Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn't in MVP form on Monday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, despite SGA accepting his second-consecutive NBA MVP trophy before the game. Shai struggled against the San Antonio Spurs in the first contest of what promises to be an epic series, going 7-for-23 from the floor and committing four turnovers.
SGA did tally 12 assists, but you won't hear Los Angeles Lakers fans mentioning those. Nope, Lakers fans took the opportunity on Monday night to use Gilgeous-Alexander's losing performance as evidence that Luka Doncic is the superior player. Of course they did.
Lakers fans all saying that Luka Doncic clears Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
We saw sports editor Fred J. Robledo pointing out that Shai plays with a handful of awesome perimeter defenders that make his life easy (if only Luka were as fortunate).
Shai is the fourth best perimeter defender on his team. Imagine if Luka was on a team like that?
— Fred J. Robledo 👨🏻💻 (@SGVNSports) May 19, 2026
A bunch of Lakers fans also pointed out that SGA was subbed out for Cason Wallace for a crucial defensive possession -- further evidence in their minds that "Luka can't win MVP because he doesn't play defense" is a hollow theory.
X user @AshleyNevel did a nice breakdown of this specific outrage by noting that, while Gilgeous-Alexander is a superior defender to Dončić by a considerable amount, the optics of SGA getting subbed out for a vital defensive possession still weren't great for a back-to-back MVP of the league.
Luka fans are COOKING Shai for this pic.twitter.com/1LYKSXsmrK
— Ashley Nevel (@AshleyNevel) May 19, 2026
Anthony Edwards looped into Luka-Shai debate
X user @lirishfwanime did something interesting in asserting that both Dončić and Anthony Edwards are better playoff assets than SGA due to their ability to transcend defensive schemes (more so than Shai), while also acknowledging that Gilgeous-Alexander is the most "personnel-proof" of the three players, suggesting that SGA doesn't really require a specific type of team around him to thrive as much as Ant or Luka might.
🧵Ant & Luka are better than SGA in the offs because their tools are significantly more scheme-proof, even if they’re less personnel-proof. Ant is a 99th percentile off-ball scoring talent in NBA history and Luka is one of the best decision-making talents we’ve seen,
— 𝓁 (@lirishfwanime) May 19, 2026
All of this SGA criticism is coming at a time when Gilgeous-Alexander not only struggled in Game 1 against the Spurs but also just had a couple of off-nights in the second round against the Lakers.
But it's important to take "off-night" with a grain of salt or two here. As Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault pointed out last week, Gilgeous-Alexander drew a ton of gravity in the Laker series that -- while negatively impacting his own scoring statistics -- enhanced all of his Thunder teammates' capacity to thrive offensively. And let's remind ourselves that SGA presided over a sweep of the Lakers, which brought the Thunder to 8-0 in the postseason up until Monday night.
Nonetheless, don't expect Luka die-hards to stop with the anti-SGA narratives anytime soon, especially if the Spurs keep playing so well over the next couple of weeks.
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