Oklahoma City Thunder‘s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to leave a lasting impression in his MVP-caliber campaign. The Thunder took on the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday and had a 136-120 victory, thanks to another outstanding scoring performance. The 6-foot-6 guard finished the game with 42 points, six rebounds and six assists on 14-for-26 shooting from the field.
The Canadian star was also impressive beyond the arc, as he made 55.6 percent of his shots. SGA made the most of his chances from the free-throw line, where he had 11 attempts. He made nine of the free shots at the charity stripe. First-time All-Star Jalen Williams had 26 points on 52.4 percent.
With their win against the Lakers, the Oklahoma City Thunder recorded its 65th win of the campaign. The star guard talked about the recent team achievement and explained that it wasn’t their top goal coming into the regular season.
“It’s never something we’re chasing in terms of these little milestones, but it’s good stepping stones in the right direction,” SGA said.
“We use the regular season to build habits, and building habits over quarters, over games, leads to winning games. The more you build those good habits, the more games you win and that only prepares you for the stage that we’re about to go on.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on hitting 65 wins this season:
"It's never something we're chasing in terms of these little milestones, but it's good stepping stones in the right direction."
"We use the regular season to build habits, and building habits over quarters, over games,…
— Nick Gallo (@NickAGallo) April 9, 2025
The last time the two teams faced each other was on Sunday and the Lakers were victorious. They had a 126-99 loss, despite the 26-point outing from SGA.
“We fight,” the Oklahoma City Thunder star continued. “We obviously got whooped last game, left a bad taste in our mouth. We can’t get whooped twice in a row. That’s not our identity, that’s not who we are. We come back and fight.”
Fans react to Oklahoma City Thunder’s win over the Lakers
The Oklahoma City Thunder have continued their winning ways against the Lakers. Looking at their recent win, it was all because of the offensive showing of Gilgeous-Alexander. With that, fans revealed their thoughts on the Thunder’s recent win.
“Wow, those stats are 🔥! SGA is just on another level—who knew he could light it up like that?! MVP vibes all day! 🏀💪”
“MVP that brother”
“Yeah the Lakers better hope they don’t see SGA in the playoffs”
Yeah the Lakers better hope they don’t see SGA in the playoffs pic.twitter.com/OBBUw40dal
— E-Man (@WigginsWick22) April 9, 2025
However, other fans accused the game of being rigged against the Lakers.
“Congratulations to SGA who beat a team that had there superstar kicked out by the ref 👏👏” a fan said.
“SGA AND THE REF VS LAKERS,” another fan said.
“with 11 free throws a game even my grandfather could be mvp,” one fan said.
“He needs 10+ FTA’s to get this type of scoring… just the way it is!”
He needs 10+ FTA’s to get this type of scoring… just the way it is!
— DG Vez (@dgv1133) April 9, 2025
“make sure to hug, kiss and thank the refs again as per usual. he saw you were down in the 4th and had to bail you out as per usual❤️❤️”
“Needed Luka to get ejected to win”
“42 and would’ve lost had the refs not saved them from us.”
For other sports-related content:
Follow me on X at @BarbecueBro, and follow us at @HardwoodHeroics and @GridironHeroics. You can also reach out to Reign Amurao via email at [email protected]. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest sports news, click here!
Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
