Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shares eye-opening take on Thunder's tradition
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After beating the Orlando Magic 105-99, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder did their group interview with TNT’s sideline reporter, Allie LaForce, prompting the question about the team’s tradition. During any Thunder player’s walk-off interview, that player is next to by a group of teammates, to which Gilgeous-Alexander explained the reason behind it after bouncing back from their NBA Cup finals loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Thunder are a tight-knit group, and to exemplify that togetherness, Gilgeous-Alexander says no player does their walk-off interview by themselves, per Daily Thunder’s Brandon Rahbar.
“To show our togetherness. We don’t do anything by ourselves,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We win together, lose together, shop together, go to dinner together. Everything’s together.”
After a dominating second quarter in which the Thunder outscored the Magic 36-18, they were on the wrong end of a 22-3 run after halftime. Orlando held Oklahoma City to 17 third-quarter points after Gilgeous-Alexander finished the first half with a whopping 24 points on 10-of-11 shooting. However, the Thunder kept their opponent at bay in the final frame without surrendering their lead once.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with a game-high 35 points, six assists, four steals, and two blocks. Isaiah Hartenstein notched a double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds), four steals, three assists, and one block, and Jalen Williams added 17 points and seven assists.
On the second night of a back-to-back set, the Thunder will head south to play the Heat on Friday.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander addresses the Thunder’s grueling schedule
After beating the Magic, Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander addressed the brutal turnaround from their NBA Cup final exit in Las Vegas to resuming their regular-season schedule. Reminding his teammates of what’s important, he ensured everyone was on the same page and dialed in for the team’s back-to-back games in Flordia.
“I was intentional, for sure. Two things: coming out of a tournament, like, we’re in the finals of something, and have to turn around play game 26 of the NBA season is a little bit odd,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I wanted to bring [some] juice. I wanted to show the team that it’s almost like going back to reality, back to what matters, and back to what our end goal is.
“Then, our schedule, going from three hours back timezone, flying four hours, taking off at 10, and landing at 5 in another city, and turning around, and playing; that’ll never happen in an NBA season, you know what I mean? I wanted to own that and not use it as an excuse,” Gilgeous-Alexander concluded.
Thunder will look to sweep their two-game set on Friday.
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