OKLAHOMA CITY – After the highest-scoring game of his professional career, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t feel like it was such a special night.

In the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first game since losing Chet Holmgren for at least two months with a hip fracture, Gilgeous-Alexander poured in a career-high 45 points, nine assists and five steals to lift his club to a 134-126 win. LA Clippers before 5:430pm at Paycom Center.

“It didn’t feel special,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of his 14th-career 40-point game. “It didn’t feel like I was doing anything I’d never done before. It just felt like another basketball game. I felt like I should have had more, missed a few easy shots, but (that’s) the game.”

Perhaps the career outing didn’t feel extraordinary because Gilgeous-Alexander is fixated on a more important goal. After reaching the second round but losing to the Dallas Mavericks as the best player in the Western Conference, Gilgeous-Alexander has focused on getting the Thunder (9-2) and his young teammates better prepared for a deeper run in the play-offs.

“I don’t say this to belittle my teammates,” Gilgeous-Alexander explained. “But I feel like the end of our season last year in the play-offs was the end. For a lot of them, obviously, it was the first time in the play-offs and playing games that were so meaningful. And I doesn’t mean they weren’t ready.” , but I feel like I could have equipped them better throughout the year in making (certain) shots, reaching spots and being more comfortable in certain positions on the field, especially offensively.

“I feel like we were good defensively in the playoffs and that’s why we lost offensively. And part of my job is to make sure my teammates have confidence and are ready for big moments.”

After watching Holmgren suffer a tough loss to Golden State on Sunday and suffer a right iliac hip fracture that will be re-evaluated in eight to 10 weeks, Gilgeous-Alexander and his teammates had to move on and be ready to win. a night later playing small ball against the Clippers. The Thunder are small with big men Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein (non-displaced left hand fracture) and Jaylin Williams (hamstring) all sidelined.

While Holmgren played in all 82 regular-season games last season, he missed his first NBA season after being drafted second overall in the 2022 draft due to a Lisfranc injury.

“We’ve been there before,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of playing small. “We won games by playing small and we can do that again.”

The Thunder led by as many as 20 before watching the Clippers make a furious run to get within two with 42.3 seconds left. Norm Powell continued his torrid start to the season by scoring 29 of his 31 points and making 10 of 12 shots, including 5 of 6 three-pointers, all in the second half before fouling out late.

But Gilgeous-Alexander scored 10 of his points in the final 5:25, including making two free throws with 22.7 seconds left to stop the Clippers’ run.

Clippers coach Ty Lue said before the game that Gilgeous-Alexander is at a level that only a select group of all-time great superstars have reached, where they can let the game come to them and take over late.

“As a younger player you can have a tendency to get out of control or get my points,” Lue said before the game. “He knows it’s going to come to him with the style they play, he knows the ball is going to come back. He lets other guys get going, lets other guys trust him with the basketball (to score early) ).

“But he knows he can take over the game at any time. He reminds you a lot of greats like (Michael) Jordan.”

Gilgeous-Alexander became the first player in Thunder/SuperSonics franchise history to record at least 45 points and five steals in a game.

But Gilgeous-Alexander, 26, has much bigger achievements in mind, which is why he has been constantly thinking about how he can better prepare his team to win playoff games every night – something some stars don’t realize or do until after several playoff games. runs or when they are older.

“When we lost (to Dallas), I was thinking about why we lost and obviously there are so many things to nitpick about,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But I can only control what I can control and I try to look at it from that lens.

“A lot of people don’t recognize it until it’s too late. And I don’t want it to be too late, so I tried to hit it on the head early.”