his fourth-quarter comeback. “I knew what it would have looked like if we lost tonight. I didn’t want to go out not swinging. I didn’t want to go out not doing everything I could do in my power, in my control to try to win the game.”
He added: “I relish those moments, love the moments, good or bad. When I was a kid shooting at my driveway, I’d count down the clock for those moments. Now I get to live it.”
SGA is living his dream to the fullest, and as long as his scoring gets the job done, the lack of an assist isn’t going to make that less relishing. The Thunder would now look to take advantage of home court when the Pacers travel to Oklahoma City on Monday night and try to take the lead in the series.
