Dribbling the ball up, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander found his favorite spot from beyond the perimeter. Huffing for air, the veteran LA Clippers made the mistake of letting the reigning MVP walk with an extra pep to his step. A trio of outside buckets from the left-wing spot buried LA’s aspirations of an upset.
On his way back to play other-worldly defense, Gilgeous-Alexander let a few folks sitting front row hear about it. The usually robotic 30-point scorer lets his game do the talking. But he wanted to twist the knife extra nastily against his former franchise and longtime friend Chris Paul.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 30 points on 9-of-14 shooting, 12 assists and four rebounds. He shot 4-of-5 from 3 and went 8-of-9 on free throws. He also had three blocks. Oh, and by the way — he only needed three quarters to do all that.
The Oklahoma City Thunder avalanched the Clippers in a 126-107 win on Tuesday. The victories keep coming as they have a franchise record 8-0 start.
The Clippers were clueless in stopping Gilgeous-Alexander. It was their turn among the 29 other teams to deal with that unsolvable problem. He had a little bit of a slow start, but turned it up in the third quarter to put this one away as the Thunder destroyed LA.
Gilgeous-Alexander had 18 points and five assists in the third quarter alone. Yep, you read that right. What would usually qualify as a career night for most of the NBA was just 12 minutes for the reigning MVP. Struggling from deep to start the season, this was his best game from beyond the perimeter.
When Gilgeous-Alexander has that level rolling, good luck. He can slice through your defense or dribble his way to an automatic mid-range jumper. Pick your poison. And if you throw the book at him, he has no problem passing it out to open teammates for good looks. The assist numbers show that.
“You learn the most in these games. Usually, you’re in the mud because the team is doing something that’s putting you in the mud. You have to figure out a way to get out. You have to figure out a way to win the mud. You have to figure out a way to get better so you’re not in the mud,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “The mud typically is something that slows you down. You’re not in the mud when you’re out there as a group doing what you want to do… We got better over the years. Figuring out how to win and get better through those games and lessons.”
Sitting out a third consecutive fourth quarter, the Thunder are back to business. Blowing teams out left and right. It took a little bit to get going, but they’re playing like a team that’s picked up right where they left off from a historic 68-14 regular-season last year.
Despite breaking another OKC record with an 8-0 start, Gilgeous-Alexander kept it cool. He continues to have a good sense of keeping things relevant while not getting lost in the shuffle of their big picture. It’s probably the best way to go along in the NBA’s regular-season marathon, as it’s barely November.
“Every team starts the year 0-0, and they have 82 games, and they get a chance to win all 82,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Now it doesn’t work like that more often than not, but we understand the opportunity in front of us, and we sum it up just trying to attack it every day.”
While this is probably the right thing to say, Gilgeous-Alexander understands the pressure will only grow. The Thunder entered as the heavy favorite to repeat. They’ve lived up to the part. That means whispers of the ‘D’ word will only grow louder as they dominate the rest of the NBA. Speaking in front of the LA media world, how does he keep things level-headed? By not caring.
“I don’t really care about pressure. I have expectations for myself and I have goals I want to accomplish. I’m going to go out there and give this game everything I have. That’s all I can control. Whatever happens from there, happens from there,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “What people want from me or expect me from me or what I should or shouldn’t get, I don’t pay attention to at all. I can’t control any of that. I just focus on what I can control. Which is giving this game, teammates, organization and fans my all.”
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: What does Shai Gilgeous-Alexander think of Thunder historic 8-0 start?
