Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scores 18 points in Game 1 of the western conference semi-finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. The last time he scored under 20 points was almost 1 year ago.
https://preview.redd.it/rnd6un28qfzg1.jpg?width=1208&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41acf1569df215521ca3c510bba67fc76d99bdb5
lakers just left guys wide open cuz they were double even triple teaming sga lmao
Lakers sub is on mental illness rn not even addressing their nonsense defense
They held OKC to only 108.. they’re the highest scoring team in the league & average 123 ppg for the season.
Defense was not the issue this game
Honestly the refs weren’t calling much the fta for both teams was insanely low given the contact and both teams would have more in a normal game
It was
The problem was Reaves playing like a JV player
He is an unatheltic guy playing against one of the best perimeter defenses ever. Not really his fault.
He’s obviously still a bit injured but you guys were chronically leaving good shooters wide open
The lakers are not a roster that can defend everything straight up like yall they have to play gimmicky defense because of the personnel
That’s right
Ahhhh dont you love when other fans prove you right after going full circle?
I think AR going a little for a lot had something more to do with it.
I think it was the awful defense
OKC education
Do they have therapy in Los Angeles
Thunder flair can’t admit their golden boy got objectively shut down this game
The difference between SGA and other high scoring players is SGA has no problem deferring to the open man when the team is hitting shots. He literally said winning is more important than any record or stat. Hang your banner I guess
‘the difference between SGA and other high scoring players is SGA has better teammates’. thanks for the invaluable insight!
Hang your banner I guess
Lakers: 17 >>>>>>>> OKC: 1
Don’t forget your in-season tournament win
Lame shit.
No arguments. Weak ass
He still went 50%+ from the field
Give him the free throws he should’ve gotten if this was a normally whistle game and it’s not so bad
In an 18 point blow out?
are you capable of reading comprehension or is the education in Oklahoma just that bad?
What’s got you so worked up?
the failure of the public education system in Oklahoma. if you could read, you’d be mad too
Keep going
If shutting him down = scoring as much as Lakers 2nd highest scorer then you’ve got 2 major problems
Lol this was a great defense what are you on about. The Thunder scored 119, 120, 121, and 131 against PHX and PHX is supposed to be known for being a great hustle, effort, defense team. Today they scored 108, and they shot 50/42/92 !!!! In the previous Lakers games, they scored 123, 139 and 119, 121 this was a brilliant defensive game plan, do you people even watch the games?
That last 3-pt by McCain, he was the only player on that side of the court until the Lakers realized the ball was flying away from Shai and towards the corner.
They were lost all game
Honestly I was kinda surprised how well it worked against Shai. He had 7 turnovers and most of them were unforced errors . Only took 3 free throws too (granted i do think he got hosed on a few non calls)
That said a dub is a dub you take that all day if you’re Shai
He had some very sloppy turnovers. About 4 of them are stuff you usually dont see him do. Willing to bet he this will be his worst game by a good margin
JJ’s plan is hoping SGA would care more about his streak than winning (even though only regular season games count)
Playoff dropper is back on the menu
Game 1 dropper 100% confirmed
Getting locked up by Lakers C squad. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Damm you really waited a year for that.
And he did enough for a 20 point win. How did your team and star do yesterday?
shai stinker and thunder still wiped the floor
4-0 inc
fewest points he’s scored all season
most turnovers he’s had all season
18 point win
MVP btw
That’s insane when it’s put like that lmao
Can’t think of a fan base less deserving of this tik tok ass superteam man
How much time do you spend thinking about fanbases
im sorry
ty bb love you too
I wouldn’t call it a stinker at all, he was getting doubled and didn’t need to leave 2nd gear
not very often shai has 7 TO. that is a stinker to his standard
He had 9 the entire last series
He’ll have two the rest of the way #copium
Fair
He had seven turnovers. That would be fine for a roof other guys but that’s horrible for Shai.
You usually don’t win games if your best plyaer is scoring 18 with 7 turnovers unless you have a great team to back you up or the other team stinks it up, and I guess both of that happened today
It’s becoming an SGA tradition to have a meh game 1 at least. He’ll probably never miss again and go 1 TO for the rest of the series.
This game was pretty competitive. LA lost because AR and smart went 7-31.
