Gilgeous-Alexander calls MVP year a failure after Game 7 loss - ESPN

OKLAHOMA CITY — One day after his playoff run was cut shorter than anticipated, league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander called his season a failure due to the lack of a second consecutive championship.

«I failed at my goal,» Gilgeous-Alexander said. «I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve. But I learn the most about myself and make the greatest amount of increases in my career when I fail and don't get what I want. I look at this no different. I didn't get where I wanted to go this season. There's a reason for that. Now I have to look at that reason and try to make sure it never happens again.»

Gilgeous-Alexander's normally excellent efficiency dipped in the seven-game series loss to the San Antonio Spurs, as he averaged 25.9 points on 40.9% shooting and 28.6% on 3s, compared with 31.1 points on 55.3% shooting and 38.6% on 3s during the regular season.

He did score 35 points on 21 shots in a magnificent Game 7 performance, nearly willing the injured Thunder past the finish line. But that output came almost entirely against a swarming, overloaded Spurs defense designed to make life difficult on the two-time MVP.

San Antonio had surging two-way wing Stephon Castle hound Gilgeous-Alexander at the point of attack, shaded its help defense his direction and had perhaps the greatest rim protector in league history, Victor Wembanyama, looming behind the play and guarding the paint.

That led to an array of heavily contested midrange jumpers from Gilgeous-Alexander and a lower volume of shots at the rim.

«There's a guy on their back line that is a little bit different,» Gilgeous-Alexander said of Wembanyama. «They funnel everything to him.… It's a really good defense. But it's not impossible to score. I just think it's very