By Canadian Press

Gilgeous-Alexander ties career high of 32 points in Thunder’s win over Raptors

Dec 29, 2019 | 6:49 PM

TORONTO — Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tied his career high with 32 points to lift the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 98-97 victory over his hometown Toronto Raptors on Sunday.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s outstanding performance also marked the most points ever scored by a Canadian versus the Raptors.

Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet had 20 points apiece for the Raptors (22-11), who were missing Pascal Siakam (groin), Marc Gasol (hamstring), and Norman Powell (shoulder) for the sixth consecutive game. Patrick McCaw added 13 points, while Serge Ibaka had 12, and Terence Davis finished with 11.

Chris Paul chipped in with 25 points for the Thunder (17-15).

Gilgeous-Alexander, a 21-year-old from Toronto, was the best player on the floor for most of the night. His eight field goals in the first half alone matched the rest of his team’s combined.

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“I work hard, so I have confidence. And the people around me don’t let my head get too big — especially my mom, she tells me I suck every day,” Gilgeous-Alexander said with a laugh before the game.

The most points previously scored by a Canadian versus the Raptors was 31 — by Rick Fox in 1998 and Andrew Wiggins in 2016. Gilgeous-Alexander also recently joined Steve Nash, Andrew Wiggins and Jamaal Magloire as the only Canadians to average 20-plus points over five games. Sunday’s win was his sixth straight game with more than 20 points.

The short-handed Raptors were playing for the fifth time in eight days, and 24 hours after an impressive 113-97 win in Boston. Neither team led by more than eight points through a see-saw first three quarters on Sunday.

Leading 80-76 to start the fourth, the Raptors saw their lead evaporate, and Paul’s basket with 1:01 to play in a nailbiting final frame gave the Thunder a one-point lead. VanVleet’s pair of free throws put Toronto back on top. But Gilgeous-Alexander scored with 36 seconds to play, then grabbed the defensive rebound on the Raptors’ next possession to clinch his team the victory.

Sunday’s game also marked the first time in history four Canadians — Toronto’s Chris Boucher and Oshae Brissett and OKC’s Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort — scored in an NBA game.

The Raptors’ win last month over the New York Knicks was the first time four Canadian players have been together on the floor in an NBA game, but Brissett didn’t score then.

Neither team led by more than five points in a first quarter that saw the Thunder connect on just one of their eight three-point shots in the frame. Paul’s 27-footer with half a second left in the quarter would be the only three of the Thunder’s first 12 three-pointers to fall, putting Oklahoma City up 22-20 to start the second.

Brissett’s alley-oop dunk at 10:15 of the second quarter saw the Raptors go up by five points. VanVleet’s three-pointer with 3:44 to play in the half gave Toronto its largest lead of the game to that point — eight points — but the Thunder closed with a 13-5 run to tie the game 47-47 at halftime.

Paul’s long jumper early in the third gave OKC an eight-point cushion, but the Raptors rallied, closing the quarter with a 7-1 run to head into the fourth with a four-point lead.

Toronto caps its busiest month of the season — 16 games and three back-to-backs — on New Year’s Eve when it hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2019.

Lori Ewing , The Canadian Press