Its not even the 18 points that was bad, it was the 6 turnovers. Unacceptable at this level
Shai 6 turnovers in a game “unacceptable at this level”
Cade averages 6 turnovers for a 7 game series “he needs help”
Well obviously Cade isn’t near the player SGA is so of course he needs help. Even Shai can’t do it alone
Tell that to the people in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1t2zgcn/comment/ojrn0ds/?context=3
I think I’d rather just ignore them
Some of them were good hustle players by the Lakers and some were just lazy mistakes by him. He’ll be better. JJ has to learn he can’t leave OKC shooters open to double Shai all series
he was acting like fucking KD
Shai can’t lose with those cats.
Like half of them were truly baffling decisions on his part. The others I’ll credit the Lakers for they made some really good plays
I think he’s just super rusty. His decision making is never that slow
A handful involved Jaylin Williams, it looked to me like those two were not on the same wavelength tonight.
rough game by his standards but I have no doubt hell adjust. first couple were trying to draw contact but the refs let everybody play tonight, and a couple more were just pacing against the super aggressive help. little film will go a long way on those, cause dudes were walking into 4 on 3s all night
I’ll take that though with an 18 point win. High Shai turnovers is never something I’m worried about becoming a pattern. He’ll figure it out.
He got guarded the same way prime harden was guarded. Almost every possession is a double team
He also didn’t play great
Yea, some sloppy turnovers by him
Idk why your getting downvotes, the defensive scheme and personnel wasn’t paticularly exotic, he just executed poorly.
and they won by 18.
Shai spent the entire game calibrating his shot.
Game 1 Shai 💔
Its his lefeeloutgame
Mid Shai came and win by 18
Did he?
kinda wish we just got blown out instead but SGA just had to troll to get my hopes up
Expect him to play bad every game 1 now, debuting a new shoe colorway every series. All stinkers
WASHED
only plays well against good teams
lights too dim
That was one of the worst Shai games you will ever see and LeBron had 4 days rest and they got blown out anyway when it mattered. Absolutely no chance whatsoever.
He seemed a little rusty but I thought he was ok overall. Definitely some turnover issues but I thought he generally read the double teams pretty well, his passing wasn’t as bad as the turnovers suggest (imo).
Honestly impressive Shai got 18 considering he was getting double or even tripled team at times, lakers game plan was clear to focus on Shai and sell out on others
More like MVPee-Pee-Poo-Poo amirite boys?
Idk why but this got me good, lol
Fair play by smart and Reddick trapping and crowding him yes he had 7 TO but okc scored so easily out of the double team might have to change it game 2
He got exposed! /s
He got clamped and he tried to foul bait like 4 or 5 times in the first and second quarter and got no calls. He quickly realized the refs were not going for his BS, so he had to play basketball the correct way. This is a great indicator of how much of his game is predicated on being an actor. I watch Thunder games all the time and I’ve never seen him refereed this way, I’ve also never seen him this mediocre on offense. He loses his superpowers at the drop of a whistle.
His shooting was perfectly fine I mean he still shot over 50% and he would have shot like 75% but he came in and chucked 3 shots real quick. Was sloppy with the ball tonight tho but I’ll chalk that up to 8 days of rest plus game 1 Shai
Should this be a win for the Lakers, given that they held SGA under 20?
I believe so, expect them to play with more confidence heading into game 2.
he broke his 20 pt streak
Its a regular season record technically.
Nah
xD
RIP the streak. It was a beauty. ❤️
Streak isnt over bud. Playoffs are not part of it
he shot so well in the first half and just bricked every middy afterwards
Outplayed by a 41 year old
Hang the banner
Lmao
The easiest conditions for a superstar outside of KD warriors. He could play awful and his goat defensive team will keep him in the game
If we pretend that he often plays at this level sure.
Shai when teams are allowed to breath on him
Nuggets when they play a 49 win team with their best roster ever and still lose
Bars fr
Jokic when he plays against a playoff defense is much worse
Hate his game. Fucking flops all across the court looking for fouls.
Deary diary
And yet because they won his performance gets swept under the rug. The luxury of a super team
Rest of the team ate because the lakers were just swarming him, leaving guys open.
did u watch the game? there’s a reason he had 18 he was double teamed and swarmed from start to finish, lakers were pretty content with leaving guys wide open
Your team literally lost last night and all of the news was about Wembys blocks lol