The tenth third quarter check-in, the key ball is the first by a cliff, SGA is the only one in strength

The NBA Cup group stage battles reignited. In a game in Group A of the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder "reversed" and defeated the Utah Jazz. The Jazz, who were at home in the first quarter, once had an 18-point lead. However, as the game progressed, the defending champions showed their dominance and finally won by 32 points. This was a full 50-point improvement. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shot 9 of 14 from the field and posted 31 points, 2 rebounds and 8 assists. It is worth mentioning that because the game lost suspense early, SGA did not play in the fourth quarter, and this was the tenth time this season that he clocked out in the third quarter.

How terrifying is the Thunder's dominance this season - so far this season, their record is 16 wins and 1 loss. Except for the visit to Portland, where they lost by 2 points to the Trail Blazers, they have almost no one-game opponent. After all, in more than half of the games, the main lineup is clocked out for three quarters to rest. Some fans may think that, in the final analysis, the Thunder are still strong as a whole. General Manager Presti is very discerning. After the three young men who once had Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, they have now cultivated a new version of the three young men. They even trained second-year pick Mitchell when Jay Wei was absent due to injury. How can it be regarded as the credit of Alexander alone?

When talking about this topic, you might as well take a look at Alexander's data column. In the new season, he averaged 31.9 points per game (third in the league), 6.6 assists (16th in the league), 1.5 steals (29th in the league), and shot The basket shooting percentage is 53.4% (22nd in the league), and the three-point shooting percentage is 40.4% (52nd in the league). Many statistics are among the best. At the same time, he only averages 33.2 minutes per game, ranking 34th in the league, which is significantly lower than other leading stars. This means that Alexander's game efficiency is surprisingly high and he can produce tons of output in limited playing time.

Of course, if you think that SGA is just a data brush, then you would be underestimating him. Alexander is certainly great at working with his teammates to break down opponents, but he's also very reliable when the game gets tight. As mentioned before, Alexander has only played 7 fourth quarters in 17 games this season. Among them, 6 games have critical moments. The so-called critical moments are situations where the score difference is within 5 points in the last 5 minutes of regular time or overtime. In these six critical moments, Alexander made a total of 16 of 35 shots and scored 56 points, leading the league.

For comparison, Maxi ranks second in the key scoring list. He scored a total of 51 points, but he played 13 key moments. Looking at it this way, you can find that SGA is really the first by a cliff. Just imagine, a total of 56 points were scored in 6 critical moments, which is equivalent to an average of 9 points each time. Many stars could not score as many as 9 points in the final quarter, let alone maintain such a stable scoring efficiency in the suffocating rhythm of the final decisive moment with full offensive and defensive rhythm.

So, you may not like Alexander's style of play and think his way of drawing fouls is too tricky, but it is undeniable that the Canadian star's skills have reached another level. With his unique rhythm-changing classical mid-range shot, he is also the strongest among the five unique skills. After all, double MVPs are not given by charging phone bills, and it is really impossible to achieve this without two brushes.