The brightest lights call for the biggest stars. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder open their season tonight against the San Antonio Spurs in the last game of opening night. This is not only one of the most anticipated games of the day, but of the whole year, as these two teams faced off recently in the Western Conference Finals. 

The Thunder lost this last matchup and are looking for the outcome to be different this coming year. This won’t be an easy task, as the Spurs have only seemed to get better over the offseason, but OKC will be looking to a certain player to lift them above the Western Conference Champions. 

Of course, that player is the back-to-back Most Valuable Player Award winner, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Gilgeous-Alexander’s reputation speaks for itself, as he led the Thunder to its first franchise championship and has been the driving factor for OKC over the past couple of years. The superstar will be expected to do the same thing this coming year, and will have a tall task to begin the year, literally. 

The Thunder will be hoping he can lift them over the likes of Victor Wembanyama, something he wasn’t able to do last year. Gilgeous-Alexander took a step back during the conference finals last year, averaging 25.9 points per game, which isn’t great compared to the 31.1 points per game he averaged in the regular season. 

Additionally, the Thunder guard had more turnovers in the series than he regularly did, averaging 3.1 per game, instead of the 2.2 he averaged in the regular season. This underperforming play might not have been the driving factor in the Thunder’s series loss, but it didn’t give them the boost they needed to succeed. 

Because of this, starting Tuesday night, all eyes will be on Gilgeous-Alexander to see if he can step up to the moment and once again deliver for the Thunder as he has in the past. This will also be an opportunity for him to make yet another MVP case by beating one of the world’s best players, Wembanyama. 

While Tuesday night’s game is a showcase of two of the best teams in the league, all eyes will no doubt be on Gilgeous-Alexander to see how he performs. Will he be able to lead his team past the Spurs and get revenge, or will he once again fall just short? Only time will tell.