Gilgeous-Alexander scores 40, LeBron breaks NBA appearance record
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dribbles past Sharife Cooper on his way to 40 points in Oklahoma City's stormy win over Washington (Patrick Smith) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 40 points in a stormy Oklahoma City Thunder victory over the Washington Wizards on Saturday as LeBron James added another milestone to his career with a record-breaking 1,612th NBA regular season game. Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander bagged his seventh 40-point game of the season to help the Thunder roll to an 11th straight victory, downing Washington 132-111 on the road. Chet Holmgren added 18 points and 10 rebounds while Isaiah Hartenstein had nine points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in a game that saw four players ejected during a first half brawl.
The altercation, which halted the game for 11 minutes, came with 27 seconds remaining in the second quarter just after Oklahoma City grabbed a 68-63 lead. Thunder forward Jaylin Williams held the ball after the basket and twice bumped into Washington's Justin Champagnie. Oklahoma City's Ajay Mitchell came up to confront Champagnie and was smacked in the face for his trouble to ignite the brawl.
Referee Nate Green pushed Champagnie back to try and ease tensions while Mitchell kept advancing and was pushed forward and into a camera and a wave of players tumbled into a pile behind the baseline, all trying to support their side in the melee. After the mayhem was unraveled by the officiating crew, Champagnie, Williams, Mitchell and Thunder teammate Cason Wallace were all ejected. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said while he disagreed with the ejections, he was pleased at how his team responded to the skirmish.
"Those are emotional situations, and everybody is competitive and amped up after that," Daigneault said. "But if you're a true competitor, you channel that into execution, and that's what I thought we did. "We got better from that point on, which is how you have to handle those situations.
I thought that was a good learning moment and good growth for us. " Wizards coach Brian Keefe praised his team's response to the confrontation. "Our guys stuck up for each other, which I always love," Keefe said.