OKC Thunder sets season-high scoring mark vs. Wizards as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander nets 30
If you were told Shai Gilgeous-Alexander reached 30 points in the Thunder’s 147-106 Friday night win against the Wizards, would you believe it? Well, of course.
If you were told he’d done it in three quarters, would you still believe it?
Well, why wouldn't you?
It’s scheduled programming by now. A spiritual bond with the ability to score 30 points, only breaching the 40-point threshold when the robotic part of his conscience malfunctions. His 30-point near-triple double Friday, which also featured seven boards and nine assists in just 30 minutes, demonstrated the monotonous dominance that has defined his season.
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It featured him masterfully probing for angles only he could get away with. For sudden midrange jumpers only he’d take, for blurry and-1 finishes only he could tally by the handful. Middle school bully tactics in drawing Marvin Bagley by the collar for mismatch jumpers. Abusing Corey Kispert's shabby foot speed.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s 30-point scoring has become as guaranteed as anchors botching a Midwestern weather forecast.
“The thing he’s been most consistent with is his approach, his competitiveness, his temperament, his leadership in his own way” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of SGA. “Those are the things that, because of how he’s done them so consistently, I’ve come to expect.
“If there’s any expectation he’s formed in me, it’s those things, the things that are controllable.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s dominance spread like wildfire; rookie Chet Holmgren finished with 25 points and 10 boards. The Thunder made 20 of its 40 3-pointers to score a season high in points. Seven Thunder players scored in double figures.
The Thunder handled business against yet another team below .500 (this one happened to meet the criteria by quite a bit). The kind of thing that, 56 games in, you should probably just believe.
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In Chet Holmgren’s hands
Earlier in the season, Holmgren smirked when asked about the idea that his sophomore teammate, Jalen Williams, had caught more lobs than him to that point.
Two months into the season, the Thunder had thrown more lobs than throughout all of last season. Players credited Holmgren’s mere presence as a lob threat for that. But it wasn’t until around the new year that it started to find Holmgren in the sky, mostly via his connection with Williams.
After a few more lobs on Friday, Daigneault admitted it’s become an emphasis.
“It’s something we’ve definitely tried to highlight, especially against switches. If they’re gonna put a smaller guy on him and switch him, we have to throw the ball up to him.”
It’s a long way from the team’s Golden State trip. Despite Holmgren’s 36 points and late-game heroics, there were points that probably would’ve seen him surpass 40 had the team used him differently then.
His teammates watched then as he attempted to abuse Chris Paul down low, at times to no avail. Since then, Williams and others have grown comfortable in actions and as ball handlers in tossing up passes Holmgren can grab. At navigating the angles that force help and tough decisions — some of which just happen to leave Holmgren airborne at the rim.
“Just trusting the process of things,” Holmgren. “Knowing that not everything is gonna be perfect from Day 1. … We have a lot to work on outside of being better at throwing lobs, catching lobs, playing out of actions that lead to lobs. We just got to continue to work at everything.”
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Brian Keefe’s return to OKC
Friday’s game featured a strange amount of old Thunder connections. There were those that were intended, like Thabo Sefolosha, who was featured as part of Thunder Legacy night. Then there was basically the entire Wizards organization.
Mike Winger. Will Dawkins. And on the sidelines stood Brian Keefe, Washington’s interim coach who spent quite a bit of time in Oklahoma City.
He came over from Seattle with coach P.J. Carlesimo, whose Thunder stint effectively stretched through a couple of 10-day contracts. He remained in OKC with Scott Brooks, a Thunder assistant from 2007-15 before embarking on a journey that brought him back like a boomerang for the 2019-20 season.
Daigneault only shared a season with Keefe as assistants under Billy Donovan then. That was all he needed to conjure the belief that Washington is climbing from the abyss the previous front office dug itself into over the years.
“Really good in player development, gives players a lot of individual confidence when he’s working with them,” Daigneault said of Keefe. “I have respect for their organization and what they’re doing. Mike Winger and Will Dawkins are also people that came from here. They’re gonna be on the right track pretty soon here.”
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Thunder at Rockets
TIPOFF: 6 p.m. Sunday at Toyota Center in Houston (Bally Sports Oklahoma)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder scores season-high 147 points to rout Washington Wizards
