Welcome to the Four Bounce Meter! In honor of one of the greatest shots in NBA history, the Four Bounce Meter rates game-winners on a scale of 1-4. Like the Horry Scale, the game-winner in question is graded on the situation, difficulty and celebration to see how it matches up with Kawhi Leonard’s iconic shot for the Raptors in the 2019 playoffs against the 76ers.
Well, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is showing no signs of slowing down.
After scoring 37 points in back-to-back games, the Canadian tied his career-high with 42 points in a 121-120 win over the Wizards. He saved his best for last, draining a 3-pointer in the closing seconds that turned out to be the game-winner.
How impressive was Gilgeous-Alexander’s late-game heroics? Let’s break it down.
MORE: What Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s leap into stardom means for Thunder
The game-winner
🔥 SGA wins it and ties his career-high with 42 PTS on this stepback! pic.twitter.com/JjmPndkRwD
— NBA (@NBA) November 17, 2022
Game situation
This was for all of the marbles.
A jumper from Bradley Beal gave the Wizards a 120-118 lead with 6.7 seconds to go. The Thunder immediately called a timeout, leaving 6.1 seconds to work with.
Gilgeous-Alexander could have gone with a 2-pointer to tie it up and force overtime but chose to go for the win when he saw how the Wizards were defending them. Turned out to be a good decision.
“At first, I wanted to try and get a quick one because Josh [Giddey] was the inbounder and him and [Kenrich Williams] have a good little chemistry on inbounds with a backdoor cut, so I tried to free him up but they switched it. Monte Morris was on K-Rich, so then they jump-switched it, I sealed him and tried to get open, and then I just tried to get something I was comfortable with.”
Degree of difficulty
Pretty dang high.
Monte Morris isn’t a lockdown defender or anything — he’s also at a pretty significant height disadvantage — but there isn’t much more he could’ve done.
Plus, there aren’t many players who have a shot at stopping Gilgeous-Alexander on an island right now. According to NBA.com, only James Harden, Spencer Dinwiddie and Luka Doncic are generating a higher percentage of their offense in isolation than him to start the season. He’s been efficient as well, ranking in the 62nd percentile with an average of 1.01 points per possession.
This is one of those “good defense, better offense” type of situations.
Reaction
Gilgeous-Alexander left 1.1 seconds on the clock, so the Wizards immediately called a timeout. He seemed to be more focused on getting one more stop than reacting to what he just did.
His teammates made up for it after the game, though.
❝It was a good win.❞
Tonight was a total team effort in a comeback win from D.C. For more…@NickAGallo caught up with @shaiglalex after the game. pic.twitter.com/2jG8D1Hc7v
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 17, 2022
Four Bounce Meter
It’s not like it secured a spot in the Conference Finals, but as far as regular-season game-winners go, this is up there.
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