“Love twin”: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander reacts to viral video of Tre Mann celebrating his game-winning shot vs Nuggets
On Saturday night, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit the game winner for the OKC Thunder on the road against reigning champions Denver Nuggets (118-117). His teammate Tre Mann took to social media to celebrate Gilgeous-Alexander's game winner.
"Love twin," the All-Star guard wrote on his story after reposting his teammate's video.
"I tried not to race the ball up the floor too fast, tried to take a little time off the clock and shoot at the last second. I just tried to get to something that I shot many times, something I was comfortable shooting," SGA said of his game winner, via NBA.com.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder maintain Top-2 push in the West
The OKC Thunder have been the pleasant surprise of the NBA early on, sitting second in the Western Conference with 16 wins and eight losses.
Led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder trail the top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves by three games (19-5). The 25-year-old superstar guard is averaging 30.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 6.4 apg in 23 games, on 54.2 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from beyond the arc.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has become an All-Star since his arrival from the LA Clippers in 2019. Then Clippers coach and former NBA champion with the Boston Celtics (2008), Doc Rivers, recently talked about Gilgeous-Alexander's trade and revealed that he wanted to keep the All-Star guard with the Clippers.
"That was the hard thing. My reaction was (that) we're getting Kawhi and Paul George. I was happy. Having said that, I did bring it up. I did say, 'Man, can we give them somebody else? Like, we cannot give up Shai,'" Doc Rivers said, via the Oklahoman.
"We saw it. We didn't know (Gilgeous-Alexander) was going to be this. No one knows that. But we saw greatness that this dude is going to be a helluva player."
Following their impressive start to the season, the Thunder are viewed as a legit contender in the West and continue to get high praise from other coaches and teams.
"I know we wound up winning that game in OKC early in the year by a pretty big margin, but that was an anomaly," said Denver coach Michael Malone (via Sports Illustrated).
"Every time we play this team, it seems like it’s a dogfight. It goes down to the wire. I think they have the NBA’s attention."
The Thunder will look to maintain their top-2 push when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday. The Grizzlies have won only six of their opening 24 games and are looking forward to welcoming Ja Morant back to the lineup on Tuesday.