Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scores 52, but Warriors Stun Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA’s top team, got 52 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, NBA’s leading goal scorer, Wednesday. It wasn’t enough to defeat a team that just hovered over .500.

Golden State Warrior’s stunned Thunder with a 116-109 victory despite a huge evening from Gilgeous-Alexander. The MVP candidate published his first career 50-point game just a week ago, and then recorded his other three matches later.

It was all early Gilgeous-Alexander when he personally outscored Warriors 21-20 in the first quarter and went into the break with 31, making him the fourth player in Thunder story to place 30 in a first half, since play- By-play data was first registered.

He ended the night with 16-of-29 shooting from the field and 18-of-21 shooting from the free-throwing line plus four assists and three rebounds.

Warriors were down 34-20 after the first quarter and down 58-48 at the break, but caught Thunder early in the third quarter with a torrent of scoring. There were several lead changes from there until midway through the fourth quarter, when Warriors built a multi-score lead and kept it.

Gary Payton II delivered exclamation points and maybe the dagger.

Stephen Curry was an important factor in the reversal and scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half. It was a question if he would even play before the game as he sat out of the first game in Warriors’ back-to-back, which started on Tuesday after struggling for sore knees and pain in his right thumb.

Andrew Wiggins led Warriors to score with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, while Warriors Bench Outscorated Thunder’s 48-21. It was a hard shooting night for the thunder in general and ended 9-of-39 from 3-point reach.