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Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sets career-high with 55-point night vs. Pacers
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- Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sets career-high with 55-point night vs. Pacers
The post Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sets career-high with 55-point night vs. Pacers appeared first on ClutchPoints .
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has done nothing but show why he's the reigning MVP and Finals MVP to start off the season for the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder . Gilgeous-Alexander is arguably the most unstoppable perimeter player in the league today, and he showed as much when he put the Indiana Pacers through the blender in their NBA Finals rematch on Thursday night, which OKC won in double overtime , 141-135.
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Opposing defenses already had no answer for Gilgeous-Alexander in the past. But it seems like winning a title and all those individual accolades has freed him up to achieve an even higher level of play. Against the Pacers, he tallied a single-game career-high in scoring with 55 points, doing so on 15-31 shooting from the field and 23-26 from the free-throw line — leaving Indiana's defense helpless at every turn.
If Gilgeous-Alexander manages to remain this dominant, he might be in for another MVP season. Now, it's unrealistic to expect him to score 50 or more every single night. But if he lifts this Thunder squad to another 65-win season while averaging over 33 points a contest? The MVP case against him will be hard to argue.
Some fans, of course, will not be too pleased that Gilgeous-Alexander was once again back to his free-throw hunting ways. He finished the night with nearly as many free-throw attempts as field-goal attempts, so the Thunder star is not going to be escaping those free-throw merchant jeers anytime soon.
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Nevertheless, as the old adage goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Gilgeous-Alexander is carving up defenders who can't guard him, and he is getting to the foul line as a result. And it's leading to winning basketball for the Thunder anyway, so all opposing teams can do is hope to guard him cleaner next time out.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads Thunder to two straight 2OT wins to start season
© Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
The Thunder have been without Jalen Williams to begin the season, and on Thursday against the Pacers, they had to weather the absences of Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace . But Gilgeous-Alexander is at the top of his game — a one-man wrecking crew on offense — that they managed to survive one haymaker after another from Pascal Siakam and Bennedict Mathurin .
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Gilgeous-Alexander was not alone, however. Ajay Mitchell made some huge baskets in overtime, and Aaron Wiggins came up big with some timely three-pointers in second OT. This OKC team is simply too good and too deep that it's hard to think of them as anything other than title favorites.
Related: Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander haters won't like his new NBA FT record
