Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's historic stat line in Thunder win leaves Clippers fans stunned
11/11/2024 11:44 PM
A rather unfortunate turn of events greeted the Oklahoma City Thunder late on Sunday night when it was announced that Chet Holmgren was going to miss at least eight to 10 weeks of play after suffering a hip fracture. Holmgren has been off to an incredible start to the season, and losing him could prove to be a huge detriment to the Thunder’s hopes of achieving Western Conference supremacy especially amid the injuries to their other center options in Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams.
Nonetheless, during the Thunder’s 134-128 win against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander decided to take matters into his own hands as they looked to weather the loss of their defensive anchor. Not only did he carry OKC’s offense by tallying a season-best 45 points and tying his season-high in assists with nine, he also anchored his team’s defense by recording five steals and two blocks — making NBA history in the process.
According to StatMamba on X (formerly known as Twitter), Gilgeous-Alexander became the first player in NBA history to record a stat line of at least 45 points, nine rebounds, five steals, and two blocks in a single game. This incredible outing from Gilgeous-Alexander left both the Thunder and Clippers fanbases stunned — more so the latter, as they continue to mourn the loss of the franchise cornerstone that got away from them.
Clippers fans mourn Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s ascent into superstar status for the Thunder
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s career will forever intertwine the Thunder and the Clippers; on one fateful night back in July 2019, the Clippers decided to trade Gilgeous-Alexander, along with a plethora of first-round picks, to the Thunder in exchange for Paul George, who was coming off the best season of his career (finishing in the top three in both the MVP and DPOY race).
Gilgeous-Alexander did show flashes of being an incredible player during his rookie season, but there aren’t too many who expected that he would blossom into one of the five-best players in the association, leading the Thunder back to title contention. Meanwhile, George is no longer on the Clippers roster.
“Clippers biggest fumble imo was trading SGA for Paul George. I think him and Kawhi would've been a better duo if Kawhi was healthy and he would've been a building block and made it easier to move on from Kawhi if he wasn't,” X user @FlyEvolutionary wrote.
“Clippers trading SGA for PG the biggest L in their history….and that's saying a lot,” @BreonTheGreat added.
“I miss SGA in the Clippers. He keeps on proving that the PG trade was a huge mistake #ClipperNation,” @saidatzuclips expressed.
But some Clippers fans, who are ride or die with their team, couldn’t believe how generous of a whistle the Thunder star got, as he scored 15 of his 45 points from the foul line.
“SGA getting prime lebron calls smh,” @OGClipper21 commented.
“SGA whistle is nasty as hell man, good grief,” @LAClippersFilm remarked.
“SGA: flops, elbows everyone in his path, and makes unnatural body movements for bait Any Clipper player ever: gets smacked, scratched, kicked, tackled, sniped Guess who got the whistle this game…” @AnxiousClipFan added.
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