Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had the worst night of his career, and now he has 48 hours to find his old self. Tonight's Game Seven against the San Antonio Spurs is either a comeback or the end of the season for the Oklahoma City Thunder - against a team that took Game Six off them 118-91, with their two-time MVP finishing on a flat 15 points.

"I'm good. I'm ready. The biggest game of my career," Gilgeous-Alexander said after the loss. It is the sentence every player delivers; the question is whether this time the deed will follow. Across the six games of the Western Final, the Canadian guard has averaged 24.3 points on 37.9 percent from the field and just 26.1 percent from three. For a player who last season was tearing the league apart with 30+ points night in, night out, that is a slump in which the Spurs' defence plays a bigger part than fatigue.

The Spurs have found the key against SGA - a physical defence with consistent double-teams, in the style Gregg Popovich has been repeating to reporters: do not let him get a rhythm, do not give him a clean look. The result: Gilgeous-Alexander is turning the ball over 3.2 times per game in this series, something that was a rarity in the regular season.

The Thunder are not without a chance - they have the higher seed in the regular season, a dominant defence, and a young team without the baggage of past defeats. But "win or go home" games are decided by stars, not rotations. If SGA does not get going in the first 12 minutes tonight, San Antonio will be heading to the NBA Finals. If he does, Denver is waiting for the winner.

For Balkan fans watching the NBA playoffs, this is the most strained series of this postseason - two young teams with no visible prior experience at this level of pressure. The winner will be the new generation in the Finals. The winner steps out tonight in Oklahoma City.