The NBA’s major scorers were delivered in a potential playoff preview on Monday night.
Shy Gilgauss Alexander scored 51 points for the Oklahoma City Thunder in a 137-128 victory over the Houston Rockets. The victory helped the Thunder improve to 50-11, reducing strangulation in first place in the Western Conference. The 37-24 Rocket remains fifth in the West as the Thunder’s potential second round opponent in the playoffs.
Gilgeous-Alexander tally marked the fourth 50 or more efforts of the season. He got off to a hot start in Oklahoma City’s 30 first quarter. He then secured 50th and 51 points with a missed Cason Wallace Dunk putback that had been left in the game three minutes left.
The Bucket increased the lead for Oklahoma City to 132-120. This is because the Thunder thwarted Houston’s hopes for a slow Larry.
Gilgeous-Alexander also dealt damage outside the scoring column against Houston. He added seven assists, five rebounds, one steel and one block. He shot 18/18 from the field.
That led to another great performance of the Oklahoma City All-Star, a betting favorite at BETMGM to secure his first MVP. He also raised his league-leading score average to a career-high 32.6 points per game. Giannis Antetokounmpo is second with 30.9 points per game.
Will SGA win MVP?
Gilgeous-Alexander is in a tough competition at the top of the MVP race. Nikola Zhokic is statistically superior to Gilgauss Alexander and has a historic season that is better than the Nuggets Center’s three previous MVP campaigns. In fact, multiple metrics have led to Jokic’s season being statistically the highest in NBA history.
However, Gilgeous-Alexander is the league’s leading goals scorer, leading 11 games to a West’s highest record as of Monday night ahead of Jokić’s nuggets. And that may be enough to shake up the exhausting MVP voting base in the end.
