Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Elite Finals Performance Reviewed

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00:00What do you have for me, maybe, with the season on the line, down seven?

00:03A 15-point fourth quarter, a 35-point performance.

00:10I'm sure Shea bothered by the zero assists.

00:14I will say, though, if your team is going to shoot three of 16 from three,

00:19not going to be a lot of assists opportunities finished, probably, for SGA.

00:24When we go through this series, and where we sit right now through two,

00:34you're watching Shea Gilgis-Alexander step up in a massive, massive way in just four games.

00:42He has three games in his finals career of 30-plus points.

00:47That is a list that, of active NBA players, only has eight other guys on it.

00:52LeBron, Durant, Steph, Kawhi, Giannis, Kyrie, Klay, shout-out Devin Booker.

00:57If he scores 30 again, the list of active players to score 30 four or more times in the same final series

01:05is just LeBron, Durant, Steph, Giannis.

01:10And there would be Shea Gilgis-Alexander getting into that spot.

01:14One of the best scorers, J.Y., the league has seen in a while,

01:19and that aspect of his game has translated to the postseason and the finals in particular.

01:25Yeah, and I think he's done it in different ways.

01:27And I think what was so amazing about last night is when you, you know, look at how the game is coached.

01:35I'm going to give Mark Dagonal credit.

01:37Okay.

01:38Took him out for about one minute in the fourth quarter.

01:40If you look carefully, and thank God for Tom Vecchio over here,

01:44because he showed me this popcorn machine, which is like, I'm like Obero Redenbacher right now

01:49looking at this bad boy.

01:51But to me, like, looking at it and saying like, yeah, S.J. went absolutely off in the fourth quarter,

01:57but it was that minute rest that he got where Dagonal's like, and coaches do this sometimes,

02:02hey, I'm giving you a minute.

02:04Get your you-know-what together, because I'm going to ride your ass like Seabiscuit the rest of the way,

02:10because I need you to be that superstar.

02:13And for him to go that way the rest of the day, the rest of the game, and give you what he gave you,

02:20you have to give Mark Dagonal credit for, we talked about this, and if you remember, Kevin,

02:24when we did, I think it was game one of Detroit Knicks.

02:30We were all in afterwards, but remember, they took K, J.B. took K out, and I'm like,

02:34whoa, no, no, no, no, no, you don't do this here, you're down five,

02:37and the Knicks got on that run, and they kept rolling.

02:40Dagonal took a chanter with a minute, got him a blow, and then when he came back,

02:45he was the best player on the floor top.

02:46And honestly, I don't want to get like too nerdy with that, but the TV timeout,

02:51we're talking probably five, six minutes of rest, actually, not just literally just a minute.

02:55And that's a big thing that people don't realize is as a coach, you look at rest time in minutes

03:02and not in rest time of minutes to play.

03:04So the point is like SGA is shaping up to be the Mariano of the Midwest.

03:09When he comes in, we got three for three field goals.

03:13He hit a three in that time.

03:14He's also five for five from the free throw line.

03:16So it's like this has to be the best player in the world.

03:18Go get me some buckets.

03:19This is a season-defining, series-defining stretch of six minutes, but it really was fresh.

03:27Oh, it was.

03:28I didn't want to over-exaggerate or career-defining.

03:31That would be an exaggeration.

03:32I don't even know if it would be, Tom.

03:35I mean, I'm saying MVP, series MVP goes on.

03:40Like, I listen.

03:42Maybe it's a little too headlining just to be like, oh, this was a series-defining.

03:44Don't be scared of it.

03:45Okay.

03:45Dude, if he wins finals MVP and league MVP in the same season at the age of what?

03:4926, 27?

03:50That is career-defining, yes.

03:51With what's in front of him?

03:52Oh, yeah.

03:53Right.

03:53More titles.

03:54And how young that team is, yeah.

03:56So maybe I was a little – I took my foot off the gas a little bit.

03:58He was unbelievable.

03:58Like, you, that has to be the closer you need to have, and that's exactly what he was.

04:02But a performance like that down the stretch where your season's on the line, forget the league MVP, the finals MVP.

04:10Now you could say they win this out.

04:13Now the best in the world comes into play where you can legitimately say he's the best player in the world.

04:17His team was down 2-1.

04:19It was rubber beats the road.

04:22We need you to make plays.

04:24You get your rest.

04:25Carry us home.

04:26We can't get assists.

04:27We can't score anywhere else but you.

04:30Yeah.

04:30You have to take us home.

04:32That's where the best in the world conversation can come into play.

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