OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A sick, exhausted Shai Gilgeous-Alexander politely answered questions after a 40-point game that led his Oklahoma City Thunder past the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.
He was listed as questionable on the pregame injury report with an illness. A game-time decision deemed him available, and the reigning league MVP made 12 of 19 field goals and 15 of 17 free throws in a 113-105 victory in the NBA Cup.
Gilgeous-Alexader spent himself helping the Thunder win their 10th straight and improve to 18-1. He wore a heavy gray quarter-zip sweatshirt and a Burberry scarf to the postgame interview table. He was thoughtful, but didn’t quite have his usual energy.
“Yeah, I feel good,” he said. “I felt good enough to play. I was a little more tired out there than usual, but I did enough to get the job done tonight. I felt good enough to play, so I played.”
He got off to a slow start, but bounced back to score 13 points in seven minutes in the second quarter.
“I thought he gave us a huge offensive lift,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought he read the game really well tonight offensively. He gave us a huge offensive lift in the second quarter. We just had a really hard time offensively there and he kind of carried us for a little stretch there to close the half and allowed us to open a nice lead.”
Gilgeous-Alexander made just one field goal in the fourth quarter but made nine of 10 free throws. He needed to come through because Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards scored 14 of his 31 points in the final 7:34 to make the game tight.
Gilgeous-Alexander wanted to be there for his teammates, especially because it was an NBA Cup game. The Thunder improved to 4-0 in West Group A and will round out group play Friday at home against Phoenix.
“Games mean a little bit more,” he said. “You can literally earn money by winning these seven games, so there’s a little bit of incentive behind it, a little bit more than just waking up and playing for sure.”
The Thunder beat Minnesota 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals last season, and the Timberwolves gave them one of their toughest games this season Wednesday. Sick or not, Gilgeous-Alexander embraces those kinds of challenges.
“It’s how you grow, how we grow as a team,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Playing against the best and getting their best only helps us see where we are on a nightly basis. We’ve done pretty good so far.”
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