Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Had Perfect Team-First Answer About Breaking Allen Iverson Record

SGA only has wins on his mind despite breaking a 20-year-old NBA Finals record in Game 2.
SGA broke Iverson's record for most points over his first two NBA Finals games on Sunday
SGA broke Iverson's record for most points over his first two NBA Finals games on Sunday / NBA T
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continued his impressive playoff run with a 34-point outing on Sunday night to propel the Oklahoma City Thunder to victory over the Indianapolis Pacers in the NBA Finals. The 123–107 win evens the series at 1–1, and SGA's outing writes his name into the history books in a few different manners.

Sunday marked Gilgeous-Alexander's ninth straight home playoff game with at least 30 points, which ties Wilt Chamberlain's all-time NBA playoff record. His 34 points in Game 2 combined with the 38 points he scored in Game 1 also made for an NBA record; he passed Allen Iverson for most points scored in his first two career NBA Finals games.

SGA was asked about the latter achievement during his postgame press conference and gave the perfect, team-first answer coaches dream about: he'd trade it all for wins.

"I would trade the points for 2 W's, for sure," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "But this is where our feet are. This is where we are. You can't go back in the past, you can only try to make the future better."

The quote of a player completely and totally locked in on his goal. Gilgeous-Alexander cares only for Game 3 and nothing else. Not even breaking a 24-year-old record set by one of the most influential scoring guards in basketball history.

It was a great night for the league MVP. But Gilgeous-Alexander clearly isn't getting ahead of himself.


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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.