Assistant Coach Texted Reporter During Game 4 Of 2025 NBA Finals ‘Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Has Been Atrocious’

June 14, 2025

Sam Amick of The Athletic was texting with an assistant coach during Game 4 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

The coach texted Amick, “Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been atrocious.”

It’s important to know that the coach said this as the second half began.

Gilgeous-Alexander had 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting at the half and was a minus-12.

“I honestly think SGA has been atrocious,” the coach wrote. “He looks tired. Worn out. Slow. … They haven’t had to double him. It hasn’t been some magical scheme. (The Pacers) have just worn him out with their pressure. They did the same to (the New York Knicks’ Jalen) Brunson (in the Eastern Conference finals). …He’s looked so bad on defense.”

Gilgeous-Alexander was nothing short of spectacular in the second half. The MVP had 23 points, with 15 of those 23 points coming in the fourth quarter.

SGA finished with 35 points and three steals in Game 4 while shooting 12-of-24 from the field, 1-of-4 from 3 and 10-of-10 from the free-throw line.

“I just tried to be aggressive,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “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.

“The guys deserve that much from me. The coaching staff deserves that much from me. I just tried to be aggressive, but also let the game come to me, not try to force anything too crazy. I guess it paid off.”

The Thunder and Indiana Pacers are tied at 2-2.

OKC reclaimed home-court advantage in the series by winning Game 4.

“He shut me up,” the coach texted Amick after the game.

“Same demeanor as always,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said about SGA. “You really wouldn’t know whether he’s up three, down three, up 30, down 30, eating dinner on a Wednesday. He’s pretty much the same guy.

“It’s unbelievable. He really didn’t have it going a lot of the night. He was laboring. We had a hard time shaking him free. For him to be able to flip the switch like that and get the rhythm he got just speaks to how great of a player he is. …It’s nothing we don’t know, but he definitely showed who he is tonight.”