Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t sound all that excited about the idea of becoming a back-to-back NBA champion.That might seem strange. It’s not. It’s just who the Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder are.They live in the present. They try not to skip steps or waste energy on things out of their control. The Thunder — the NBA’s defending champions and No. 1 overall seed in this year’s playoffs, which open on Saturday — just keep things simple and see how things work out.And that’s why, to the reigning NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP in Gilgeous-Alexander, any talk of the Thunder going back-to-back and snapping the league’s unprecedented run of parity — seven different champions in a seven-season span — can wait, at least for a few more weeks.“That’s so far down the line,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “So many things are going to happen before we get to the finals-clinching game. Yeah, it’s cool. To have the opportunity to repeat means you won before, so it’s cool. I’ll keep it there.”Translated: Round 1, Game 1 is all that’s on Oklahoma City’s mind right now.The road to the title will goes through OKC yet again, with 16 teams set to start the two-month journey to decide who will raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy sometime in June. Detroit is the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Thunder are atop the West bracket, San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama is about to go to the playoffs for the first time and the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James is about to go for the 19 …
